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            Last night, I was listening to the Atlanta Braves vs. the St. Louis Cardinals on KMOX.  This was a heavyweight fight already in the regular season of Major League Baseball.  The 3-game series in St. Louis this weekend could be a preview of a National League Playoff series in October. 

            The game gets started by the St. Louis Cardinals giving up 2 runs on past balls in the 1^st Inning.  The Braves were off to a hot start where their starter Mike Minor started off the game striking out 5 in the first two innings.  The Braves increased the lead in the 3^rd Inning by Dan Uggla and Brian McCann getting back-to-back doubles.  That was followed by Chipper Jones getting a RBI single to drive in McCann.  Jones would later be driven in by Tyler Pastonicky.  The Braves would jump out to a four-run lead, however that didn’t last on Tony LaRussa Night.

            Minor was cruising along until the Bottom of the 4^th Inning where Adrian Beltran and Allen Craig hit back-to-back home runs, cutting the Braves’ lead to two.  Than in the Bottom of the 5^th Inning the Cardinals were able to take Minor out of the game when the Cardinals’ top of the lineup produced four consecutive hits after two outs in the bottom frame of the 5^th.  The Cardinals would have the lead until the Top of the 7^th Inning. 

            With one out in the Top of the 7^th Inning, Dan Uggla tied the game with a home run shot onto Left Field.  Than in the Top of the 8^th Inning; with the bases loaded, Freddie Freeman gets an infield hit bringing home Jason Hayward to give the Braves back the lead.  But that lead wouldn’t last the inning.

            In the Bottom of the 8^th Inning, Adrian Beltran hit his second homer of the evening to tie the game.  Both the Braves and the Cardinals stranded 18 baserunners, but the Cardinals men that they left stranded helped in their loss.

            In the Bottom of the 10^th Inning, the Cardinals had the bases loaded for pinch-hitter David Freese.  Freese hits into an inning-ending Double Play.  This Inning would bite the Cardinals in the top half of the 12^th Inning, when Jason Hayward hits a 2-run homer giving the Braves the final lead of the game.  The Braves closed out the Bottom of the 12^th Inning and the game without giving up any runs or the victory. 

            After last night, the Braves proved to me that they are capable of not only becoming a playoff team, but capable of winning a tough extra-inning game, while on the road, and the pitching failed them on a couple of occasions.  For the defending champs, this was a game where their stellar Bullpen was not able to get the Cardinals out of trouble.  It didn’t help the Redbirds when their starter Jaime Garcia was giving up 5 runs in the first three innings of the game.  We shall see if the other two games in this series will be just as much of a playoff atmosphere as this series opener was last night.  

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/team/roster_active.jsp?c_id=atl

http://cardinals.mlb.com/team/roster_active.jsp?c_id=stl

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_05_11_atlmlb_slnmlb_1&mode=box

KMOX AM 1120.  St. Louis, MO.  May 11, 2012.  Mike Shannon and John Rooney announcers.

We are so use to hearing about how unemployment is in the single digits in this country.  But just recently, economists and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are beginning to use a different number to determine unemployment.  They are using what is known as the employment-to-population ratio.  Below is the equation for E-P ratio.

                                              The number of persons working

                                The number of non-institutionalized working-age population

When you use this equation, employment is around 58%.  So why are they first now beginning to use this equation?  Well this equation shows how many people are actually working.  The unemployment rate that we are use to is one that only takes the number of people who collect unemployment and divides it within what is known as the Civilian Work Force, according to the BLS.  With the E-P ratio; or A-1, it includes not just the Civilian Work Force, but the individuals who are not in the Civilian Work Force as well. 

The latter population includes individuals who collect Social Security, and people who have stopped collecting unemployment or didn’t collect unemployment and/or stay-at-home moms.  This statistic doesn’t include, prisoners, the mentally ill who are institutionalized, nursing homes, military personnel and students at working age.  It only includes students when they are seeking for a job during the summer, then the unemployment goes up from previous months.

The unemployment rate we hear is one that assumes that some women stay-at-home, some people are disabled, and some people go to school.  The individuals who are not in the Civilian Work Force can still vote.  So if we continue to use the E-P ratio as a source to cite unemployment this makes the individuals appear lazy.  That will not work toward stay-at-home moms, the disabled, or college students. 

The highest E-P the government has ever seen was in Clinton’s last year in office 64.4 %.  However E-P started becoming in the 60 percentile in 1985 (The first year of Reagan’s second term) and ended in 2008.  So the Federal Government expects neither the E-P nor the Civilian Work Force to go above 70%.  Now let’s look at Obama’s figures. 

