1) Number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the Earth is warming shrinking... Environmental Wackos/Poll
2) Michael Moore: A Love Story? Not So Much... Liberalism/Hollywood
3) GOP House leaders line up behind NY liberal... Republican/Democrats/Conservative
4) Comedian Soupy Sales Dies at 83... Celebrity/Death
5) Gay Reversal Advocates Say School Libraries Banning Their 'Ex-Gay' Books... Homosexuality/Ex Homosexuality/Oppression
6) Murtha, Moran steer millions to software firm... Democrat/Corruption
7) Obama to announce help for small banks, businesses... Obama/Spending
8) Voting Present Is Not an Option... Obama/Afghan War/Terrorism
9) Free market is not up to the job of creating work... Obama/Economy




1) Number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the Earth is warming shrinking... Environmental Wackos/Poll
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/us_climate_poll/2009/10/22/275571.html?s=al&promo_code=8F24-1

October 22, 2009
The number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years.

That's the conclusion of a national survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

The poll of 1,500 adults found that only 57 percent believe there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer. The steepest drop occurred over the last year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time.

Half the respondents still said they supported limits on global warming gases.

The poll's results differ from previous surveys which have shown an overwhelming majority of Americans believe global warming is happening.













2) Michael Moore: A Love Story? Not So Much... Liberalism/Hollywood
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569234,00.html

October 23, 2009
Michael Moore can dish it out. But can he take it?

The filmmaker is enjoying modest success with his most recent movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story," employing his trademark guerrilla documentary tactics to take on Wall Street and Capitol Hill. It follows films that cut a similarly sharp edge, including "Fahrenheit 9/11," a critique of the Bush administration; and 1989's "Roger & Me," about the struggle of Flint, Mich., to survive General Motors Corp.'s downsizing.

But less is known about a cottage industry that has emerged in recent years: filmmakers looking to take on the 55-year-old Moore at his own game.

There's Minnesota filmmaker Michael Wilson, who made 2004's "Michael Moore Hates America." It portrays Moore as being disingenuous to his interview subjects and profiting from their misfortune.

"Fahrenhype 9/11," written in part by former Clinton administration adviser Dick Morris, and "Celsius 41.11," directed by Kevin Knoblock, both from 2004, defended George W. Bush as he sought reelection. "Michael & Me," directed by Republican talk-show host Larry Elder, came out a year later, defending gun advocates against Mr. Moore's claims.

Then came "Me & Michael," a 2006 spoof on Moore's tactics. After director Willard Morgan pesters and follows Moore for months, mimicking Moore's style, Moore calls him a "stalker" and suggests he get medical help.












3) GOP House leaders line up behind NY liberal... Republican/Democrats/Conservative
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=731342

10/21/2009
The Family Research Council is blasting House Republican leaders who have endorsed a GOP congressional candidate in New York who supports abortion, same-sex "marriage," and President Obama's economic "stimulus" program.

The November 3 special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District features Republican abortion and same-sex marriage advocate Dede Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens, and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Hoffman has won endorsements from former Republican presidential candidates Gary Bauer and Fred Thompson, as well as from conservative groups like the Club for Growth, Concerned Women for America, and the Family Research Council.

Meanwhile, The Hill reports that 17 House Republicans have written checks to Dede Scozzafava's campaign. They include House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Virginia), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas), and Representative Kevin McCarthy (California), who is in charge of recruiting GOP candidates to run next year.

Connie Mackey, president of the Family Research Council Action Political Action Committee, believes those 17 House Republicans are abandoning conservative values.

"The very idea that someone of that liberal stripe would have the backing of the leadership frankly I think fires a shot across the bow for the future," she states, "and we felt it was very important to send a message right back."

Mackey takes particular offense to comments in The Hill attributed to an "unnamed GOP congressman" who suggested that Republicans who don't back Scozzafava, including House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence, are "anti-women." She is calling on that unnamed congressman to identify himself and apologize to his colleagues for "maligning" them.

