1. The LA Times reports the U.S. Unemployment soars to 8.1% in February according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “More than 650,000 people lost their jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate up from 7.6% in January.” This is the highest joblesss rate since 1983.

   The Washington Post adds “An estimated 12.5 million Americans were unemployed in February, the data show, an increase of 851,000 since January. More than 4.4 million people have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.”

   The NY Times reports the Continuing job losses may signal a broad economic shift.

   Most economists now assume that the American fortunes will not improve before near the end of the year, as the Obama administration’s $787 billion emergency spending program begins to wash through the economy…

   The acceleration has convinced some economists that, far from an ordinary downturn after which jobs will return, the contraction under way reflects a fundamental restructuring of the American economy. In crucial industries – particularly manufacturing, financial services and retail – many companies have opted to abandon whole areas of business.

   Summary: these jobs are not coming back. The U-6 Alternative measures of labor underutilization has February 2009 unemployment at 14.8 percent.

Four at Four continues with Poland’s strategy in Afghanistan, going after ‘small scale’ theft of Iraq emergency money, and the end of privatized tax collection.

1. The Hill reports President Obama kicked off his summit on health reform today with a simple message: This time healthcare reform will be different.

   “We are here today to discuss one of the greatest threats not just to the well-being of our families and the prosperity of our businesses, but to the very foundation of our economy – and that is the exploding cost of healthcare in America today,” Obama said…

   “I want to be very clear at the outset that while everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, no one has the right to take it over. The status quo is the one option that is not on the table. And those who seek to block any reform at any cost will not prevail this time around,” Obama said.

2. BBC News reports NATO woos Russia on Afghanistan. NATO will resume formal ties with Russia. “Russia welcomed the move, six months after Nato froze contacts over the conflict between Russia and Georgia.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “It’s time to explore a fresh start.”

   Clinton described Afghanistan as “NATO’s biggest military challenge.” The CS Monitor adds Clinton pushes NATO allies for united strategy on Afghanistan.

   Sources close to the State Department say the new strategy is likely to reenergize a broad Afghan-Pakistan regional approach, with a set of more tightly focused but downsized goals. The previous goal to “democratize” Afghanistan will probably shift toward “efficient” and “achievable” stabilization – avoiding an open-ended mission, but requiring more immediate “heavy lifting” by allies. The strategy will require more troops to achieve a balance of military and civilian help, but also to bring in India, Iran, Russia, and even China.

   The Washington Post reports the U.S. is also Pushing for a high-level Afghanistan meeting that would include Iran. “Clinton this week has mixed tough talk about Iranian behavior with a hope that areas of cooperation can be found.”

   “Iran borders Afghanistan,” Clinton [said]… “In the early days of the military efforts by the United States and our allies to go after the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Iran was consulting with our ambassador on a daily basis. Where it is appropriate and useful for the United States and others to see whether Iran can be constructive, that will be considered.”

Four at Four continues with another market bombing in Iraq, China fears a food crisis triggered by climate change, the German beekeeper versus Monsanto, and a big surprise for the Obama girls.

1. The NY Times reports President Obama calls for a review of how military contracts are awarded by the government. Obama said greater competition is needed, but the changes will only save up to $40 billion a year.

   “The days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over,” Mr. Obama said. “We need more competition for contracts and more oversight as they are carried out.”

   The Washington Post adds Obama introduces reforms for government contracts. Obama ordered the Office of Management and Budget to have “tough new guidelines” on contracting in place by the end of September. The new guidelines will eliminate no-bid contracts.

   “Over the last eight years, government spending on contracts has doubled to over half a trillion dollars,” Obama said today. “Far too often, the spending is plagued by massive cost overruns, outright fraud and the absence of oversight and accountability. . . . We are spending money on things that we don’t need, and we are paying more than we need to pay, and that’s completely unacceptable.”

Four at Four continues with Afghanistan, military contractors, and asylum seekers from Mexico.

1. Good news! The LA Times reports Obama boosts endangered species protection. President Obama will undo a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will “instruct federal agencies to once again consult with endangered-species experts before moving ahead with construction projects”.

   “Obama will issue the decision in a presidential memorandum, effectively bypassing the lengthy public comment process traditionally required for changing a rule.” However the morons in the business community are “protesting, saying the change will hamper critical road-building and other projects needed to jump-start the economy.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with bad news: Bernanke on AIG and the U.S. economy, Bush administration legal opinions, Russia reaction to missile ‘shield’ and Iran diplomancy offer, and Marine One compromised. Whee!

1. The NY Times reports the Dow Jones drops below 7,000 for the first time since October 1997. “The government on Monday morning agreed to provide another $30 billion to the insurance giant, American International Group, which also reported a $61.7 billion loss. On Friday, Washington took a larger stake in Citigroup.” The markets will now be looking to Friday’s unemployment report. “The unemployment rate is expected to rise to 8 percent, from 7.6 percent.”

