Pennsylvania employers shed another 10,300 jobs in September, according to new employment figures released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

Under Gov. Ed Rendell's leadership, Pennsylvania has lost nearly 200,000 jobs since September 2008.

The Rendell Administration is attempting to put the best possible spin on the continuing bad news by pointing out that Pennsylvania's 8.8% unemployment rate "remained below the United States' unemployment rate, which rose one-tenth of a point to 9.8 percent."

Doesn't that make you feel better, especially if your unemployment benefits are about to run out?

The bottom line is that Ed Rendell, Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats have done a terrible job dealing with economic issues, resulting in record unemployment.

From the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry:

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted civilian labor force -- the number of people working or looking for work -- rose by 9,000 in September to 6,368,000.

Employment was unchanged in September, while resident unemployment rose by 9,000. The Pennsylvania labor force was down 55,000 from September 2008.

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was up one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.8 percent in September. The state rate remained below the United States' unemployment rate, which rose one-tenth of a point to 9.8 percent.

Pennsylvania's rate was up 3.2 percentage points from September 2008, while the U.S. rate was up 3.6 percentage points in the 12-month period.

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs count dropped by 10,300 jobs in September. The majority of the job losses were among service providing industries, however, the Professional and Business Services sector added 2,700 jobs.

Pennsylvania job count was down 198,100, or 3.4 percent, since September 2008. Nationally, jobs were down 4.2 percent over the same time period.

For a breakdown by employment categories, click on the link below:

Pennsylvania's Employment Situation: September 2009

So Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. What exactly has changed?

He's been voting with the Democrats for decades.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele issued the following statement: "Let's be honest: Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record. Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don't do it first."

Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Rob Gleason suggested Specter give back campaign contributions he received from Republicans now that he's abandoned the party.

I wrote this back on March 5th: "Specter's only option for retaining his Senate seat is to switch his party affiliation to Democrat. The question is, would the Democrats take him back?"

Well, I guess we found out the answer today.

But keep this in mind, also from my earlier post:

Pennsylvania is trending blue and the Democrats could win the Senate seat without Specter, so why take a GOP retread when the Dems could run a younger, more liberal candidate. If Specter can wheel-and-deal his way to the Democratic Party nomination, it sets up a November 2010 showdown between Toomey and Specter. And that's a toss-up.

Avoiding a primary fight against the GOP's Pat Toomey is not the end of Specter's problems. Can Specter win the Democratic primary in 2010? Stay tuned.

A couple days after stepping down as president of the Club for Growth, former U.S. Congressman Pat Toomey made it official: He will challenge U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2010 Republican Primary.

"Pennsylvanians deserve a voice in the U.S. Senate that will honor our values and fight for limited government, individual freedom and fiscal responsibility," Toomey said. "I will be that voice."

It's no coincidence Toomey chose April 15 to make his announcement.

From The Associated Press:

Toomey headed the Club for Growth, a national conservative group that advocates smaller government and lower taxes, from the time he left Congress in 2005 until he stepped down Monday. The group was a major supporter of his 2004 campaign.

Prior to his election to the first of three terms in Congress in 1998, the Harvard-educated Toomey worked as an investment banker and operated several restaurants and bars in Pennsylvania with his brothers.

How worried is 79-year-old Arlen Specter about Toomey?

From the AP:

More than a year before the May 2010 primary, the campaign was already under way as Toomey publicly confirmed his candidacy.

Specter this month put up a cable TV ad that sought to link Toomey's career as an investment banker more than a decade ago to the current chaos in the nation's financial markets.

Imagine that. A guy who has served in the Senate since 1990 and has been asleep at the wheel while the economy collapsed is trying to blame Toomey for the meltdown.

As I predicted in an earlier post, Specter may well drop out of the race before 2010 because of unspecified health reasons. Specter knows he can't win the Republican primary, so he will likely bow out before he is handed a humiliating loss at the hands of GOP voters.

