Welcome to the government payroll economy.

(T)he decline of the jobs in goods producing sectors of the economy–construction, manufacturing, mining and agriculture–has largely been met with an increase in jobs on the government payroll. We’ve gone from providing jobs in profit-making private industry to providing jobs in profit-eating government work.

So we went communist while no one was looking apparently.

(source via memeorandum)

-elsewhere-

Democrats dropping like flies –

You will certainly hear a lot of talk from Republicans that Democrats are beginning to face the reality of just how tough the current political landscape looks for them and they are running for the hills.

Like I said last night, I’m not sure this matters as long as we have a party head (Michael Steele) who appears to have conceded defeat already. We need someone with some strategic vision and a will to fight.

(h/t)

Why Obama has defaulted to Bush Foreign Policy Decisions – It isn’t because Bush did anything right. It’s because Obama by virtue of being Obama has made these positions right.

Intelligence Sources: “Tens of Thousands” of E-mailers Corresponded With Radical Cleric Linked to Underpants Bomber and Ft. Hood Shooter – Great…

This deluge of Internet traffic—involving e-mailers whose true identity often is not apparent—is one indication of the volume of raw intelligence U.S. spy agencies have had to sort through as they have tried to assess Awlaki’s influence in the West and elsewhere, said the officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information. The large volume of messages also may help to explain how agencies can become so overwhelmed with data that sometimes it is difficult, if not impossible, to connect potentially important dots.

(…)

The large volume of raw message traffic on Awlaki may help explain why U.S. agencies were unable to “connect the dots” in a way which would have prompted them to stop Abdulmutallab from boarding Flight 253. But the large number of people with whom Awlaki evidently corresponded also raises another chilling question for which, at this point, U.S. agencies may have no good answer: how many other potential Hasans or Abdulmutallabs might there be among the “tens of thousands” of e-mail account holders who were in contact with the radical imam?

Well maybe we can hope that some of the jobs reflected in that chart up above are people who are going through these emails. I doubt it though. The vast majority are probably just people dreaming up ever more stupid regulations.

Related to the previous story – Great news: CIA watching the ice melt –

The nation’s top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests.

I’m thinking maybe a little less time watching ice melt and a little more time reading Awlaki’s e-mails might be in order.