2. The Washington Post reports on why Tactical success means strategic defeat in Afghanistan.

   Tactically, the U.S.-led night raid in the village of Bagh-i-Soltan was a success. U.S. military officials said the dead man and an accomplice now in custody were bombmakers linked to recent insurgent attacks. They said that they had tracked the men for days and that one was holding an assault rifle when they shot him.

   Strategically, however, the incident was a disaster. Its most incriminating version — colored by villagers’ grief and anger, possibly twisted by Taliban propaganda and magnified by the growing influence of independent Afghan TV — spread far faster than U.S. authorities could even attempt to counter.

   Worse, it happened in an area where the Obama administration has just launched an expensive military push, focusing on regions near Kabul, the capital, where Islamist insurgents are trying to gain influence. Several U.S. bases have been set up in Logar and adjacent Wardak province, and 3,000 troops have arrived since January. Their mandate is to strengthen security, facilitate aid projects and good government, and swing local opinion against the insurgents.

   The CS Monitor adds Many in Afghanistan oppose Obama’s troop buildup plans.

   Parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai says she has an innovative amendment to Washington’s planned injection of up to 30,000 new troops here.

   “Send us 30,000 scholars instead. Or 30,000 engineers. But don’t send more troops – it will just bring more violence.”

   Ms. Barakzai is among the growing number of Afghans – especially in the Pashtun south – who oppose a troop increase here, posing what could be the biggest challenge to the Obama administration’s stabilization strategy.

   “At least half the country is deeply suspicious of the new troops,” says Kabul-based political analyst Waheed Muzjda. “The US will have to wage an intense hearts-and-minds campaign to turn this situation around.”

   The lack of public support could provide fertile recruiting ground for the Taliban and hinder US operations, Mr. Muzjda says.

Four at Four continues with an attempt to move the U.S. Forest Service, video evidence at the Supreme Court, and China’s massive reservoirs plan.

1. McClatchy reports Obama sets a 18-month Iraq withdrawal timetable, with 50,000 troops to stay until the end of 2011. President Obama announced today all U.S. combat troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by August 31, 2010. However, up to 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq until December 31, 2011, the date the Bush administration set for withdrawal.

   “The 18-month timetable for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq is two months longer than he promised during his campaign… Under Obama’s plan, a force of between 35,000 and 50,000 U.S. troops would remain in Iraq after Aug. 31, 2010, to train, equip and advise Iraqi forces, help protect withdrawing forces and work on counterterrorism.”

2. The Washington Post reports the U.S. economy shrinks by 6.2%.

   The U.S. economy shrank by a larger-than-expected annualized rate of 6.2 percent during the final three months of 2008, the worst showing in about 25 years, according to a revised government estimate out today.

   The new estimate of the fourth-quarter gross domestic product from the Commerce Department is far worse than the initial estimate of negative 3.8 percent, and also larger than the 5 percent drop in growth most analysts had anticipated.

   It’s the largest contraction in one quarter since the first quarter of 1982, when the economy shrank by 6.4 percent.

Four at Four continues with Capitol coal and an octopus prankster.

1. The Hill reports Some Democrats question need for 50,000 troops in Iraq. President “Obama is expected to announce a 19-month plan for withdrawing American soldiers that would leave up to 50,000 troops in the country to advise Iraqi security forces and protect the embassy and other strategic interests.” Obama will also “ask Congress for an additional $75.5 billion this year to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

   Speaking on the redeployment, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “It has to be done responsibly, we all agree… But 50,000 is more than I would have thought. We await the justification for why that many are needed.”

2. The LA Times reports President Obama unveils $3.55 trillion budget plan for for fiscal 2010. “We need to be honest with ourselves about what costs are being racked up, because that’s how we’ll come to grips with the hard choices that lie ahead,” Obama said.

   Obama is asking for a $250 billion contingency reserve for the financial black hole. “Budget director Peter Orszag insisted that the ‘place holder’ was only a contingency in case economic conditions worsen further.”

   The Pentagon is asking for $663.7 billion, up from $654.4 billion in this fiscal year, including $130 billion in war funding. What a waste of this nation’s money.

   The NY Times adds the White House budget deficit forecast is optimistic.

   The forecasts are also founded on optimistic assumptions that the recession will end by next year and quickly produce stronger growth than was seen in the last decade. After the economy shrinks this year, the Obama team assumes that the gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, will increase by 3.2 percent next year and then 4 percent or more the following three years, a rate nearly twice the average of the Bush years.

Four at Four continues with the biggest threats to the United States and business, and Bill Holm.

1. The NY Times reports the U.S. escalation in Afghanistan includes billions to fight roadside blasts. “the Pentagon plans to deploy billions of dollars in heavily armored vehicles, spy planes, jammers and even experimental ground-penetrating radars to defend troops from roadside bombs that are proving increasingly lethal.”

   Last year, 175 troops were killed in Afghanistan by roadside bombs. Afghanistan’s terrain and system of undeveloped roads makes it easier to mine with improvised explosive devices.

