Because they never existed:

The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time.

I like that; “during the recession”, as if we’re actually out of it.

Anyways…

What happened here is that bureaucrats, looking through their rose-colored glasses, figured that a certain number of jobs are being created. How do they figure this? Best I can figure is that they guess – whether its a guess they work out on paper or just pull out of their rear end, I don’t know. Anyways, they say that – even in the midst of the worst economy since the Depression – people are just out there creating jobs right, left and center. Meaning that the employment picture is not as bad as it might look if you merely pay attention to that trivial fact of massive job cuts all across the economy. Eventually, though, they have to square the guess with reality – and thus, we’re going to see the jobs shrink by 824,000.

This won’t change the unemployment rate – that rate has its own series of guesses which ultimately prove laughably false. But it does show that nothing good was happening in 2009. As I’ve said, all the “recovery” has been is smoke and mirrors. And I’m holding firm to my contention that the economy continues to contract – that we are getting net poorer by the day here in the United States. I base this on the simple fact that there is no incentive to create wealth right now, even if the prospect is there (which its mostly not), and when you factor in growing population, you get a net loss, even if the dollar value of the economy doesn’t shrink (though I think that is happening, too).

We can get out of this – but only if we lay off half the government, cut taxes, cease borrowing and remove those regulations which make it hard to make, mine and grow things. Until we do that, we’ll just be digging ourselves a deeper hole.

HAT TIP: Gay Patriot

I love it.

One sign that Washington, D.C., had been home to Obama Mania was the number of independent retailers selling all sorts of Obama merchandise. Every street corner, it seemed, had Obama wares (or Obama wear) for sale
. Now, however, most of the winter caps for sale are not emblazoned with the Obama logo. T-shirts depicting our president as a dunking Michael Jordan, a victorious Muhammad Ali, or saber-baring Luke Skywalker (yes, these shirts all existed) are nowhere to be found.

This time last year, the Obama Store was teeming with customers. Ideally situated in the basement of Washington’s Union Station, the store was filled with consumers eager to buy anything with Obama’s likeness while others took pictures of the life-size cut-outs of the president and first lady. Now, the Obama Store is boarded up.

How quickly things change in a year.

So, we got Democrats in reelection battles distancing themselves from Barry, and now Obama merchandise is becoming dollar store junk items. Hard to believe? Well, given the absolute failure of his administration, it is actually quite understandable. After all, in 2012, when he runs for reelection, his new slogan will have be “No, We Couldn’t” and that just doesn’t have the same appeal as “Yes, We Can.”

This is going to make our liberals scream:

Well, here we go. Remember the number of articles bemoaning the fact that Europeans are stupefied by Bush’s arrogance, or whatever (or words to that effect)? Well, now we get a huge front-page headline in Le Monde saying Europeans Shattered by Obama’s Indifference (Les Européens ébranlés par l’indifférence d’Obama)…

…an editorial in Le Monde bemoans the fact that Europe has been snubbed — again (this time, it is Barack Obama’s refusal to participate in José Luis Zapatero’s USA-Europe summit). As for Arnaud Leparmentier and Corine Lesnes’ article, it starts with these words:

Bush n’était pas le problème. Obama n’est pas la solution…

If any of you liberals out there don’t understand French, I’ll venture to translate that, if asked.

Anyways, we’re always happy to say, “we told you so”. Obama never should have been nominated, let alone elected. He’s completely out of his depth. Compounding the problem is that the whole Obama Administration – and the whole American left – doesn’t understand the complexities of global politics. I know you on the left think you do, but you really don’t – it takes hard nosed, American realists to see what you blinded yourselves to.

It isn’t about Bush being a “cowboy”. It isn’t about “unilateralism” (an absurd claim given that we never did anything without partners). It isn’t about US support for Israel. Its not about any of your liberal talking points – its all about power: who has it, who wants and and what is to be done with it. President Bush understood this, Obama doesn’t and thus Obama can’t even keep European leftists happy with US policy.

The Europeans are waking up – wonder when our own liberals will?

The news:

U.S. troops are bracing for the biggest joint offensive since the start of the Afghan war.

Officers say the troops will be joining their Afghan and NATO allies, targeting a southern town that’s believed to be a big Taliban stronghold and a hub for the militants’ lucrative opium trade.

Security issues prevent officers from giving a date the offensive begins. But U.S. commanders have said they plan to capture the town of Marjah in Helmand province. That’s about 380 miles southwest of Kabul.

It will be the first major offensive since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and many of the Marines set to participate arrived as part of the surge.

We know that a terrorist rabble cannot withstand our troops – as long as they are properly supported from home, they will win. But it will be a long, hard fight and we can expect serious casualties.

Remember, fellow Americans, that as we debate and argue here at home, the best we have are doing the real work of our nation. Pray for the troops, and pray for victory.

This is the very best thing we can do for our nation:

A group of Republicans senators will introduce a constitutional amendment tomorrow requiring the federal government to keep a balanced budget.

The proposal, which many states have enacted for their own budgets, would prevent Congress from running yearly deficits.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and George LeMieux (R-Fla.) will announce the legislation at a press conference Thursday morning.

The senators will also propose a one year moratorium on earmarks, which critics say unnecessarily inflate appropriations bills.