"This is ridiculous -- putting a liberal up like that and expecting everybody [in the GOP] to fall in line. It's just not going to happen," says the activist. "And if we can't elect Doug Hoffman, frankly we do hope that we at least bring down the Republican candidate."

Mackey has stated that if the FRC Action PAC's endorsement of Hoffman signals "civil war" within the Republican Party, "then so be it."












4) Comedian Soupy Sales Dies at 83... Celebrity/Death
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569233,00.html?test=faces

October 22, 2009


DETROIT — Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died. He was 83.

Sales died at Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, said his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher. Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week, Usher said.

At the peak of his fame in the 1950s and '60s, Sales was one of the best-known faces in the nation, Usher said.

"If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy," said Usher.

At the same time, Sales retained an openness to fans that turned every restaurant meal into an endless autograph-signing session, Usher said.

"He was just good to people," Usher said.

Sales began his TV career in Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.

The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities lined up to take one on the chin alongside Sales. During the early 1960s, stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine received their just desserts side-by-side with the comedian on his television show.

"I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Sales said in a 1985 interview.

Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in North Carolina and grew up in Huntington, W.Va.

His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" -- an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.

Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.

The cast of "Saturday Night Live" later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the Pee-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.

Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony, a pair of musicians who backed David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.













5) Gay Reversal Advocates Say School Libraries Banning Their 'Ex-Gay' Books... Homosexuality/Ex Homosexuality/Oppression
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569135,00.html?test=faces

October 22, 2009


Visit most public school libraries and you'll find an array of books that address the subject of homosexuality. Many include sexually explicit content, and some even include graphic images.

But if you're looking for a book that refers to the possibility that homosexuality can be "reversed," a Chicago-based group says your best bet is the banned books list.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) says there's an entire community of people across the world who say that their sexual orientation changed from gay to straight. But they're not getting their message out, the group says, because libraries across the country refuse to carry literature that describes these experiences or any studies that support them.

So a book like "My Genes Made Me Do It!: A Scientific Look at Sexual Orientation" — which argues that sexuality is shaped by a variety of factors, not just biological — can't get a spot on the school library shelf.

Neither can "You Don't Have to Be Gay," which describes author Jeff Konrad's struggle to overcome his unwanted same-sex attractions.

But "Baby Be-Bop," the coming-out story of a gay teen, which includes descriptions of his sexual encounters in bathroom stalls with men he never talks to, makes the stacks.

So does "Love & Sex: Ten Stories of Truth," which describes a gay teen's relationship with his tutor with excerpts like: "Matt had one leg locked between mine, so that his d—- was smashed between his stomach and my thigh. And as his hand jerked up and down on me his hips humped with the same rhythm."

Ask why the "ex-gay" books aren't making the cut, and the answers range.

Some say the books simply haven't been reviewed by the proper institutions; others say the idea the books promote — that homosexuality is a treatable condition — can be psychologically damaging to homosexuals.

PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs says the group just wants anyone struggling with unwanted same sex attractions to know all of the options available to them — but she says most schools won't even accept "ex-gay" materials free of charge.

"We offered the same books to Montgomery County, Maryland, and Arlington and Fairfax Counties in Virginia. We e-mailed all publicly funded universities nationwide that have a GLBTQ center," Griggs told Foxnews.com.

"Our offer to donate ex-gay books and brochures, we were rejected by all."

Click here to see some of the banned books.

Griggs said she'd hoped the American Library Association could help, so she asked the organization to issue a statement during Banned Books Week earlier this month urging schools not to ban "ex-gay" books.

"We would have appreciated even a statement from the ALA's director of intellectual freedom, Debra Caldwell-Stone, that ex-gay books are included in their diversity policy — instead, she said that the policy 'speaks for itself,'" Griggs said.

Calls from Foxnews.com to Caldwell-Stone were directed to American Library Association Media Relations Manager Macey Morales, who asked for more information about PFOX's allegations and then failed to return follow-up e-mails and phone calls.

