False prophecy there, AP

Somebody on the AP General Desk may wish he had held off a few minutes. He filed a lede predicting:

With a month to go until the presidential election, the government on Friday issues its September jobs report, expected to show an uptick in the U.S. unemployment rate after employers added only a modest number of jobs.

You've seen that the opposite occurred. The official unemployment rate -- which may or may not be a number related to any earthly reality --  fell to 7.8 per cent, and we were blessed with a few more new jobs than predicted.

It isn't a horrible journalistic mistake. Technically, it is not an error at all because it was true when released and based on quotations from "experts." But it is a useful reminder to keep your salt shaker handy when reading the day's news.

The campaign to re-coronate His Ineptness has to love the new  numbers. If nothing else they kill the GOP sloganeering that the current ruler has presided over an 8 per cent or higher unemployment rate since Day One of the Unicorn Administration.

But with Kwee* Three in full assault on the accumulated wealth of American citizens, a fractional rise or fall in number of Americans hired by MacDonald's or the Staten Island Topless Car Wash is damned thin gruel for any claim that happy days are her again.

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*TMR speak for QE -- Quantitative Easing -- which is a term altogether too pretentious for creating money out of thin air.

No business like show business

In full fairness, honoring my duty to be an informed citizen, I watched the damned thing,  all the way through from Obama's open to Michelle. Honey Pie, it's our anniversary and I wish our clothes and the cameras were off.

All the way from the Romney rejoinder that he sympathized with his opponent's romantic frustration.  Very gentlemanly.

All the way to the end when Mitt pinned the poor president for the fifth and final time. (WWF debates have special rules.)   He had sort of expected someone to cinch the big championship belt around his middle.That didn't happen until later when all the world -- meaning Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC --  declared Obama the loser.

The story line carried through to the morning hours when a talker on Joe Scarborough's show  praised Romney for winning and both of them for engaging in such a meaningful exchange of views, for shunning the cheap shots. For being "two highly intelligent men ... presenting entirely different world views."

Okay. Obama presented a world view of free candy. Romney offered free ice cream. Obama promised to be a more compassionate Romney. Romney promised to  be a more efficient Obama.

If there were any "world-view" differences, science has a serious challenge: develop an instrument sensitive enough to detect them.

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This analysis may be slightly flawed. About 25 minutes in,  I walked away from my electric teevee long enough to pop a bowl of corn and pour a sugary drink. Perhaps I missed crucial information.

Maybe Mitt explained the advantage of a revenue-neutral tax scheme for the "rich." Close loopholes and end deductions, but lower rates so the feds would extort precisely the same amount of money.

Maybe His Ineptness had a good retort to Mitt's notation that he had squandered 20 years worth of "tax breaks for big oil" on greenish jobs, i.e., Solyndra and its belly-up  brethren.

Maybe one or the other even hinted that we might want to give a thought to Charmin Basic, known to some as the American Dollar.

Further vicarous air adventures

The Evil Empire flight on which my two loved ones were booked has arrived safely in New York City.  In just a few hours they will embark on a Sphincter Air flight westward. I figure that at an average over-the-ground speed of 400 knots, they are about an hour away from those protections of the United States Constitution I mentioned.

They of course don't carry phar ahrms, although recent news suggests the Tee Ess Aye might not notice, one way or the other.  On the other hand, If you're reading this, Kids, I would caution against being spotted in Bloombergia with sugary drinks in hand. "Step away from the Mountain Dew Ma'am. You have the right to remain...".







 

Still A Long Way Home, eh, Supertramp?

I exhale part of the long-held breath because the author of The World's Greatest Travel Blog is supposed to be on dry land again today. Still in the heart of the Evil Empire, she and her man are at least out of the clutches of the Volga River pirates. According to the schedule, they're  just a few hours away from their Aeroflot ride from Red Squaresville to New York .

I always like it when they return to the the remaining, residual protections of the United States Constitution. Too, I suppose any father is somewhat happier when his offspring leave a nation where there is brisk free-market commerce in leftover nuclear devices.