What is the State of the Union?

Ignoring those two as fantasy figures? I'm all for that!

gary kamiya has an ecellent article about it at Salon.com despite the fact that no one reads Salon.com anymore, and have neither do i ok, in fact i have no idea how i know about kamiya's article, i just SUSPECT it may be on Salon.com

I suspect that this part of the speech was a stealth way of placating the anti-abortion lobby without actually saying the "a" word.

Dear Mr Perry,

It is with genuine interest and trust that I have contacted you, Please don't be surprised to receive this mail. I am Senator (Dr) Danladi Suleiman Head of contract validation and re-conciliation committee under the Federal House of Senate in Nigeria. It is after a serious thought that I am sending you this Offer that is to be of Mutual Benefit to Both of us. This offer is an unaccounted sum of $7,500,000 (Seven Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars). This sum is the left over sum after paying contractors here in the Federal Republic of Nigeria in full.

Since I am a civil Servant here in Nigeria, it is not allowed I operate a foreign account but since you are a foreigner it will be easy for me to make you the beneficiary of the funds so that the funds can be transferred to your foreign account. Be informed that this transaction will take us just 14 working days to accomplish. Please treat this mail with great confidentiality for our success.

Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Danladi Suleiman.

shocking that it's from them, i'm sure.

Context: Economists say a real job recovery is just around the corner. Numerous indicators show the economy roaring back from a mild recession. But analysts are frustrated by the job market's stubborn weakness.

Course, you can't rally the jobless majority with the truth....plus it ain't as catchy.

Factors holding down job growth: New technology has allowed many companies to do more with fewer workers; relentless pressure to cut costs has encouraged firms to move jobs abroad; surging health care costs make U.S. workers expensive to employ; and terrorism and corporate scandals have left CEOs wary of costly, long-term risks. Washington can't do much about this in the short run.

Since when did jobless = ignorant? Grandstanding aside, having more time means that we can actually read and process statistics. We'll belive the bull when our relatives actually get work.

a) Not necessarily, if you're willing to work at Wal-Mart.

b) From a macroeconomic perspective, jobs are undoubtedly up from some selected point. But I wish some pundits' jobs could be outsourced overseas.