Speaking of spinnage, here’s what we’re being (F)ed through the media. For this load of doublespeak, the Associated Press is being used as the conduit:

“AP – A new Federal Reserve survey, released last Wednesday, underscores the duality of the economic turnaround: even as the economy grows and the recovery extends its reach geographically, more than 15 million people remain unemployed …

“In a disappointing news last week, the government reported that companies chopped 85,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent only because more than a half-million people abandoned their job searches and left the work force. If they didn’t drop out, the unemployment rate would have jumped to 10.4 percent, analysts say.”

In still another – almost simultaneous – AP release, we’re being informed that:

“White House credits stimulus with up to 2M jobs”

“WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is trumpeting a new White House estimate that his top economist calls ‘stunning’. His stimulus plan has already created or saved up to 2 million jobs.

“The analysis is part of the administration’s quarterly report to Congress on the controversial $ 787 billion package of spending and tax cuts he signed weeks after taking office.

“Republicans have denounced the stimulus plan as an expensive flop, pointing to a national unemployment rate stuck at 10 percent and December figures showing the economy shed 85,000 more jobs.”

Maybe Congress will buy the scam about creating or saving “up to 2 million jobs”, but those 85,000 workers dumped in December surely won’t.

And if that half-million who abandoned their job searched actually raise the fudged unemployment rate to 10.4 percent – wouldn’t that mean that the number of unemployed is not a fudged 15 million, but a fudged 15,600,000?

That little fourth-grade girl who’s been pestering us is the one who raised that question. She showed us how she worked out that number on her calculator – something we hadn’t bothered to do. She also wanted to know who got those “2 million jobs”. She stumped us there, too. In fact, no one knows who got those “2 million jobs”. The president doesn’t, and neither does his “top analyst”. The plain truth is that those 2 million jobs are fiction. Its called “spinnage”. It’s also called “lying”. Most Americans will eat up the sop, but that fourth-grader won’t.

Next she’ll want to know how 85,000 folks could lose their jobs during an economic “recovery”.