Alfred Woody's Kewl Blog [ 椼森 ]: Jul 23, 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

台6月失業率5.94%　無業遊民64.7萬人

台灣主計處今天(22日)公佈，受部分應屆畢業生投入職場影響，6月失業率為5.94%，較上個月的5.82%又上升0.12個百分點。失業人數為64萬7千人，較上月增加1萬4千人。

主計處表示，上半年平均就業人數為1,024萬3千人，較上年同期減少14萬7千人，平均失業人數為62萬3千人，較上年同期增加20萬5千人或 49.00%，平均失業率為5.73%，較上年同期上升1.86個百分點。上半年平均勞動力參與率為57.80%，較上年同期下降0.42個百分點。

世界主要國家最新失業率為：美國9.5%，加拿大8.6%，德國8.1%，英國7.6%，香港5.4%，日本5.2%，韓國4.0%，新加坡3.3%。在亞洲主要國家中，台灣仍然「敬陪末座」。

經濟衰退英女王也遭殃資產縮水逾1/5

（中央社記者黃貞貞倫敦22日專電）經濟衰退持續重創英國，女王伊麗莎白二世也遭池魚之殃。據最新公布的報告，女王所屬的私人資產因經濟不景氣，2008-2009會計年度共減少7500萬英鎊，減幅達23%。

管理女王土地、不動產與資產的單位The Duchy ofLancaster指出，女王2008-2009會計年度資產總值下跌7500萬英鎊（約新台幣40.5億元），達3億2200萬英鎊。

Duchy's council總裁夏特沃思（LordShuttleworth）指出，去年女王資產大幅滑落，以商業大樓、金融投資受創最嚴重，農業方面的投資受創較輕，商業大樓損失3700萬英鎊，金融投資則減損160萬英鎊。

夏特沃思悲觀表示，展望未來一年，前景仍十分艱難，空盪的商業大樓，企業租戶因生意失敗退租，都使來年收入增加更困難。

不過，雖然資產總值縮水，但是女王從The Duchyof Lancaster所獲得支付私人與公務的經費增加5.4%，由前年的1260萬英鎊，提高到1330萬英鎊。

報告同時顯示，2008-2009會計年度，皇室共使用納稅人4150萬英鎊，較前一個會計年度增加150萬英鎊。

Obama Moves to Reclaim the Debate on Health Care

WASHINGTON — President Obama tried on Wednesday to rally public support for overhauling the nation’s health care system and said for the first time that he would be willing to help pay for the plan by raising income taxes on families earning more than $1 million a year.

“If I see a proposal that is primarily funded through taxing middle-class families, I’m going to be opposed to that,” Mr. Obama said in a prime-time news conference in the East Room of the White House. A surcharge on the highest-income Americans, under consideration in the House, “meets my principle,” he said.

On a day when the leader of fiscally conservative Democrats said a deal was a long way off and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted that she had the votes to push a bill through, Mr. Obama used the news conference to take his message over the heads of lawmakers and straight to the public. Conceding that “folks are skeptical,” he sought to convince Americans that overhauling the nation’s health care system would benefit them and strengthen the economy.

“If somebody told you that there is a plan out there that is guaranteed to double your health-care costs over the next 10 years,” he said, “that’s guaranteed to result in more Americans losing their health care, and that is by far the biggest contributor to our federal deficit, I think most people would be opposed to that,”

“That’s what we have right now,” he said. “So if we don’t change, we can’t expect a different result.”

While Mr. Obama declared, “it’s my job, I’m the president,” he did not use the appearance at the White House to make any fresh demands on Congress, which is struggling to meet his timetable for both chambers to pass legislation before members break for August recess. Mr. Obama did not repeat that demand Wednesday night.

Instead, he sounded cerebral as he delved into policy specifics for nearly an hour and tried to link them to the concerns of ordinary Americans.

As he sought to reassure the public that a new health care system would be an improvement, he also acknowledged that there would be changes that could be unsettling, a point that is often raised by critics of overhauling the health care system.

“Can I guarantee that there are going to be no changes in the health-care delivery system? No,” Mr. Obama said. “The whole point of this is to try to encourage changes that work for the American people and make them healthier.”

Health legislation is Mr. Obama’s highest legislative priority, and his success or failure could shape the rest of his presidency. But while he is under increasing pressure from leading Democrats to delve more deeply into the negotiations by taking positions on specific policy issues, he largely resisted doing so Wednesday night.

But the president did weigh in how the government might pay for the plan.

