Thirty (30) jobs were created (or "saved") in the 15th Arizona Congressional District? Hmmm. Arizona only has eight (8) Congressional Districts! Oops!

Please click on this link, courtesy of Mark Perry: "Unemployment, The Movie." Once you click play and watch the map change, pay particular attention to California from the beginning of the movie until the end of the movie.

At the end of the movie, here is an observation about California: the map looks like a satellite view of North Korea at night! Just plain old Dark!

Here are two quotes, which upon reflection, don't quite add up to half a gallon. First, from Politico,

...that voters had come to see Democrats as a party of high spending — too willing to make a rush for the pocketbooks and unable to effectively articulate how their health care reform push benefited independents, many of whom already have insurance plans.

Now this gem, from Reuters:

BEIJING, Nov 18 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession."

There will be a new wing at the Hubris Museum for that second quote. You're lecturing us against excessive debt while in China, while Congress is threatening to deliver some version of your health care explosion of entitlement spending. Hey, Barack, are you under the illusion that anyone in China or in the U.S. is still buying your B.S.?

Now imagine, one day soon, a junior White House staffer, clever enough to wait until David Axelrod (recent photo of the Ax, caught arising, at left) is off the campus, tiptoeing into the Oval one day, saying something like: "Hello, Mr. President? Yes, the people are on line 3 and...they're pissed. No, sir, not at me. At you, sir."

Happens to most presidents. Too late to ask Nixon, so call Jimmy Carter. Whatever he recommends, do the opposite.

Have a nice trip home!

This just in and it’s distressing news.

Women in their 40s should stop routinely getting annual mammograms, and older women should cut back to one scheduled exam every other year, an influential federal task force has concluded, challenging the use of one of the most common medical tests.

In its first reevaluation of breast cancer screening since 2002, the federal panel that sets government policy on prevention recommended the radical change...

Death panels, maybe. But I surely thought the federal governments healthcare czars and czarinas would, you know, well, click here.

Some Republicans and Wall Street investors say tapping into high-end earners and capital gains will soak the rich and hurt an already ailing economy.

"Could there be a more efficient way to kill our halting recovery from recession than to have Harry Reid plot in secret to raise taxes?" says Donald Luskin, chief investment officer at Trend Macrolytics LLC. "Have we learned no economic lessons from the Depression?"

The recently passed House bill would impose a 5.4 percent income tax on individuals making more than $500,000 and joint filers making more than $1 million...

Also possibly adding to middle-class tax burdens is a provision in the House plan that requires all Americans to have health insurance.

Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees, and both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defy the government's mandate.

"If you choose not to get insurance, you get hit with an excise tax," says Luskin of Trend Macrolytics LLC. "Which is a fancy way of saying a fine or a penalty."

Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 11:09 AM | link