The ALA's annual Banned Books Week is intended to draw attention to "the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States," according to the association's Web site.

The event also stresses the importance of the association's Library Bill of Rights, which states:

— Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

— Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

— Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

Griggs says the chairman of the ALA's Supervisors' Section of the American Association of School Librarians ignored that policy when PFOX tried donating "ex-gay" books to her school district in Virginia.

"Charlie Makela — who's also supervisor of library media services for Arlington County public schools — returned our books, saying 'we do not believe the books are appropriate for our high school collection,' Griggs said.

• Click here to read Makela's letter.

The district says the books were not rejected because of their point of view.

"APS accepts only those materials for which it can find professional reviews indicating that the materials are of good quality and appropriate for the age group served by the library in which they can be placed, and those that it can otherwise determine are of high quality and appropriate for the applicable age group," Superintendent Robert Smith said in a letter to PFOX.

• Click here to see Smith's letter.

Despite the graphic sexual content, Assistant Superintendent Linda Erdos said "Love & Sex," "Baby Be-Bop" — and a host of other controversial books — "have been reviewed by publications that specialize in reviewing materials appropriate for the PreK-12 school environment." So, they're available to Arlington students.

Fairfax and Montgomery county schools did not respond to Foxnews.com's request for comment, but Griggs said they also rejected the donation of 'ex-gay' books, while a search of the Fairfax online library catalogue shows it too has "Love & Sex" and "Baby B-Bop" in its high school libraries.

Lambda Legal, which represented Metro DC Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in a lawsuit over Montgomery County's exclusion of "ex-gay" information in its sexual orientation health curriculum, says the schools reserve the right to make these choices.

According to the group, when a publicly funded school or university sets up a type of public forum — a bulletin board for students to place notices, a system for creating student groups, etc. — it generally cannot discriminate against a particular view because it is not endorsing it.

The school’s own speech — through its curriculum, administration, publications and even its LGBT support center — however, is “a choice the school makes,” Lambda Legal Deputy Legal Director Hayley Gorenberg told Foxnews.com. "That's why schools in geography don't have to teach flat earth just because some people might support that."

Like the flat earth theory, Gorenberg says "ex-gay" materials are not in line with current science.

"All of the leading medical, therapeutic, psychiatric and social work organizations have a fair unanimity here about claims relating to the so-called ex-gay movement or so-called reparative therapy where the central idea is that these groups would like to try to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity, and the consensus is that it's unnecessary and damaging and can be severely harmful to people," she said.

Click here to see the American Medical Association's policy regarding sexual orientation.

Click here to see the American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report on Sexual Orientation and Adolescents.

Click here to see American Psychiatric Association Position Statement on Therapies Focused on Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation.

PFOX maintains that the comments from these organizations are not based in fact or science.

“They use terms like 'can' or 'may,' which is merely an opinion,” Griggs said.

“Most of these statements eminate from the gay divisions within those associations. These GLB sections have tried to get their respective associations to ban reparative therapy, but have been unsuccessful."

"The most they can do is issue statements like these discouraging any kind of change therapy while promoting gay affirming therapy.”

Griggs also says, as a woman with an ex-gay cousin and a gay son, her goal and that of the organization's is not to "cure" homosexuals. She says it is to promote tolerance of those who have left that lifestyle.

"It's almost an attack on us as an organization merely because we want to allow people to have all the information on both sides," Griggs said. "We aren't out there forcing people to do anything ... they have a right to know all of the facts to determine for themselves."

“Therapy is not the issue — tolerance is,” she added. “Expect more lawsuits nationwide.”











6) Murtha, Moran steer millions to software firm... Democrat/Corruption
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/23/murtha-moran-steer-millions-to-defense-firm/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_photo_feature

October 23, 2009
When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha.

Working with two of the most powerful members of a House subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the company also hired lobbying firms that employed former top aides of both the Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Murtha's brother. Company executives and their lobbyists donated thousands of dollars to the two congressmen.