In 2009, he did start with an E-P of 59.3% and 9.3% of the work force collecting unemployment, which makes the Civilian Work Force 68.6%.  In 2010 E-P was 58.5 % and ‘unemployment’ was at 9.6% which totals 68.1%.  Last year the E-P was at 58.4% and ‘unemployment’ dropped to 8.9% and the CWF at 67.3%.  Finally last month the E-P remained at 58.4% and ‘unemployment’ is at 8.1%, which makes the CWF 66.5%.  The bottom line is that the Civilian Work Force has dropped every year Obama has been in office.

Obama has not created jobs, he has created economic uncertainty.  While Americans my age and younger are still hoping for the economic boom they believe was created by former President Clinton, Obama is creating an economic atmosphere similar to former President Jimmy Carter.  Like Obama, Carter couldn’t get the Civilian Work Force up to 67%.  However, even Carter was increasing the Civilian Work Force.  Obama is decreasing the Civilian Work Force and creating more dependency on the Federal Government and socialist-leaning democrats.  

http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea01.htm

Mitt Romney is failing in keeping the Presidential race a referendum on President Obama the same way the other candidates for the Republican Nomination didn’t convince enough Republican voters that they were a better alternative to either President Obama or Mitt Romney.  Congressman Ron Paul still hopes to overtake the convention, but he turned the Republican voter off by not supporting confrontation against Iran as well as not being as equally as passionate about the military campaign to find Joseph Kony.  Former Senator Rick Santorum spent too much time defending what government policies he supported rather than defending freedom.  The one guy who articulated conservatism the best was Newt during the South Carolina campaign, but he had a history of flip-flopping on health care and Cap and Trade. 

In the case of Mitt Romney he is letting President Obama make the race a referendum on former Governor Romney by defining Mitt as out of touch with the American People.  Gov Romney is not helping himself when he can’t authentically show an optimistic view on getting America back to its full greatness.  He is not helping himself by making gaffes like the poor comment after the Florida primary.  Romney makes himself sound like a guy who is running for President as a way to defend his family and his’ lifestyle and not the threat to everyone’s freedom and our constitutional form of government that President Obama has set forth.

If former Governor Mitt Romney wants to prove me wrong he needs to do a few things to show the difference between President Obama and himself.  First thing is he needs to get Obama on record when it comes to repealing the PATRIOT Act.  There were supporters for Obama, because some voters believe the PATRIOT Act is too intrusive for the Federal Government.  But President Obama also signed legislation requiring every American citizen to buy health insurance.  This will force Obama to explain why he approves certain government intrusions and not others created by previous administrations.  Obama needs to also be on record for repealing the PATRIOT Act, because he needs to define victory on the War on Terror.  President Obama previously defined victory as getting Osama bin Laden dead or alive.  Osama bin Laden was assassinated a year ago today by Navy SEALS.  However we have another possible theatre than Afghanistan, its next door neighbor Iran. 

While confronting Iran is not popular, some of Obama’s supporters are trying to create a movement to find and capture African warlord Joseph Kony.  We need to put President Obama on record as to which theater he wants our military to enter.  Iran, Kony, or neither theatre we need to enter.  President Obama was elected by the American People, because war fatigue.  President Obama has not even shown his base that he is bringing the troops back from all of the wars we have raged since 9/11. So President Obama needs to explain where the country stands on the War on Terror and if it needs to expand to more than America’s self-interest. 

            But one of the biggest reasons why we have these wars in the other part of the world is that we are depended on foreign oil.  President Obama’s answer during the 2008 Presidential Campaign was to ‘Invest’ in alternative energy.  President Obama needs to give some success stories that companies who work on alternative energy have prospered since Federal Government’s stimulus back in February 2009. 

Finally here are some things that Mitt Romney needs to do in order to defeat Barack Obama.  The former Massachusetts Governor needs to explain to the American People that the Buffett Tax will shift investing from the Private Sector to the government.  He also needs to explain that President Obama does not have the patience to work with Congress no matter who is the majority.  As for who Mitt Romney should appoint, my suggestion is South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.  Mitt Romney needs to connect with the South and someone who can help him solidify the Conservative base across the nation and more importantly the South. 

Right now former Governor Romney is not connecting with the Conservative base of the party.  If he can’t make inroads with the Conservative base, he will have the same problem that former Senator McCain had and that’s alienated Republican-leaning voters.  There’s also a voting block known as the Swing Vote that is not happy with President Obama success in transforming this nation.  However that same voting block may have reservations about the Republican Party not representing them.  This is why it is important to find a conservative who can connect with that voting block.