In addition to saying he would be open to taxing those households earning more than $1 million — a scaled-back version of an earlier proposal that would have imposed a surcharge on households earning $350,000 or more — he signaled that he was also receptive to another idea under consideration in the Senate: taxing employer-provided health benefits, as long as the tax did not fall on the middle class.

On Capitol Hill, Ms. Pelosi said Democrats remained on track to reach a deal on major health care legislation. But she acknowledged that the process had slowed in response to concerns among conservative Democrats about the cost of the bill, and that some House Democrats were reluctant to embrace the income surtax on high-earners without knowing whether the Senate would go along.

Indeed, even as Ms. Pelosi insisted that Congress was closer than ever to achieving a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s health care system, leaders of the Blue Dogs, a conservative faction of Democrats, said a deal was still a long way off. Asked if the House Energy and Commerce Committee could resume work on the bill by late Thursday, as House leaders hoped, Representative Charlie Melancon, a Blue Dog from Louisiana, said: “No way.”

A senior Democratic aide on Capitol Hill said party leaders now believed it was essential for Mr. Obama to be more specific about what he wanted in a health care bill — and not just exhort Congress to pass one.

“The president needs to step in more forcefully and start making some decisions,” said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be publicly identified as criticizing Mr. Obama. “Everyone appreciates the fact that Obama has devoted so much time to health care. The bully pulpit is powerful. But in view of the deadlines Congress has missed, we would like to hear more from the president about what he wants in this bill.”

While he faces pressures from fellow Democrats, Mr. Obama is also fending off attacks from Republicans who sense an opportunity to knock him off his stride by arguing that the health care bill, estimated as costing more than $1 trillion over the next decade, will not slow or reduce the growth of health spending.

The White House has been in a running debate this week with Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, who predicted that health legislation would prove to be Mr. Obama’s “Waterloo moment” and would break the president. To that, Mr. Obama said: “This isn’t about me. I have great health insurance, and so does every member of Congress.”

In his opening remarks Wednesday night, Mr. Obama said he was aware that many Americans are asking, “What’s in this for me?” But he also tried to appeal to the nation’s conscience, casting the issue as a matter of urgency to families who are losing their life savings trying to pay for medical care and to businesses burdened by trying to provide coverage to their employees.

Asked what the rush was to meet his August deadline for passage of House and Senate bills, Mr. Obama replied: “I’m rushed because I get letters every day from families that are being clobbered by health care costs. They ask me, ‘Can you help?’ ”

In fact, there is another reason Mr. Obama is rushed: he knows time is not on his side. The more Congress delays passage of a health bill, the more time his Republican opponents will have to marshal their opposition and kill it.

“If you don’t set deadlines in this town, things don’t happen,” Mr. Obama said. “The default position is inertia.”

David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear contributed reporting.

新加坡‧蘇島林火熱點劇增‧煙霾或再襲大馬

（新加坡）印尼蘇門答臘林火熱點激增，煙霾可能將再襲東南亞國家。

衛星探測圖片週二（7月21日）顯示，蘇門答臘出現了多達2248個林火熱點，數目遠大於2007年的1218和2006年的2031個熱點，激增近1倍。

新加坡環境與水源部曾於6月發出警告，如果印尼的林火持續失控，意味著煙霾將捲土重來。

煙霾料跨國肆虐至10月

新加坡國家環境局氣象署人員表示，在一般情況下，西南季候風將於9月停刮，但由於厄爾尼諾現象，預料旱季將持續至10月。加上由於易燃點缺乏降雨量，很可能導致煙霾跨國肆虐至10月。

印尼‧發佈2嫌犯畫像‧扣諾汀妻查爆炸案

（印尼‧雅加達）由於大馬籍的回教祈禱團頭目諾汀疑與上週印尼2酒店爆炸案有關，他的妻子已被印尼警方拘留，並準備接受訊問。

印尼電視台週三（7月22日）報導，諾汀擁有多名妻子，遭警方拘留的妻子阿麗亞娜是其中之一，與諾汀同是大馬籍。

印尼警方週三公佈了2名涉嫌上週五2宗酒店爆炸案的自殺式襲擊嫌疑人面部畫像，他們2人被懷疑是回祈團或者分支的成員。（圖：法新社）

諾汀是印尼警方通緝的要犯，他不僅與2002年起發生的多起爆炸案有關，上週五（7月17日）雅加達萬豪國際酒店和麗思卡爾頓酒店2起爆炸案，也被認為與他領導的回祈團有關。

