Do you remember during the final months of the 2008 presidential campaign when candidate Barack Obama petulantly a crowd that he wouldn’t take their guns away, because “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress”?

The implication that Obama and his administration would be have no ability to curb gun rights once in power has been proven false in the past few weeks.

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I say we’re “halfway” because the two big ones coming in tomorrow (Uncle Sam’s Employment Situation Report and the Institute for Supply Management’s Non Manufacturing Survey) will have about that much relative impact.

Here are quick looks and quick takes on what’s come in thus far.

ISM Manufacturing

As announced yesterday, it went up to 56.3 in August from 55.5 in July, indicating very strong expansion (any reading above 50% indicates expansion). The stock market really liked it.

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Talk about an in-kind contribution.

In a short item about a Democratic Governors Association election complaint about Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, the Associated Press’s Julie Carr Smyth showed that she is willfully ignoring Buckeye State reality, or has been living a hermit’s existence for the past few months.

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The news out of Government/General Motors the past couple of days hasn’t been particularly good.

First, August sales results were disappointing. Second, it become known today that GM will attempt to go public on November 18, a later than originally hoped post-election date chosen to hopefully allow for another reported quarterly profit to boost investors’ appetite for its shares.

As so often has been the case during Democratic administrations when unfavorable developments arise, the UK press has seen potential problems with the IPO, while the Associated Press has been acting as if all is well.

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From Havana, Cuba:

Sep 2, 2010 / 10:04 pm

During a visit to Cuba, two officials from Spain’s Socialist Party expressed gratitude to the Catholic Church for its “important role” in securing the release of several political prisoners.

Leire Pajin and Elena Valenciano from the Socialist Party, praised the release of political prisoners in Cuba and announced that six more newly-freed dissidents will be arriving in Spain tomorrow.

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The run-up:

• As noted yesterday, ADP’s employment report showed 10,000 private sector jobs lost.
• Also as noted yesterday, the Wall Street Journal carried a prediction that “the unemployment rate is “expected to creep up to 9.6% as U.S. employers drop another 110,000 people off the payrolls.” Just in time for the disengaged to start paying attention.”
• Here’s the Associated Press, as of early Thursday evening: “The Labor Department is forecast to report Friday that private businesses added a net total of only 41,000 jobs last month, the fourth straight month of anemic hiring. When government jobs are included, total payrolls are forecast to drop by 100,000 – based mostly on about 115,000 temporary census jobs ending. The jobless rate is projected to rise to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent, according to Thomson Reuters. Many economists expect growth to proceed at such a weak pace that the unemployment rate could top 10 percent by next year.”
• I haven’t previously commented on the government’s productivity report released yesterday. While manufacturing productivity ticked up nicely at an annualized +4.1% during the second quarter (meaning an actual 1.02%), productivity everywhere else fell by an annualized 1.9%. The AP’s interpretation of this is that companies might be forced to hire people whether they really want to or not. I don’ think so. If manufacturing stays flat, those entities will be able to get by with the people they have. In services, if topline revenues aren’t increasing, companies won’t be able to afford extra people, and will try to work those on board harder, especially those who are salaried (the second quarter result may indicate that such efforts have diminishing returns).

This Month’s Benchmark

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Federal spending is out of control. Even the nominal spending and deficit reductions claimed by the Congressional Budget Office aren’t real.

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Note: This column went up at Pajamas Media and was teased here at BizzyBlog on Wednesday.

Thanks to Real Clear Politics for linking to the PJM column.

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From Mexico City:

Aug 31, 2010 / 11:57 am

The Knights of Columbus in Mexico have expressed their solidarity with the country’s bishops for their courageous, firm and respectful opposition to the Mexican Supreme Court’s recent rulings on abortion, same-sex “marriage” and adoption by gay couples.

“Mexico is a free, plural and democratic country where persons and institutions have the right and duty to express their opinions on issues that have to do with national public life,” the Knights said in a statement.

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Longtime BizzyBlog readers may be wondering what’s going on upon seeing the ad containing the three graphics near the top right.

Never fear, yours truly hasn’t gone all union thug or anything. There is a method to the seeming madness.

When I was reviewing the ad for approval, three things struck me (other than the fact that the party of Wall Street has been the Democrats for years — or at least was until Wall Street experienced 1-1/2 years of Democrat control in Washington; now that worm is turning, according to this Reuters item).

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From the AP, the Fed is going where no central bank has gone before:

In the end, the Federal Open Market Committee, the panel of Fed board members and regional bank presidents who set interest rates, voted 9-1 to support the modest easing move. The only dissent came from Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig.

The minutes said that the committee believed that the most likely outcome for the economy was that it would continue to grow and would avoid a destabilizing bout of deflation – when prices and wages decline.

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