We’re spending ourselves in to complete economic devastation. I know that the bankers and the government keep pushing out numbers saying things are getting better, but the truth is that its all coming apart – the bottom is out of the tub.

Balancing the budget, lowering taxes and getting rid of wealth destroying regulations is what will get us out of this mess – and nothing less will do.

I never expected this to happen… After Obama’s blasphemous victory in 2008, I figured his adoring supporters would never turn on him, and his party would sitck by him loyally as he destroyed the country.

Well, it appears that Democrats are actually distancing themselves from Obama as a they desperately try to cling to their elected positions.

In office only a year, and he’s already a liability. Gotta love it.

Is this site racist?

Quote

“…(that) they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

While the ad was no doubt a clever marketing ploy by the front office at McDonald’s, the ad also showcases so much of what is wrong in our society when it comes to dealing with the issue of race.

Balkanization and ‘multiculturalism’ will not cure racism. Rather, it is my contention that by focusing on cultural differences, the ‘multiculturalism’ movement did more to foster balkanization, racism, misunderstanding and mistrust between races than white supremacist groups were ever able to accomplish.

Racism and division will not end until people stop focusing on the amount of melanin in one’s skin, and instead focus on our common humanity, and common goals as fellow citizens of these United States.

Only by focusing on shared, common values as human beings will we be able to move forward; and then and only then will we be able to achieve Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind society.

This is getting more and more fun, all the time:

Centrist Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) on Wednesday asked arguably the most contentious question during a discussion between Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama, hitting at conservatives and liberals.

Lincoln, who faces a tough reelection fight, asked Obama to push back against “people at the extremes” of both parties, especially against Democrats “who want extremes.”

The kook left, it seems, has become quite a liability for the Democrats. Of course, they should have thought about that before they signed up the kook left as the merest of political expedients against President Bush. Lie down with dogs, come up with fleas.

A fascinating article on the intellectual battle of belief and unbelief. A sample:

…Harris is not aiming his barbs at Islam in this book, but at the Christians of his own nation — not the mushy ones, the amorphous silt swirling in mainstream denominations, but those who actually believe. His challenge is simple and accurate and hence refreshing: “If one of us is right, the other is wrong. The Bible is either the word of God, or it isn’t. Either Jesus offers humanity the one, true path to salvation (John 14:6), or he does not . . . . If Christianity is correct, and I persist in my unbelief, I should expect to suffer the torments of hell.”

Ah!, a breath of fresh air indeed. Harris is eminently disagreeable, and that is a true virtue. Here is a person with whom it is worth disagreeing, someone who takes Christianity more seriously than most Christians. Far better to spar with a clear-headed atheist who agrees that we disagree than a muddle-headed Neville Chamberlain type who declares sharp disagreements impossible because sharpness itself is an illusion. On to battle!…

Very much worth the reading.

As for me, I don’t think there are any real atheists out there – it just doesn’t make any sense…and the effort required would be just too bothersome. You’d have to be continually on guard against even the least bit of the supernatural…just allow one bump in the night, and that whole atheism thing is out the window.

But even outside of that, it is plain as a pikestaff that our mind – as differentiated from the physical organ we call our brain – just doesn’t fit neatly in to the natural world. It is an invader from outside – it is supernatural. In theory, you can trace back the chain of causation from that pebble you see in your yard right back to the beginning…but you can’t ever figure out how a mind will choose between mowing the lawn and heading out for a game of golf – neither of which actions logically follow from any other action, and neither of which are required in a Darwinian sense for survival.

Lots of people have chimed in with complaints about her appearance for this, that or the other reason. Here is her side of the story.

..Recently, some have tried to portray this movement as a commercial endeavor rather than the grassroots uprising that it is. Those who do so don’t understand the frustration everyday Americans feel when they see their government mortgaging their children’s future with reckless spending. The spark of patriotic indignation that inspired those who fought for our independence and those who marched peacefully for civil rights has ignited once again. You can’t buy such a sentiment. You can’t AstroTurf it. It springs from love of country and the knowledge that we can make a difference if we just stand up and stand together.

I thought long and hard about my participation in this weekend’s event. At the end of the day, my decision came down to this: It’s important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause. Some of them will be driving hundreds of miles to Nashville. I made a commitment to them to be there, and I am going to honor it…

…I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event. My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government — and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.

The nature of the Tea Party movement means there may never be a “perfectly orchestrated” event: Democracy in action doesn’t come with a manual. But we must not get caught up in the politics or the controversies that some hope will distract from the heart of the movement. The focus must remain on our ideas and beliefs, and on supporting those ideas and beliefs however we can.

This weekend, it’s Nashville, but in March, I’ll head to Searchlight, Nev., for the kickoff rally at the Tea Party Express III. In April, I’ll be in Boston for a Tea Party gathering there. Across the country, tea-partiers will be sharing our vision for America’s future, a vision that promotes common sense solutions to out-of-control spending and an out-of-touch political establishment.

The process may not always be pretty or perfect, but the message is loud and clear: We want a government worthy of the fine Americans that it serves. And we’re going to keep spreading that message one convention, one town hall, one speech and one election at a time.

The movement will keep rolling right along and even after it has won, the critics still won’t understand where it came from or what it’s about. And the reason for that is because the critics don’t understand the true meaning of democracy, nor the genuine functioning of a republic.