I finally figured out how to use "douchenozzle" in a sentence. Just make "Karl Rove" the subject. It works for me. Here he is opining about the economy last night on Fox "News":
O’REILLY: All right, so you are agreeing with me then that there is a conscious effort on the part of The New York Times and other liberal media to basically paint as drastic a picture as possible, so that when Barack Obama takes office that anything is better than what we have now?
ROVE: Yes.
O’Reilly And Rove Agree: Reports On The Bad Economy Are Part Of A Media Cabal To Help Obama
This transcript is provided by Think Progress. They go on to note that the economy lost half a million jobs last month. Bad as that is, it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Allow me to illustrate using this graph of non-farm employment in the last thirteen months, which was produced by the Washington Post:
Those of you cleverer than Karl Rove's target audience will note that November wasn't the first month to feature a net loss in jobs. Every month this year has seen a net loss in jobs. Just adding up those little bars tells me that the net loss for the year is more than two million. Don't forget that, due to the increase in the potential work force, there needs to be more than 100,000 new jobs in a month just to keep pace. We're at least three million jobs behind this year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics seems to agree:
Both the number of unemployed persons (10.3 million) and the unemployment rate (6.7 percent) continued to increase in November. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, as recently announced by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of unemployed persons increased by 2.7 million, and the unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.
The Employment Situation: November 2008
That same article indicates that in the second quarter of this year, the average total non-farm employment was 137.3 million jobs. That means that, using that 2 million job figure, roughly 1.5 percent of the nation's jobs have disappeared, and we're two percent behind where we were last year at this time. It's so bad that the current Bureau of Labor Statistics chief made this candid admission before Congress yesterday:
In an exchange with Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, [BLS Chief Keith] Hall said , "If I were to characterize this jobs report I would say it's very dismal... it's maybe one of the worst that the BLS has ever produced."
"Ever?" asked Cummings.
"Ever," replied Hall.
Cummings asked how long the BLS has been around and the answer was 124 years.
Hall compared the current recession to the 2001 recession, which he said was more centered on the tech industry and so not as hard on the economy as a whole. Jobs losses now, he said, are distributed across the entire job market and economy, which is more focused on consumer spending.
Keith Hall: 'One of the Worst' Job Reports
What does he mean by "more focused on consumer spending"? I think it means Tiny Tim won't be getting those new crutches for Christmas.
Of course, it may also have occurred to you that we're worried about lack of credit preventing companies from meeting their payrolls, and that the auto industry is still begging for loans from the government thanks to its own problems.
All this comes at the end of an eight-year stretch of economic growth that ranged from flat to lackluster. The Bush Administration was a net job loser even before this year. As in, it sucked even when Rove was a part of it.
But don't worry, Karl Rove says everything is just fine. He said it on Fox News. So stop worrying.
UPDATE (Dec. 10): Digital Cuttlefish mocks the douchenozzles in rhyme.
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