Last Call

Your chart of the day tonight, courtesy of Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider.

To put it simply, the first group of lines is employment under President Bush's first term, and the second is employment under President Obama's first term.  Blue is state government employment, Green is federal government employment, and Red is private sector employment, indexed to 100 being Inauguration Day for each President.

Bush added 4% to state employees and 5% to federal employees.  His total private unemployment lost a percentage point, to about 99% of what it was.  But that was considered the "Bush Jobs Boom".  He grew government employment at a massive clip hiring for the Department of Homeland Security and for the military after 9/11, but lost private sector jobs across the board.

Obama on the other hand?  We've seen cuts of 2.5% to state workers and 3.5% federal workers.  Obama shrank the number of government employees.  He also presided over a rebound in private sector jobs to where they were on Inauguration Day, and those numbers are now improving.  This is considered the "Obama Jobs Depression". 

President Obama is doing exactly what Republicans say we should be doing:  cutting government workers and concentrating on the private sector for hiring.  President Bush actually did what President Obama has been accused of doing:  massive Socialist government job hiring and "crony capitalism".

These numbers are the reality.  Obama is doing exactly what the Republicans say we need to be doing, but they're attacking him and lying about his record anyway, because Republicans are liars.  It's what they do.

You Get More Guns Because Butter Is A Luxury, Citizen

It's important to remember that Mitt Romney's trying to bring back every aspect of the Bush economy that destroyed our country's prosperity...well, for all but the one percenters like Mitt Romney.  That includes ridiculous spending on the military, and adding another $2 trillion to the Pentagon over the next ten years.

Here's an issue that hasn't been debated much in the presidential campaign but ought to be: How much should we spend on defense?

President Obama has proposed keeping the Pentagon budget essentially flat for the next 10 years. Mitt Romney, by contrast, wants to increase defense spending massively — by more than 50% over current levels, according to one estimate. That could mean almost $2 trillion in additional military spending over 10 years.

Romney hasn't actually proposed a defense budget or offered any specific numbers for his military strategy. But he says he wants core defense spending to reach at least 4% of the nation's gross domestic product — a big increase over the current level of about 3.2%. And he says the country needs about 100,000 more active-duty military personnel than the current 1.4 million, even though U.S. forces have left Iraq and have begun to withdraw from Afghanistan.

But that doesn't matter, because we have to cut Social Security and Medicare and roads and schools and police and jobs so we can spend more money on blowing things up.   Keep in mind that Mitt Romney wants:

• Another $2 trillion for the Pentagon.
• Permanent tax cuts for the wealthy.
• A balanced budget.
• The end of the Affordable Care Act.
• The Ryan budget.

The numbers simply don't add up for all of that.  He's lying again and again, and the end result will be massive debt, just as Republicans since Reagan always have created.  Of course it's a scam.

Parents Sue Because Their Precious Is Salutatorian

An Eagle Rock couple is considering filing a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District after their daughter, who earned straight A's and had a 4.50 GPA, was denied the honor of valedictorian and had to settle for salutatorian, her family says.

But according to Eagle Rock Patch, she had only a 4.50 weighted GPA after the first semester of her senior year, one notch below Eagle Rock High’s Jasmine Fernandez, who managed a 4.55.

Consequently, Fernandez stood as the 3,000-student school’s valedictorian Wednesday, and Marquez had to settle for salutatorian, according to Elisha’s father, Nelson.

And to Elisha’s mother, Carol, the second-place finish means that her daughter's "sleepless nights" were essentially “for nothing.”

"It's flawed. It's wrong," Carol told The Times. "All her hard work is not being recognized. All she had was straight A's. Not a B, ever."

They have sued without merit, too busy making asses of themselves to celebrate their daughter's considerable accomplishment.  They are also failing to teach their daughter a couple of life lessons. First, you can do everything right and still not get first place.  Second, there is always someone just as bright and talented fighting for your spot.

There doesn't seem to be any shady ranking, no reason to cry foul, except the parents aren't happy with the result.  I hope this girl goes far away in life and learns better.

Nelson concedes that graduation has passed and the situation “is what it is.” But he dismissed the notion that other parents might find their family’s complaint excessive.  

“They’re not in the situation,” he said. “You don’t want your kid to be a loser. That’s what they’re basically saying. Be a loser.

“It’s not my mistake,” he added. "It’s [the district’s] mistake. At the end of the day the grades speak for themselves.”  

So close.  The grades do speak for themselves.  Saying this makes her a loser and blaming someone else for the results is childish.  Here's hoping they raised her better than that. 

Ten Year Old Rescued... At 32 Pounds

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Authorities say a 10-year-old Kansas City girl who weighed just 32 pounds was found locked in a closet that reeked of urine.

Prosecutors filed charges of assault and child abuse and endangerment against the girl's 29-year-old mother Saturday in Jackson County Circuit Court. The Associated Press is not naming the mother to protect the child's identity.

Officers freed the girl from the closet after responding Friday morning to a call to a child abuse hotline. The mother was arrested later after she was found with two younger children.

She had two other kids, who were healthy.  She kept this child hidden because she knew if someone saw her, she would be in trouble.

There is no explanation for why she didn't just feed the child.  The fact that she's alive is a miracle.  If she makes anything close to a full recovery, it will be yet another one.  I'll be following this one for a long time.

Still Crazy After All These...Months

If you're wondering if GOP 2012 Clown Car Calvalcade loser Michele Bachmann is still paranoid and delusional to the point of meeting the definition of clinically insane, the answer is "We report, you decide."

"It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood has been found to be an unindicted co-conspirator on terrorism cases and yet it appears that there are individuals who are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have positions, very sensitive positions, in our Department of Justice, our Department of Homeland Security, potentially even in the National Intelligence Agency. I am calling upon the Justice Department and these various departments to investigate through the Inspector General to see who these people are and what access they have to our information."

MOOSLIMS IN OUR ERRYWHERE.  The woman is nuts...but what do you expect when you hire noted GOP anti-Islam bigot and asshole Frank Gaffney as your campaign adviser?

In her radio interview, Bachmann went on to charge that such influence has been used to “blacklist” FBI and military trainers who have been accused of espousing deeply Islamophobic views. Indeed, the FBI and Joint Chiefs of Staff appear to have decided that Islamophobic teaching materials — for example, one recently suspended teacher at the Joint Forces Staff College called for a “total war” on Islam — should hold no place in government counterterrorrism training. While anti-Muslim advocates like Gaffney have fewer allies in government, they appear to have a steadfast ally in Rep. Michele Bachmann. 

She is barking mad, and seriously Minnesota, if you do not send this woman home to gibber to the invisible enemies she sees behind her eyelids, I will take back the nice things I said about living there for 2 years.