與此同時，印尼警方週三公佈了經過技術處理複原的2名自殺式襲擊嫌疑人的面部畫像。

2襲擊者約十六七歲

這2張畫像，是以在爆炸現場發現的2顆遭嚴重損毀的頭顱為依據，製作出來的。

警方發言人說：“我們在爆炸地點發現了2顆遭嚴重損毀的頭顱，而且我們肯定他們就是自殺式人彈的嫌疑人。”

警方表示，萬豪酒店襲擊者年齡僅介於16至17歲，而麗嘉登酒店襲擊者年齡則介於20至40歲，他們2人被懷疑是回祈團或者分支的成員。

另一方面，警方也正調查“基地”恐怖組織涉案的可能性，以查明此組織有否向回祈團提供金錢上的支援。

中國‧紛紛出現奇特行為‧日全食‧動物也瘋狂

（中國‧杭州）日全食為動物帶來不少影響，杭州動物園的動物在日食時出現了一些奇特行為。

據介紹，動物中最為聰明的看來是大象，在日食期間，當天完全黑下來時，2頭原本正在吃草的亞洲大象，齊轉身走入室內；天漸漸亮起時，它們又走出室外活動起來。

日本東京的陽光國際水族館舉行觀賞日食活動，館內一隻海豹也來湊熱鬧，戴上墨鏡仰頭觀看難得一見的天文奇觀。（圖：美聯社）

而禽類動物則在天黑時，都紛紛歸巢，或者就地做出了睡眠的姿勢，天亮後，又活蹦亂跳了起來。

之前在室外的長頸鹿，天黑時也許是因為驚恐，3頭長頸鹿聚集在了一起，四處張望。

斑狐猴在天突然變黑的一瞬間，齊齊開始拼命嘶叫，叫聲環繞著黑暗裡寂靜的猴山；其他猴子紛紛回到山洞裡，僅剩下幾隻在山上觀望。

杭州市動物園動物管理科副科長江志說，這樣大規模的日全食，園中很多動物都是第一次遇到。

據報導，當地有不少市民特地在日食發生時，到動物園看動物們的反應。

美國‧種族爭議再起‧奧巴馬自嘲‧“我闖白宮可能被鎗殺”

（美國‧華盛頓）美國近日再度引發種族歧視爭議！總統奧巴馬週三（7月22日）自嘲，如果他遺失白宮鑰匙，還試圖闖進白宮，可能會被開鎗射殺。

美國著名黑人學者、哈佛大學教授蓋茲，上週四（7月16日）因自家家門卡住，強行撞門而入，警方接獲鄰居投報後趕赴現場，將他上銬拘留，並控以行為擾亂治安的罪名，結果在國內引發種族爭議。

蓋茲指責查案警員種族歧視，警員則指責他在查案過程中一直喧鬧。

奧巴馬週三在新聞發佈會上評論此事時，環顧裝潢富麗的白宮東廂，試圖將自己置身於與蓋茨同樣處境，隨後表示：“我想，白宮現在是我的家，這種事大概不會發生。”

他接著語帶譏諷地說：“但讓我們假設這裡是我在芝加哥的老家，我大概會被射殺。”

此言一出，在場記者哄堂大笑。

痛批警察行動“愚蠢”

不過，這名黑人總統隨即轉為嚴肅，痛批警察的行動“愚蠢”。

他說：“我認為這起事件反映出，非裔和拉丁裔美國人在美國長期遭受不相稱地的法律對待。”

他補充：“這是證明種族主義依然存在的一個標誌、一個例子，但它不會妨礙社會已出現的進展，我現在站在這裡就是最好的證明。”

他說：“事實是，種族議題依舊存在，就算發生誤會，黑人和西班牙人較一般人更常在沒有原由的情況下，甚至是在不含惡意下被懷疑，甚至被捕。”

美加澳向種族歧視政策道歉

近年來，美加澳等國政府陸續向過去的種族歧視政策道歉。

2006年，時任加拿大總理哈珀在首都渥太華舉行儀式，就“人頭稅”向當年的華人勞工及他的後代道歉，糾正加拿大政府在歷史上犯下的一個錯誤。

2009年2月，澳洲總理陸克文發表歷史性講話，代表政府向澳土著族群上百年來蒙受的苦難道歉。從19世紀末到20世紀70年代，澳洲有千千萬萬土著兒童被政府從父母身邊強行帶走，這些一代人被稱為“被偷的一代”。

