Jack Welch Can't Stand the Heat

Jack Welch, who knows a thing or two about cooking the books, couldn't stand that his demented, unsubstantiated allegation that the Bureau of Labor Statistics doctored the numbers to help the Obama administration in the upcoming election via the Twitters, was being criticized from all sides* and decided to quit (along with his wife) his position as contributor to Reuters and Fortune Magazine.

Welch said he will no longer contribute to Fortune following critical coverage of the former CEO of General Electric, saying he would get better "traction" elsewhere. On Friday, Welch suggested that the Obama administration, calling them "these Chicago guys," had manipulated the monthly jobs report in order to make the economy look better than it actually is just weeks before the election. Welch has been battered by criticism since making the suggestion on Twitter.

Welch apparently ended up at odds with various journalistic institutions that placed a higher premium on providing readers with objectively rational information about the economy, as opposed to flattering an old executive who sows derangement on the Internet. According to Gandel, Welch did not take kindly to a CNN Money piece that criticized Welch's original tweet, and was further angered by a Fortune piece, "detailing Welch's record as a job destroyer."

That, poor, poor multi-millionaire. My heart bleeds.

____________________________________________
* Except the Fox side, of course. That would be lunacy.


(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Unemployment Drops to 7.8%

This is the lowest unemployment percentage in the last 44 months.

"The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years. The rate declined because more people found work, a trend that could have an impact on undecided voters in the final month before the presidential election. 

The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 114,000 jobs in September. The economy also created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated. Wages rose in September and more people started looking for work."

We're not nearly out of the woods. It's been a long, hard slog - I'd argue that had it not been for Republican obstructionism for the last three and a half years, we might be under 7% - but this is good news nonetheless.

Purely on a political level, this is also good news for President Obama and his re-election bid, killing one of the GOP's favorite talking points about Obama promising unemployment numbers under 8%.

And now anyone who doesn't like the numbers purely for political purposes (I'm looking at you Jack Welch, you fucking asshole) is accusing the Bureau of Labor Statistics of cooking the books to help the President. Why is it that these fuckballs point to the numbers when they're in their favor and then dismiss them, or even worse, accuse the very same people of fraud?!

October surprise, motherfuckers!

Global Warming: Mass Neuroses?!

This is why I don't watch "Morning Joe." Listen to this list of substitute hosts sitting with Mika Brzezinski: Mike Barnicle, Pat Buchanan and guest GE CEO Jack Welch! And he's asking people to read an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal which "makes an interesting case" that global warming is really just mass neuroses and is more of a movement than anything else. Mika states that at some point this is going to come back to haunt us if it is ignored, to which Welch responds, "We'll see." What does he care? He's got one foot in the grave anyway.

And now Pat Buchanan is dumbfounded as to why Barack Obama isn't 20 points ahead in the polls. The ol' "why can't he seal the deal?" argument again. Now Tucker Carlson is shrieking about it as well. This is an awful, awful show.

My wife just called across the room and said he sounded like Bill O'Reilly. I said, "No, O'Reilly has a lower voice. Tucker Carlson is a little girl."