Real Unemployment is 16% - Says Atlanta Fed Chief

From the guys at Agora Financial's 5 Minute Forecast, this bit of interesting news and commentary.

"If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking,” said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart yesterday, “and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4% to 16%.”

Heh. Did you get that? A Fed chief just suggested real unemployment is 16%, 70% worse than advertised.

Hmmn… if a growing number of the population is working for the government at higher-than-market rates… and another growing portion is asking the government for assistance while looking for work elsewhere... and 54% of the population is already getting more money back from the government than they pay in… and the only incentives for buying stuff like cars and houses come from tax breaks at the expense of future generations… and the bank system is still on life-support… makes one wonder how are we going to get out of this mess?

And then check out this graph showing the wage differential between government and private industry employees!

Cheney Tells It Like It Really Is!!

Here's a statement by former Vice President Cheney on Obama/Holder's decision to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alledged CIA torture abuses.

Ya gotta love him!

The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda.

This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002. The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States.

The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security

Be wary of ObamaCare

The news is touting the split amongst the Dems over the Government Run Option, saying the far left has drawn a line in the sand, demanding that any Health Care Reform must have the Governement Run Option. Obama and his White House team seem to be backing away from it.

But I don't trust any of them. The Dems plan all along has been to ram a Health Care Reform plan down our throat that will have a Government Run Option as well as ultimately a Single Payer plan that will effectively do away with all private insurance and make us totally dependent on the Government for our insurance. It's plain to see if you'll just take a moment to look.

And the result of this kind of Change We Can Believe In?

Now we know why ACORN is doing the Census

A little known fact, disclosed in this opinion piece in the WSJ today, is that Congress (read, the Democrats) have instructed the Census to count everyone, without asking if they are Citizens.

The result? California, by counting the illegal immigrants, will swell the population enough that California is estimated to get 9 more Congressman than if the illegals weren't counted. Texas will get 4, and so on.

How absurd is that? Obviously not so absurd that Congress will change it's mind and have the Census only count Citizens. In a 1964 case the Supreme Court ruled - “The House of Representatives, the [Constitutional] Convention agreed, was to represent the people as individuals and on a basis of complete equality for each voter.” For those educated in public schools, that means that the Congress is to be representative of Voters, not everyone in the country.

Just one more case where the Congress tells the People of the United States to go take a leap!

"Recovery' defined

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A Recession is when your neighbor is laid off.

A Depression is when you're laid off.

A Recovery is when Obama loses his job.