Soon, money flowed the other way.

Between 2003 and 2009, Mr. Murtha and Mr. Moran helped deliver $12 million to MobilVox in earmarks — money that is set aside by lawmakers for pet projects in the government's annual spending bills. The latest House defense spending bill introduced and pushed through by Mr. Murtha includes an additional $2 million earmark for MobilVox requested by Mr. Moran. The bill is currently pending in conference committee.

MobilVox, the two lawmakers and the lobbyists hired by the company insist they followed all congressional rules and campaign fundraising laws, and that all earmark decisions were made on their merit. None has been accused of any wrongdoing.











7) Obama to announce help for small banks, businesses... Obama/Spending
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_WrL-yKI0kVBHbacyZTzSnxQLvAD9BF66900

Oct 20, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama wants smaller community banks to have greater access to the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund as the administration refocuses the bailout money on small businesses and homeowners and winds down programs aimed at big banks.

Obama on Wednesday plans to announce a package of initiatives designed to increase lending, including a request that Congress increase caps for existing Small Business Administration loans, the administration said.

The new effort comes as the administration is under pressure from liberals to shift the massive bailout fund's spending away from big financial institutions and toward reducing foreclosures and creating jobs. But it also comes as Republicans press Obama to end the rescue program and use bank repayments to reduce the national debt.

An administration official said the Treasury Department intends wind down and terminate bailout programs launched at the height of the financial crisis to stabilize Wall Street and aid the struggling auto industry.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the details had not yet been made public, said the $218 billion Capital Purchase Program would effectively conclude at the end of the year. The program has been a central element of the bailout program, infusing banks with government money in exchange for preferred stock.

The administration also plans to cap two programs at levels below initial projections. One program designed to rid big banks of their bad assets will spend $30 billion instead of $75 billion, and another that supports a Federal Reserve effort to ease bank credit will top off at $30 billion instead of $80 billion. An initiative aimed at banks — the Capital Assistance Program — had no applicants and will also end, the official said.

Congressional and industry officials said there were few details about the new small bank proposal, including how much of the bailout money would be used. But the American Bankers Association, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last month, recommended a $5 billion program for community banks that have not yet received assistance from the rescue fund. The program, as suggested by the association, would apply only to those banks with assets of less than $5 billion.

"Community banks feel like the government assistance efforts to date have left them on the sidelines," said Mark Tenhundfeld, a senior vice president at the bankers' association.

The rescue fund, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has about $320 billion still available to spend — a combination of unallocated money and more than $70 billion in repayments from banks that received bailouts since late last year. The TARP is set to expire at the end of December, but the administration could extend it until October 2010.

"Given that we are now well into October, it seems probable that there would need to be some extensions," Tenhundfeld said.

Sheila Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., generally defined community banks as those with less than $1 billion in assets. In testimony to Congress last week, she said those smaller banks have become especially vulnerable in the face of mounting losses and defaults in construction and commercial real estate loans.

Bair testified that she had been discussing TARP help for community banks with Treasury officials, a step welcomed by Democrats but criticized by Republicans.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, urged the administration to end the program at year's end.

"I will strongly suggest to community bankers in my district that they reject an invitation from the Obama administration to participate in TARP," he said.












8) Voting Present Is Not an Option... Obama/Afghan War/Terrorism
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDY0MDMwYzNkYTZkNzI2NGU5ODRmZDM1MjBkZmNhYWM=

October 21, 2009
While our Narcissus-in-Chief is frozen gazing at his perfect image in his private pool, choices have to be made in Afghanistan. Consider the following:

(a) We have a Democratically controlled Congress that by and large has supported, since 2004, the Kerry-Obama-Hillary Clinton narrative of a "good" war in Afghanistan, supposedly shamefully neglected by George Bush's neo-con adventure in Iraq, but absolutely vital to the security of the United States, and one entirely winnable — if only we allot sufficient resources.
(b) We have a proven command in Generals McChrystal and Petraeus and their circle of subordinates, who crafted a winning counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq that defeated the terrorists, ensured stability for the fragile constitutional government, and took a tremendous toll on the human and material resources of al-Qaeda, as well as the reputation of radical Islam among the Middle East street.

