Unemployment rates never included those who dropped out of the workforce in our history

I always hear the same argument from republicans when the great job numbers come out every month.  I hear from republicans at CNBC, Barron's, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and the NY Post that the unemployment number doesn't include those who dropped out of the job market.  But you can always say the unemployment rate isn't accurate because it doesn't include those who dropped out of the work force.  You can say that about Ron Reagan unemployment rates.   Maybe people were dropping out of the workforce and that's why the unemployment rate was low under Reagan.  You can say that about Bush Sr and even Bush Jr.  But under Bush Jr, we were losing 500K jobs a month that gaining that number of jobs every month.  Maybe the number of people who were dropping out of the work force under Bush Jr was actually higher than the 500K number because that didn't include those who dropped out of the workforce.  Also many of the companies that have positions open, are saying there's no qualified people applying for those jobs.  Come on show a little objectivity.

Problem with Benjamin Netanyahu speaking here before he's re-elected

Benjamin Netanyahu is up for re-election  and if he doesn't win  having him speak here is of little importance. If the republicans really wanted to accomplish something they should have waited until after Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected.    If Netanyahu doesn't win re-election it will be a major embarrassment for republicans. 

This is what Netanyahu said about in 2002, – “If You Take Out Saddam, I Guarantee, It Will Have Enormous Positive Reverberations on the Region” really because Mr. Netanyahu we took out Saddam and many could argue that things are worse now with ISIS controlling the region. As Bush Jr said Iraqis might "rise up." The problem with Iraqis is that they don't rise up and let anyone no matter how bad they are take control. 

We need to let Iraq take care of Iraq and deal with our own problems including failing infrastructure and a drug war we're losing. Instead of stupid pipeline which won't create jobs (it will end them in the rail industry) and if oil gets cheaper, it will end jobs with oil drillers who only make money when oil is $60. I'm not a pot smoker, but legalizing pot both medical and recreationally would create lots of tax money like its doing in colorado. And infrastructure improvements would create long term job and probably lower the unemployment rate.

On Tuesday I will travel to Albany to show my support for charter schools

On Tuesday I will travel to Albany to show my support for charter schools. If public schools continue to underperform above 96th street on the UWS, then I have no choice to send him to a charter school. We are so lucky to have a charter school as an option.

My son has 25 kids in his class, two teachers (sometimes 3) and is learning another language. The school is clean not over crowded. There's a school bus that picks him up and drops him off and he has breakfast and lunch at school.

If the state wants to make things fair they should make sure EVERY school gets equal funding and not have schools in certain neighborhoods be better funded than others. Our kids all deserve an AWESOME education, not just those that live in the right district and zone.

Why take your kids to Knicks, Nets and Jets games if they're giving you nothing?

The Knicks are having a terrible season.  But be honest, with their talent level, who actually thought they were going to have a good season?  But this isn't going to be one of my regular diatribes about how the Knicks had two NBA All Stars, David Lee, Zach Randolph, a 6th man of the year, Jamal Crawford and quality bench players or starters like Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari and their general manager Donnie Walsh got rid of all of those guys for basically nothing, no not this time, we will trash Walsh another time for sure.

This past weekend, I took my son Zachary to the Knicks game.  At the start of the game, realizing how empty the building was, I decided to see how far I could work my way down toward the floor. After all, as a lifetime season ticket owner and loyal fan, I imagined, I deserved some time close to the players I was so loyal to, if not for myself, for my son--the next generation.

I managed to get almost to the court where an usher, not Usher the rapper, but one of the Garden's finest security personnel asked me for a ticket and said I couldn't be there.  My response to him was "really there's no one here, the team is in last place with probably the worst record they've ever had in their history and you're saying I can't sit here?"

I recall going to an event years ago as a seat holder.  It seems to me the Knicks, Nets and Jets should be doing more to attract fans and if that means letting people move to better seats, giving away seats  or giving away free food, do it.  You want to make your stadium look crowded and using those methods can accomplish this. After all even The Golden Globes has seat fillers.

But my son was more interested in playing with his matchbox cars than watching the game and I should have played with the cars also.  The Knicks lost the game by 30.  Apparently children are good judges of entertainment levels of events and Zacky gave the Knicks two thumbs down.

If your stadium is completely empty and your losing money every game, doesn't it make sense to let people move to better seats, give away seats  or give away free food?  If you give free tickets those people will still buy food and souvenirs and the stadium would make money on that.  If I can go to a game and move down, wouldn't that be more of an incentive to go to another game?  If the stadium is  giving you free food, wouldn't you be more apt to buy tickets, especially when the food can cost $20  or more?  Just a little food for thought.

Was Isiah Thomas that bad as Knicks GM?

People will hate for for saying this, but if Larry Brown did his job as coach of the Knicks, the Knicks would still have Lee, Zach, Jamal, Gallo and Chandler (and Maybe Tyson Chandler too). Not defending what Thomas did to that woman who worked for him. People have gotten fired for harassing a female co worker like that, HP fired their CEO for sexual harassment, but getting David Lee, Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford, and drafting Trevor Ariza, Wilson Chandler and Nate Robinson was pretty good.

Drill for oil more and bring the price down

Both Carl Icahn and Fed's Kocherlakota think a drop in oil prices good for U.S. economy. So why does CNBC keep saying its a bad thing?  I've been saying for years that the real price of oil is $35 a barrel.  The only reason that oil trades higher is because OPEC usually holds back on supply when oil is falling due to over supply.  If American was to build this pipeline, oil would fall so much that drilling  wouldn't even be profitable.  In fact drilling would be a money losing endeavor.  If we want to put Americans to work, the republicans should approve an infrastructure program that would repair bridges, tunnels, roads etc.  That would really put people to work.

The Cleveland Knicks

First Iman Shumpert and Jr Smith now Cleveland traded two first round picks for Timofey Mozgov. Does Cleveland want to be the knicks?  Two first round picks for Mozgov?  Are they totally insane? Hey Cleveland I'm sure for a 1 first round pick the Knicks would also  given you  Pablo Prigioni, Amare Stoudemire and  Andrea Bargnani.  Heck, you can have all of them for a second round pick.  Think of it, Cleveland, you could be the Knicks.