Damn, that stimulus is doing a bang-up job!

So remember that $787 billion stimulus, much of which was thrown away to left-wing groups and imaginary zip codes? You probably do since Obama won't stop harping on how it saved the nation from losing countless jobs. The unemployment numbers for February are out today and the nation is still losing countless jobs.

According to the Department of Labor, the economy shed 36,000 jobs during February and unemployment remains mired at 9.7 percent. Obama promised that, if his stimulus boondoggle was passed, unemployment wouldn't surpass 8 percent. Since then, we've been to 11 percent unemployment and back.

Calculated Risk Blog has a graph showing just how bad our situation is, shown above.

Everything after month 14 on the y-axis of that graph is since the stimulus was passed. During that time, one-third of the stimulus has been spent, with almost no discernible effect. If anything, this recession is more prolonged than anything else in our history. The economy began plunging in December 2007 and has continued sinking for more than two years. The job losses are finally starting to abate, but we're still looking at net losses of jobs.

The only difference is that our government is $787 billion shorter now, thanks to the president's fiscal delusions.

UPDATE: It occurs to us that the unemployment rate is likely much higher since many people have stopped looking for jobs since the recession began. These people aren't counted in the unemployment tally. Some estimates have the real unemployment rate at 20%. Good going, Mr. President.

The big labor payback: Obama gives unions veto control over government contracts

We all know that Obama is a tool of big labor, but his latest union giveaway makes all the other kickbacks look like child's play.

Obama just announced his new High Road Contracting Policy, (that's Orwellian/Obamian doublespeak for "union tyranny.") Under the plan, government contracts will be given to companies that meet conditions laid out by the Department of Labor. Labor will get to assess and "score" companies based on how effectively they toe the union line. For example, if the Department of Labor decides that a certain corporation isn't paying its workers a "living wage" (whatever the hell that means), they can give them a low score and kill their government contract.

It gets worse. Each government department must now appoint a "labor advocate." (Like Stalin's 'political officers' their mission is to implement the boss's wishes and report those who fail to observe them). These sneaky tyrants will be responsible for scoring companies in the running for a departmental contract. Their arbitrary decisions will instantly kill deals for businesses that fail to conform to their specious standards.

This much power is unprecedented. So guess who's getting to handle the payback?

The Ministry of Work, excuse us, Department of Labor is headed up by SEIU- backed, Hilda Solis, a radical left-wing labor hack and former lobbyist* for American Rights at Work, a pro-labor group. Thanks to Obama, she now has control over the hundreds of billions of dollars of business performed every year through government contracts. We can only speculate upon the political color of her 'labor advocates'.

First, the government. How much longer will it be before these spies are placed in every business in America?

* One of more than 40 in Obama's Administration. Didn't he say he was against them?