(c) We have thousands of battle-hardened, experienced veteran soldiers and their officers, who know far more about the Middle East in general, and counter-insurgency in particular, than was true than when we first deployed to either to Afghanistan in 2001, or Iraq in March 2003.

(d) The Islamic world is much less in thrall (polls tell us that) to bin Laden and his advocacy of suicide bombing and terrorism than it was five years ago; Pakistan in general, the victim of numerous terrorist attacks, is far more willing to take concerted action that aids our cause than at any time in the last eight years. And we have a president who by his own admission resonates abroad in a way not true of the past, and will be given a level of international support not usually accorded to American efforts in the Muslim world.

(e) The president has a domestic opposition — entirely unlike that of George Bush's — that is eager to support President Obama to fulfill his promise to win Afghanistan by devoting more resources to the effort.

(f) We have a media mesmerized by Obama, that will withhold criticism of him in Afghanistan in a way that was simply not true of the Bush effort in Iraq, that, nonetheless, proved successful.

(g) We have a split public, but one far more amenable to a surge in Afghanistan than was true in late 2006 of the proposed surge in Iraq.

(h) We should be bolstered by our success in Iraq, and the enemy demoralized by its failure; rather than vice versa.

Given the above, and given that George Bush made a far more difficult choice that saved Iraq, it is hard to figure out why Obama can not make a simple decision to send troops requested by commanders on the ground.












9) Free market is not up to the job of creating work... Obama/Economy
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b3565084-bc02-11de-9426-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

October 18 2009
America has always been a country that thrives on hard work, thrift and self-reliance. We have all absorbed Benjamin Franklin’s maxim: “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

This helped create jobs. In an application of Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction, the US lost 44m jobs in the last two decades of the 20th century, but simultaneously created 73m private sector jobs. A stunning 55 per cent of the total workforce was in new jobs by the turn of the century, two-thirds of them in industries that paid more than the average wage. This is no fluke. It is because we benefit from a unique brand of entrepreneurial bottom-up capitalism.

Today there is no evidence of job creation. Quite the opposite: unemployment is rising and millions of jobs have disappeared. In place of thrift we have become a nation of debtors, staggering beneath mortgages that exceed the value of our homes, and credit lines that exceed our ability to repay. But the “Great Recession” has also changed the nature of unemployment, making it harder for those out of work to find a job. Only by investing in infrastructure and innovation can we mend the system.

About a third of the 15m jobless have been out of work for at least six months. This is the highest proportion since records began in 1948. Meanwhile, those in jobs find their work week reduced to an average of 33 hours, again the lowest in 60 years. Firms are cutting hours, wages and benefits rather than laying off still more workers. Today all elements of labour income – jobs, hours and wages – are under pressure.

Many Americans who lost their jobs now have no way to replace their lost income. Take unemployment benefits, which pay about a third of the lost salary, up to a cap. Generally, the requirement for the benefit is to have worked full time on the last job for at least a year. But more than half the unemployed do not qualify because they had been in their jobs for less than a year before the axe fell; or worked part-time; or were independent contractors. Only 43 per cent are eligible for unemployment benefits. Even for them, the anxiety is intense: 61 per cent worry their benefits will expire before they find a job. This is driven home by the dramatic increase in those dependent on food stamps, up by 6.2m since the recession began. Food stamps now feed a near-record one in nine Americans.

These men and women are well aware that long-term unemployment will make them harder to re-employ. Their fears are justified: there are now nearly six people available for every job opening – up from 1.7 per opening when the recession began.