Three days ago, hardly anyone knew who Sandi Vito was. Today she is one of the better-known political figures in Pennsylvania, but not for the right reasons.

Vito, awaiting Senate confirmation as Pennsylvania's next Labor Secretary, was charged Wednesday with public drunkenness after an incident at a Harrisburg hotel bar.

The 43-year-old issued a statement Thursday apologizing for the incident, which involved a dispute about whether Vito should take a cab home after she had been drinking at the hotel, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

"I am deeply embarrassed and profoundly humiliated by my actions last night," Vito said. "My behavior was inexcusable. I did not have a car and was intent on walking to my nearby home. In retrospect, I understand that the authorities were merely considering my safety when they insisted I take a cab rather than walk."

The Associated Press reported Friday that Vito is entering an alcohol treatment program. Rendell is sticking by Vito, according to press accounts, but that can change quickly, too.

Vito was appointed by Rendell as Acting Secretary of the Department of Labor & Industry on Feb. 4, 2008. She is awaiting confirmation from the Republican-controlled Senate to run the Labor Department until the end of Rendell's term.

Prior to her brush with the law, Vito was a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Before going to work at Labor & Industry, Vito served as chief of staff to State Sen. Christine Tartaglione, a Philadelphia Democrat. She previously held the post of political director for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

 

Barack Obama announced he will sign the $410 billion stop-gap budget bill approved by the Democratic Congress even though the bill contains billions in pork-barrel projects.

Obama acknowledge the earmarks, saying it was an "imperfect" bill, but he was forced to sign it to keep the government going.

He also confessed that he was breaking his own campaign promise to eliminate earmarks. Apparently, he had his fingers crossed when he made that promise.

Obama said "99 percent" of the bill is legitimate spending, so that's good enough for him as he lowers the standard for reform and ethical government even further.

In his defense, Obama said earmarks have been part of the Washington culture for decades, including the years Republicans controlled Congress. In other words, two wrongs do make a right, according to Obama.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had this to say about the Democratic spending package, loaded with more than 8,500 pork projects:

"President Obama will break his pledge to go through every line of the budget if he signs this omnibus spending bill. Like the stimulus bill and budget, this spending bill contains too much taxing, spending, and borrowing. Left unchecked, the Democrats' spending spree will grow our national debt and ultimately result in more taxes. Hard-working Americans deserve better from its leaders than the Democrats' tax-and-spend agenda."

Obama did promise not to sign the next pork-laden budget bill Congress sends his way ... unless he changes his mind again. Welcome to the liberal world ... where principles don't matter, where 99 percent is good enough.

The nation's unemployment rate stands at 8.1 percent, the highest since 1983. More than 650,000 jobs were slashed in February.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel with these numbers," Nigel Gault, economist at IHS Global Insight, told The Associated Press. "Job losses were everywhere and there's no hope for a turnaround any time soon."

It's March and Obama can't blame George W. Bush anymore.

U.S. companies eliminated 655,000 jobs during Obama's first month in office in January and now slashed another 650,000 jobs in February.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has plunged to 6,500. Now we know what Obama meant by change -- change for the worse.

The recession is in its 15th month and there's no end in sight.

More than 12.5 million people are out of work. On top of that, the number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose 787,000 to 8.6 million, according to The Associated Press.

Obama, with Democratic control of Congress could have taken bold action to freeze government spending and slash taxes to jump-start the economy. Instead, he and Nancy Pelosi chose to increase government spending and proposed massive new taxes.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost 4.4 million jobs, more than half of which occurred in the past four months, according to The Associated Press.

Obama called the unemployment news "astounding," but urged the American people to give him time to let his economic revival plans take root. "All of this takes time and it will take patience," Obama said.

As many of us feared, the American people elected an amateur to lead the nation at this critical juncture. Obama is indifferent toward the plight of everyday Americans. He is clueless about the economy.

In short, we have another Jimmy Carter in the White House.

The Wall Street Journal has this to say about Obama's handling of the economy so far: "Recessions don't last forever, but bad policies can prolong the pain." Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.