2. The Guardian reports the Iraqi government welcomes U.S. plans to withdraw combat troops by August 2010. “Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, who has been pressing for an accelerated pullout, said that Iraqi forces would be ready to take over full responsibility for security.”

   However, President Obama may delay the redeployment by many months. Obama has asked the Pentagon for “withdrawal plans ranging between 16 to 23 months… Some of America’s generals based in Iraq preferred the longest option.”

   Even after redeployment, “a sizeable contingent – between 30,000 and 50,000 – will be left to help with security and training.”

3. McClatchy reports Carbon dioxide emissions could last millenniums.

   “David Archer, a leading climate researcher who teaches at the University of Chicago,” explains in a new book that “if the world continues its heavy use of coal over the next couple of hundred years until it’s essentially used up, it would take several centuries more for the oceans to absorb about three-quarters of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere… About 10 percent of it would still be in the atmosphere in 100,000 years”.

   “Ultimately, the amount of fossil fuel available could be enough to raise the atmospheric CO2 concentration higher than it has been in millions of years,” Archer wrote… “In the long run, it could be a steep price to pay for a century or so of fossil fuel energy.”

4. According to The Guardian, the United States’ Climate change timetable slips as Obama backtracks on 2008 deadline. President “Barack Obama has been forced to slow down early legislation to reduce the CO2 emissions that cause global warming, a key green objective of his presidency.” Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Monday that Obama “would support moves by Congress to act on global warming ‘whether that’s this year or next year’. The shift appeared to be an attempt to downplay expectations for further dramatic action on the environment.”

   And last night, once again, Obama furthered the myth of ‘clean’ coal.

   As NASA climate scientist James Hansen wrote, “The dirtiest trick that governments play on their citizens is the pretence that they are working on ‘clean coal’ or that they will build power plants that are ‘capture-ready’ in case technology is ever developed to capture all pollutants.”

1. The LA Times reports Taxing pot could alleviate California’s budget crisis. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to “make California the first state in the nation to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.”

   “By some estimates, California’s pot crop is a $14-billion industry, putting it above vegetables ($5.7 billion) and grapes ($2.6 billion). If so, that could mean upward of $1 billion in tax revenue for the state each year.”

2. The NY Times reports U.S. soldiers were attacked by Iraqis in uniforms. “American forces were attacked by Iraqi insurgents wearing police uniforms in Mosul on Tuesday, making it at least the third attack in the restive city in the past two months by Iraqis wearing the uniforms of security officers. At least two soldiers were wounded and an Iraqi interpreter was killed, according to a statement from the United States military.”

   The CS Monitor reports Iraq’s waning insurgency scrambles for new sanctuary. “Ongoing violence in outlying provinces such as Diyala and Nineveh indicates that although violence has fallen and some normalcy is returning to Baghdad, the fringes of Iraq – the rural towns, farming villages, and desert outposts – have become the new fronts in the fight against the insurgent threat as extremists have fled cities and are hiding in the country’s remote corners.”

   Meanwhile, in Britain The Guardian reports Blair cabinet Iraq war minutes are kept secret by veto.

   Jack Straw today said he would take the unprecedented step of vetoing the release of cabinet minutes relating to the decision to invade Iraq.

   The justice secretary made his announcement in response to a decision from the information tribunal, which last month ordered the publication of the minutes of two cabinet meetings, held on 13 and 17 March 2003.

   It is the first time the government has used its power to veto the release of documents under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

Four at Four continues with voting rights for D.C. and the mountains of Antarctica.

1. The Guardian reports the Consumer exports are behind 15% of China’s greenhouse gas emissions.

   The full extent of the west’s responsibility for Chinese emissions of greenhouse gases has been revealed by a new study. The report shows that half of the recent rise in China’s carbon dioxide pollution is caused by the manufacturing of goods for other countries…

   About 9% of total Chinese emissions are the result of manufacturing goods for the US, and 6% are from producing goods for Europe. Academics and campaigners increasingly say responsibility for these emissions lies with the consumer countries.

   The LA Times reports of Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice. “Methane (CH₄) has at least 20 times the heat-trapping effect of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂). As warmer air thaws Arctic soils, as much as 55 billion tons of methane could be released from beneath Siberian lakes alone… That would amount to 10 times the amount currently in the atmosphere.”

   “Today, 20% of Earth’s land surface is locked up in a deep freeze. But scientists predict that air temperature in the Arctic is likely to rise as much as 6 degrees Celsius, or 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century. That is expected to boost the emission of carbon compounds from soils.”

   And just to underscore the point — Climate change lays waste to Spain’s glaciers, reports The Guardian. “The Pyrenees mountains have lost almost 90% of their glacier ice over the past century… ‘It has become obvious that the ongoing trend of worldwide and fast, if not accelerating, glacier shrinkage … is of a non-cyclic nature'”.

Four at Four continues with Obama deficit optimism and Republican governors stupidity, sunken treasure, and Comet Lulin.