The mix of the labour force has also changed. The proportion of over-55s working has risen 8 per cent. They felt forced to keep labouring away because the value of their homes and investments declined. In fact, 63 per cent of workers aged 50 to 61 expect to delay retirement, thus restricting openings for younger workers. During the last two recessions, those in their mid-40s to mid-50s showed employment gains, while younger workers bore the brunt of cutbacks.

Of course this time younger workers have not escaped – a quarter of teenagers, about 1.6m youths, are without work. The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52 per cent, a post-war high. But even the 45-to-54 age group has seen job losses, with employment down by more than 1.2m. These are people who should be in the prime of their wage-earning years. It will take these older workers longer to find jobs; some will have to settle for considerably less pay.

Another consequence of the prolonged recession is that many more men than women have lost jobs, probably because women are paid less. Women’s share of the workforce may have reached a record 50 per cent last month as a result.

Alas, the prospects for re-employment are diminished by the fact that many jobs may never come back, for example in finance and car manufacturing. This means growth alone will not fully employ America again. If there is any growth in jobs, it will come mostly from healthcare, education, restaurants and hospitality services. Healthcare alone made up all the net jobs created in the last decade. Such service jobs cannot, however, support growth and innovation.

We knew the skies had darkened but now we learn the unemployment figures are worse than previously thought. This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous business cycle. The broader measure of unemployment, the “household index” encompassing people who are unemployed and underemployed, has reached a record 17 per cent. The household survey revealed staggering job losses of 785,000 for September. It includes about 571,000 people who dropped out of the workforce last month, presumably because they despaired of finding work.

Similarly, unemployment for the 12 months to March was understated by 824,000. The US lost about 3m jobs in the first three months alone. Jobs have been lost for 21 months in a row, the longest losing streak since publication started in 1939.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics limits the official unemployment rate by its definitions. For example, if people stop looking for a job for four weeks they don’t count as unemployed. Absurd! An estimated 2.2m discouraged workers thus are not counted in the unemployment numbers. Were they included, the unemployment rate would be 11 per cent, not 9.8 per cent – and this does not include another 1.8m who retired or became stay-at-home parents.

The official rate does not include 1m people who once worked in residential construction, where three-quarters of jobs have been lost. These people did not show up on the employment rolls when they were working, and do not show up on the unemployment rolls now they are out of work – but they are still (illegally) in the country. Nor does it include approximately 2m people who have entered the labour force since the recession began and are still without jobs. If it were not for short-time working, the same work could probably be done in the normal work week with 3.5m fewer staff, which would drive the unemployment rate up another 2.5 percentage points.

No wonder job anxiety has soared. Soaring unemployment numbers have undermined the confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. The outlook is bleak. If there is a recovery, firms will fill additional work loads by adding hours to the truncated work weeks.

Since spending depends on employment it is critical to determine whether the labour market will remain weak. Given the level of household debt, the drop of confidence, the decline in the value of homes and the tightness of credit, it is hard to see how consumer spending will rise enough to improve economic prospects beyond a weak recovery – which creates few new jobs.

Labour markets have not faced such problems in more than 70 years. The official unemployment rate will shortly cross 10 per cent. Half of US retailers say they will be adding fewer seasonal jobs this holiday season. We may be looking at long-term, double-digit unemployment with official unemployment figures that understate the extent of the problem.

Only massive programmes are equal to the challenge of restoring stable growth to our economy. One such programme would be to establish a National Infrastructure Bank, advocated by prominent Democrat Felix Rohatyn, to which the government would assign the $65bn (£40bn, €45bn) annually allocated to support infrastructure construction nationally. The bank would have the capacity to borrow, with federal guarantees, an additional $200bn. This programme would ensure a rational rather than a political investment in infrastructure, and provide long-term infrastructure development on a major scale with a maximum multiplier effect on the economy.

A second programme would be a 100 per cent tax credit for increases in research and development by American businesses. In this way we could stimulate and incentivise the capacity for innovation and technical creativity and thus produce another Schumpeterian period of growth for America. There is no time to lose.