2009年6月18日，美國國會參議院通過一項決議，就歷史上的黑奴制度和種族隔離政策，向非洲裔美國人正式道歉。

排華法案衝擊
中國移民寫下血淚史

早在1815年，加州就有中國移民記錄，但第一次大規模的中國移民潮始於1848年加州的淘金熱，當時美國被視為金山，這批移民大多在鐵路和礦區工作。

1870年代美國遭遇嚴重經濟大蕭條，助長美國人的反華態度，因為比起白人，華人可以接受較低工資的工作，美國勞工團體蔑稱華人勞工為“廉價奴工”，最後導致社會對華人充滿敵意。

當年，《排華法案》對中國移民造成重大衝擊，華人被隔離限住在所謂的唐人街，為了減少華人在美國數量，華人女子更是被禁止的對象，在1890年華人男性和女性的比率是27比1。

此外，華裔移民必須整天攜帶身份證，以證明合法的居留身份。中國人往往因為當局審查移民文件真偽而被拘留收容，從幾天幾週到幾月甚至幾年的大有人在，這段歷史正是華人的移民血淚史。

泰國‧警方引爆可疑電單車‧東盟論壇會場炸彈驚魂

（泰國‧普吉島）泰國普吉島東盟區域論壇會場，今日（週四，7月23日）傳出“詐彈”驚魂！

法新社報導，泰國安全部隊一隻警犬，在距舉行東盟區域論壇的酒店會場300米外的地方，發現一輛無人認領的可疑電單車，驚動警方。

警方一度懷疑電單車上有爆炸品，因而決定將電單車引爆，隨即以高壓水鎗銷毀這輛電單車，令現場傳出震耳欲聾的爆炸聲，在酒店內也可聽見，一度引發恐慌。

電單車爆胎被棄

不過，警方經調查後發現，車主是因為電單車爆胎，而將它棄在此處，虛驚一場。

來自逾30個國家的首腦和高官出席這項論壇，包括美國國務卿希拉里和中國外交部部長楊潔篪。

當局動員約1萬人軍警，在會場一帶加強保安，確保此次論壇不受到干擾，同時也避免重演4月東盟峰會期間，有反政府示威者堵塞通往會場道路的事件。

Cellcom ad parody

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Rep. Kaptur Sticks An IED Inside Paulson And Then Presses 'BOOM'

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Rep. Kaptur Sticks An IED Inside Paulson And Then Presses 'BOOM'

(Screenshot Only...Video Is Below)

"The Greatest Hail Mary Pass Of All Time."

"What Interests Me Is Who You Helped And Whom You Didn't."

"History Will Show That You Knew About Wall Street's Growing Losses Long Before The Bank Of America, Merrill Lynch Merger."

"What Your Orchestration Yielded Was An Unprecedented Dumping Of Private Sector Losses On The Next Three Generations."

Do not hesitate. Watch this clip now. It very well might deserve a spot in our Top-5 All Time Greatest List (when we get around to actually creating such a list).

Ohio Democrat, Marcy Kaptur has appeared twice before on these not-so-hallowed pages, and with this clip, taken from last week's Hank Paulson BAC-Merrill testimony, Rep. Kaptur has now earned a place in The Daily Bail Anti-Capture, Anti-Bailout Hall of Fame. Her fellow inductees include Elizabeth Warren, Neil Barofsky, Brad Sherman, Mike Capuano, Alan Grayson, Ron Paul, Dylan Ratigan, Jon Stewart, Barry Ritholtz, Chris Whalen, Joseph Stiglitz, and Jimmy Rogers (help me out: who am I forgetting?)

You want to know what's in this video? Just everyfrackingthing that you hold close to your heart. Here's a short list:

Paulson's Goldman conflict of interest, the AIG-Sachs conduit, the Lehman decision that benefited GS, Hank's tenure under President Nixon and John Ehrlichman (supremely brilliant yet subtle implication from Kaptur--make sure to see that moment 2:20), the Hammer's Goldman's stock ownership, moral hazard, TARP warrant repayment, Treasury conflict and capture, Ken Lewis, Bank of America, playing politics, Wall Street influence and favoritism at Treasury, Countrywide, Wall Street losses hoisted onto the next 3-generations of taxpayers, and Warren Buffett's GS loan terms vs. taxpayers' loan terms.

As usual, endeavor to see every second of this 7-minute clip of Pauslon's painful impalement.

Watch

Editor's note: I still believe this pass by Boston College's Doug Flutie to be the greatest non-governmental Hail Mary of all time. Flutie's heave vs. Miami, versions one, two and three.

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