End Of Week Wrap-Up

There are a bunch of things that deserve updates this week! To avoid getting obnoxiously wordy, I'm just going to do a whole bunch of summarizing - you can hit the links for the details. Dig in!

Unemployment rate still at 10%. But that's only due to the huge number of people who have stopped looking for work:

Once people stop looking for jobs, they are no longer counted among the unemployed.

When discouraged workers and part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs are included, the so-called "underemployment" rate in December rose to 17.3 percent, from 17.2 percent in October. That's just below a revised figure of 17.4 percent in October, the highest on records dating from 1994.

In reality, millions of jobs have been lost since Obama's stimulus plan was signed into law. This is what we can expect on a long-term basis from Obamanomics. How's it feel? Ironically, Obama says unemployment is heading in the right direction...and Gateway Pundit helpfully illustrates:

The 'right direction'? Really? This is why conservatives freely admitted that we hoped Obama failed.

Cadillac heart attack. Apparently, the Dem leadership is having some trouble reconciling the House and Senate DemCare bills, even in secret. The major tax increase on so-called 'Cadillac' health care plans is proving to be quite a snag. Also, Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat in Massachusetts is very much in play...says a Democrat polling firm! If Scott Brown can pull of the unlikely victory there, he has already stated that he'll vote against DemCare. I've also heard several people say that if Brown wins (or even comes close to winning), it could trigger another round of panicked Democrat 'retirements'. Pay attention to this race.

Polyamory is the new gay rights. Proof that the entire concept of non-traditional marriage is a slippery slope:

There's monogamy where two people are exclusive. There's cheating in which people are lying about being exclusive. And poly is everything else.

This is what happens when you give up the foundational nature of marriage being between one man and one woman - you cannot logically limit any other possible combination of people, animals, things, or whatever. Shall we take a stand now, or wait until people are marrying their pets to get a tax exemption?

The government's case against Navy SEALs appears to be weakening. It disgusts me to even write that sentence - since when should our own government prosecute heroic soldiers who capture a man guilty of planning and carrying out the execution of American soldiers?! Anyway, it looks like the case is falling apart, but feel free to add your fuel to the fire of defending these brave SEALs by signing the petition at the link.

Where was this last year?!

Sorry, but if you couldn't call Barack Obama a radical Leftist who wanted to bankrupt America back when it counted, it doesn't mean much now. I suppose it's good that someone is saying it, though...

The real story behind TARP. Whoa! Get a load of this video:

Hot Air rightly points out that this was essentially an old-time coercion scam:

How far off is this from, “Hey, nice bank ya got here. Hate to have anything … happen to it. Capisce?” As Allison explains, the Fed didn’t exactly sweeten the deal, either. BB&T had to pay back some hefty interest when they gave the money back — a tax on wisdom and good investment while providing political cover to institutions whose lack of same caused the fragility Bernanke wanted to mask.

It's not like this idea is any new revelation (here, here, here, here, here, here), but it is interesting to see the banks themselves start talking about how the government took over their industry by force. Oh, and while we're at it, we now know that Geithner instructed AIG to lie to the public about their bailout.

Whew! Did you get all that? It's a bunch of mish-mash, but important mish-mash to know.

I'm putting together one more post on terrorism before calling it a week, and that should be along later.

There's my two cents.