More economic recovery:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12648347

 

The US unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.9% in February, down from 9% the month before.

It is the third month in a row that the jobless rate has fallen, with February's figure marking a near two-year low.

Employers added 192,000 jobs last month, the US Labor Department said, above market expectations.

Paul O'Neill, former US Treasury Secretary, described the data as "very positive".

A Labor Department statement said that most job gains were in manufacturing, construction, business services and transport.

State and local government slashed 30,000 jobs, the most since November as budget cuts continue to bite.

The data showed that the jobless rate for adult men was 8.7%, for adult women 8%, and for teenagers 23.9%.

The unemployment rate has come down from 9.8% in November.

____________________

I'll be the first to admit that this is not what the Obama Administration predicted or really wanted when they wanted unemployment to stay where it was when they were inaugurated. However looking at this, the unemployment figures appear to be showing more, and more effective, growth since the Administration's stimulus package has gone into effect. It makes me curious in fact whether or not a larger stimulus package would have had more effect. What do you guys think?

Comments

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

the unemployment figures appear to be showing more, and more effective, growth since the Administration's stimulus package has gone into effect.

Don't you mean after the stimulus ended?

It doesn't seem surprising to me at all that the stimulus spending itself is essentially done, and now we're seeing hiring now that those projects aren't getting in the way anymore.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I forget that in your world both Hoover and FDR are Bolsheviks fresh from the Gulag.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

And the Whiskey Rebellion was a commie plot to increase federal power.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That damned socialist Washington and his evil Communist agenda. ;P.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I don't go that far on Hoover.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

But you do on FDR. So might I ask why one fascist would choose to ally with the world's only Communist state at that point to fight the other fascist? Wouldn't FDR's ideological interests have in fact been suited by being a solid ally to Germany, standard-bearer of fascism? For that matter, in Bizarro-World, if FDR is fascist, what the Hell is Stalin?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

You mean why would two fascists go after a third? Because they both had something to gain in keeping Hitler and the Axis powers out of power.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Ah, so Stalin was a fascist, too, then? You might have done well to enlighten him of this fact, given that according to *him* the Soviet Union was a very different state from the fascist hordes killing off all the Slavs so Hitler could play Cowboys and Soviets. You might also have done much to enlighten people like Generals Patton and MacArthur of that fact, given they in fact were so in love wit Hitler they wanted us to fight the Soviets, not Hitler.

So, willing to claim George "I'm really Napoleon LOL" Patton and Douglas "Excuse me while I stroke my...ego" MacArthur were also fascists?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

On another note, are Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Wade, Henry Davis, and Benjamin Butler all fascists, too?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

A few others I'd like to know if they count as fascists or not-Jefferson Davis, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnston. Would any of those men meet the Goldberg definition of a fascist? In particular would George Washington, Jefferson Davis, and Andrew Jackson meet that definition?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Communist-types don't usually realize the fascism they espouse. I'm sure FDR didn't view himself as a fascist either, even though Mussolini did.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

So were Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Wade, Henry Davis, Benjamin Butler, Jefferson Davis, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnston fascists, too? What is a fascist in Bizarro-world?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

You really think they're reasonable comparisons? I mean, I know you don't want to accept FDR's fascism, but this is a bit stupid.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

FDR used Lincoln as a model, and Lincoln used Jackson as a model. By Goldberg Logic not only did the Republicans begin as the first fascist party in world history, but the Jacksonians were fascist, too. So, answer the question. And on this one I'm going to ask it until you give me a straight answer. None of that passive-aggressive anal fumigation.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And frankly, I don't accept FDR's fascism because there were real fascists at the time that considered him a Jew-loving Communist. They were called the Silver Legion of America, led by one William Dudley Pelley. And the actual Communists of the time saw FDR as an aristocrat who saved capitalism. I'm citing what the people of the time thought, what are you citing? Goldberg's book published by the company his mother owned?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

And there are liberals who don't think Obama's a liberal. That doesn't make a) the liberals not liberals or b) Obama something other than a liberal.

Ideologies can disagree about each other.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Disagree with each other is a funny way to put being beaten to death in Lubyanka or machine-gunning women and children in Babi Yar or massacring Arabs in Deir Yassin.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I won't disagree about either of them overall, to be perfectly honest. I haven't really studied Jackson in that context, so I hesitate to go too far down that rabbit hole, but Lincoln I don't have too much problem with.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

So the Republicans in the Civil War were fascists who defeated the equally fascist Plantocracy in the Confederacy. Let me ask a different question: is there a regime in all of history that has not been fascist?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

So the Republicans in the Civil War were fascists who defeated the equally fascist Plantocracy in the Confederacy

Not equally fascist, but differently so. It works out pretty well as a great example, though - fascists enjoy power, and the fight in both cases had to do with, well, you guessed it - power.

I'm not sure a regime exists that isn't fascist to some degree. But there's definitely a level of tolerance for it that appears to be more flexible the further leftward one slides down the scale.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Well, you've shown an ability at last to answer a direct question when you're asked it. *tips hat.*

No, the Civil War was not about power, not in the sense you mean. It was about Southerners expecting with Enuff Jesus they could reverse the tides of time and preserve a Slave Power that was accustomed to everything going its own way. Then Grant led his first attack against them and it was downhill for them from there.

Now tell me another one. The Leftists in the literal sense all have an end goal of anarchism. In fascistland in the Bright Shiny Happiness of the future there is only war.

[usekh.livejournal.com]

Just think of Jeff as your garden variety religious fundamentalist nutcase. Only instead of god he blindly worships the free market and his interpretation of the US Constitution. It makes understanding him much easier.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually at this point, I think he worships Jonah Goldberg. I can't believe someone would actually call Abe Lincoln and Jefferson Davis *both* fascists. He'd be funnier as a Fundie, some of their stupidity is actually entertaining. Jeff's just.....irritating.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Religious fundamentalists don't put nearly as much thought into things.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

On the contrary. You should read the creationist websites sometimes. Most of it is complete bunk, but it's very elaborate as to how many angels can dance on the head of the pin.