Unemployment Rate Rises, Mitt and Barry Don't Impress, Irish Spurn Taxes: P.M. Links

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  • Following on the lousy payroll news released yesterday, the U.S. government revealed that only 69,000 jobs were created in May. That's the lowest number in a year and one that drives the official unemployment rate up to 8.2 percent. Hell — even federal employment is down a teensy, weensy little bit.

  • In a move guaranteed to simultaneously tick off many libertarians while also making his campaign more viable, presidential candidate Gary Johnson has qualified for and accepted $100,000 in federal matching funds. The funds come from voluntary check-offs on tax forms.
  • Americans agree! The major-party presidential candidates suck! Just 19% of likely U.S. voters say Romney and Obama are the two best people running for the presidency, according to Rasmussen Reports.
  • Ticked off by theology-offending Obamacare rules requiring employers to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, U.S. Catholic bishops are calling on their flock to defy the mandates.
  • Ireland has imposed a new tax, but of the 1.6 million households in the country, the government says nearly half had refused to register by the March deadline. Hundreds of thousands of Irish say they won't pay — part to deny information to the overnment that it would need to enforce a higher anticipated property tax.
  • About 13 minutes worth of scenes from "Men In Black 3" have been abducted — by Chinese censors. The blue pencil-wielders were apparently offended by material that might, peripherally, suggest that China likes to censor stuff.
  • In the Trayvon Martin case, George Zimmerman's bond was revoked, and he was ordered back to jail, after a judge said Zimmerman had misled the court about his available assets.
  • After being showered with international vitriol, Justice of the Peace Lanny Moriarty vacated the contempt of court conviction that sent honor student Diane Tran to jail for truancy. That's the first step toward giving her a clean record, free of criminal convictions.
  • A Secret Service agent was captured on video engaging in road-rage behavior, including the use of official lights to drive another driver off the highway. A North Carolina TV station traced the license plate to its official source.

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