The Big Lie

 

Or as Mark Twain said "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics".

Jim Clifton, President and CEO of Gallup recently posted an article on how the Department of Labor is misleading the American people and the media is cheering them on.

The unemployment rate is not really 5.6%.

If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%

Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%.

What the government likes to trumpet from the rooftops is the U-3 rate or "Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force".  Please take note however that they get to define what the civilian labor force is and they exclude the long term unemployed who have just given up or those who are marginally employed or underemployed.  The U-3 rate  for Dec 2014 trumpeted above is 5.6%, the U-6 rate or "Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force" was 11.2% for the same period.  

It's also very important to always read the fine print:

NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.

Wait... it gets better:

Fewer Americans born in the U.S. have jobs now than were employed to November 2007, despite a working-age population growth of 11 million.  Almost one in every two jobs added since 2009 have gone to foreign-born workers. In November 2014, one in every five U.S. jobs was held by a foreign-born worker, up from one-in-six jobs in January 2010.  Since November 2007, the number of working legal and illegal migrants has risen by two million, from 23.1 million in November 2007 to 25.1 million in November 2014.  But the number of Americans with jobs has fallen by 1.5 million, from 124 million in November 2007 to 122.6 million November 2014. The DC

Obama's Mouthpieces

By Hugh Farnham

Any strongman worthy of the name needs an army - of mouthpieces.  This demagogue is no different.

Call them Plumbers, Mr. Fix-its, or Mouthpieces; their mission is always the same.  Stanch the flow of blood, divert attention, outright lie, or dole out information late Friday night in drips and drabs.

Fast and Furious

The Administration was funneling illegal arms into Mexico over the past few years to create shocking firearm smuggling statistics, in time to justify signing the UN Small Arms Treaty.  This incendiary truth had to be squelched, and right quick.  Bring in Soros and Media Matters, loyal troops in the War Against Truth.

The Daily Caller unveiled  the DOJ's Public Affairs was working closely with Mark Gertz of Media Matters.  This collusion was for a coordinated barrage of attacks against House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, along with others demanding a full accounting of the whole "F and F" operation.

Consider Obama's amazing hypocrisy in light of the Connecticut  murders, for which the Gunrunner-In-Chief squirted tears on TV.  But no wet eyes for hundreds of Mexicans killed by guns purchased by the ATF using Stimulus Dollars.

Benghazi

The Administration didn't send out some State Department bureaucrat to lie to us, but the UN Ambassador Susan Rice.  She regaled us with stories about the casus belli video and supposed protests going on near the consulate.  Both turned out to be lies.

Now You Try Saying It!

ObamaCare

Spin Doctor Sanjay Gupta - you know of him, the didactic MD on CNN telling you to eat your veggies - made the rounds prior to the Supreme Court ruling with a sky-will-fall horror story if ObamaCare was declared unconstitutional. So it was declared "constitutional" and yes, the sky will still fall.  

This list could go on and on, with an endless line of politicians, actors, and socialites the length of a fat plumber's crack.

So what really is that oral appliance?  It's an Asian Face Slimmer!

The NDAA and You

by Hugh Farnham

The National Defense Authorization Act. A seemingly innocent enough defense funding bill, until Obama and his henchmen had their way with it.

Buried deep within this bill is the authority for the military to declare anyone as a domestic enemy who engages in "hostilities" and can be arrested without trial, a lawyer, or the right of Habeas Corpus. The bill was passed 220 years to the day of the adoption of our Bill of Rights.

This language, found in Sections 1031 and 1032 of the bill, has a sordid and salty history worthy of an Ian Fleming novel.

While this bill was slithering through Congress the Obama Administration was distancing itself from the detention language - but as admitted by Senator Carl Levin it was Obama who demanded the detention wording be included in the bill - with no provision for exemption for citizens. That's you and me, folks. But don't worry, children, Obama has signed a signing statement he won't abuse his authority.

There was evidence of an Internet psychological operation regarding these sections. I recognized this as I am trained in similar arts in the military. When the issue was first brought to light, suddenly several different erroneous wordings of the bill were being posted - within minutes of the expose. Somebody was watching, ready with disinfo at hand. Even my own Senator was deceived about the language and what it meant when I contacted him about it. Now legal scholars are beginning to agree on the destructive nature of these sections on our liberty.

I wish to make it quite clear that as a member of the military, I will not obey any order that is unconsititutional. Indeed, I will work to actively subvert any such order and will encourage the junior officers and senior NCOs who report to me to do the same.

Odd that the bill was supported by a company that makes police night raid equipment...

It gets only better. Now a Congressman from Pennsylvania has introduced a bill to strip people of their citizenship for engaging in "hostilities". Please, define hostilities? Could it eventually be what I'm doing now, Charles Dent, you tyrant?

I encourage you to read Jonathan Turley's excellent expose of this. Meanwhile, be entertained with a cartoon about your (now) lack of human rights by Ruben Bolling (click to embiggen):