Last night, Jon Stewart laid out the full mendacity of the BLS truthers over at Fox News.
FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND HOST (10/6/2012): What are people intimating here? That the books are cooked?
GERRI WILLIS (10/5/2012): Well, a lot of people are saying that the government is cooking the books here.
NICOLE PETALLIDES (10/5/2012): I'll tell ya, these guys are saying they feel like they cooked the books.
Look, I gotta say, if you're cooking the books, 7.8% unemployment is a shitty recipe. It's like the radish stew of jobless numbers. If you're cooking, make a nice jambalaya, make something nice for people. (in Rodney Dangerfield voice) "Ay, unemployment's 2.6! Everybody, we're gonna get laid!"
....
So we don't have any real evidence. How about if you present your lack of evidence... sarcastically?
10/5/2012:
JACK WELCH: Maybe it's a coincidence that the month before the election, we have a number that comes out 1/10 below when the President took office. From an ideologue division of the federal government. I don't have any idea how they do it. They're filled with assumptions, Eric.
ERIC BOLLING: Jack, I'm not a believer in coincidences. I don't think there are any in life.
(shocked audience response)
No coincidences at all?? Your life must be a series of constant unsolved mysteries. "Hey, some weather this weekend, right?" "Yes, interesting it rained on the only two days I had off. OBAMA!!!"
It just makes me wonder. If these good numbers from the BLS are clearly a conspiracy, what were the earlier, less positive numbers from the BLS considered?
ERIC BOLLING (1/17/2012): When you go strictly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, there are more people on unemployment now than when Obama took office.
ERIC BOLLING (1/11/2012): ... loss of 1.7 million jobs under President Obama. Those are the numbers, read 'em and weep. It's BLS.gov, that means that [it's] the government statistics!
ERIC BOLLING (1/17/2012): I'm reading the numbers from the Obama administration right from the Bureau!
One man, with two conflicting points of view of the same government bureau's numbers! Coincidence? Or... coincidunce? (audience laughter)
Video and full transcript below the fold.
Big news! The new unemployment numbers are in! The new unemployment numbers are in!
CHUCK TODD (10/5/2012): The dramatic drop in the unemployment rate, from 8.1% to 7.8%.
Oh my God! 8.1 to 7.8! (sings) Ambivalent days are here again. The skies above are... partly cloudy.
Still, lowest job numbers in nearly four years, seems like we're moving in the right direction, or to put that another way....
FEMALE FOX NEWS ANCHOR (10/5/2012): Some people are questioning the accuracy of the 7.8% number that came in for the month of September.
STUART VARNEY (10/5/2012): There is widespread mistrust of this report and these numbers.
10/8/2012:
STEVE DOOCY: Do you think they changed the numbers?
DONALD TRUMP: I do, I do, and I think that they've did a lot of those... there's a lot of monkey business.
"Lot of monkey business, he said, monkey business. And trust me, monkey business is not good business. They can't be trusted, monkeys. I once hired a group of bonobos to crew my third yacht, and they fucked everything in sight. I'll tell ya something. Never again."
Is that a bonobo or a chimp? Does anyone know? Orangutan? I dunno. Is it a chimp? Right now there's a bonobo going... (mumbling angrily while typing) "We have red inflamed anuses, I don't understand, that doesn't look anything like us!"
It's gotta be corrupt political manipulation of the official statistics. What else would explain why, after unemployment has been steadily declining for the last year, that now, suddenly, right before the election, it declines a little more?
Please! I think we know what's going on here.
FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND HOST (10/6/2012): What are people intimating here? That the books are cooked?
GERRI WILLIS (10/5/2012): Well, a lot of people are saying that the government is cooking the books here.
NICOLE PETALLIDES (10/5/2012): I'll tell ya, these guys are saying they feel like they cooked the books.
Look, I gotta say, if you're cooking the books, 7.8% unemployment is a shitty recipe. It's like the radish stew of jobless numbers. If you're cooking, make a nice jambalaya, make something nice for people. (in Rodney Dangerfield voice) "Ay, unemployment's 2.6! Everybody, we're gonna get laid!"
Look, these are your Donald Trumps, your Stuart Varneys, your Foxes, your Friends. Call me when the allegation comes from someone with some financial credibility.
ERIC BOLLING (10/5/2012): Jack Welch tweeting this just moments after the release of today's jobs report.
If Jack Welch, legendary former CEO of General Electric, is alleging dishonesty at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you can be sure he's got some hardcore evidence.
JACK WELCH (10/5/2012): I have no evidence to prove that.
(audience laughter)
OK. But isn't his certainty, despite his lack of evidence, its own kind of evidence?
JACK WELCH (10/5/2012): I know this. This economy doesn't feel like the employment improved to this level. ... These numbers don't smell right.
They don't feel right, they don't smell right. That's two of the five senses. Jack, how does this jobs report taste?
(Welch chews up jobs report paper)
That was our only copy!
So we don't have any real evidence. How about if you present your lack of evidence... sarcastically?
10/5/2012:
JACK WELCH: Maybe it's a coincidence that the month before the election, we have a number that comes out 1/10 below when the President took office. From an ideologue division of the federal government. I don't have any idea how they do it. They're filled with assumptions, Eric.
ERIC BOLLING: Jack, I'm not a believer in coincidences. I don't think there are any in life.
(shocked audience response)
No coincidences at all?? Your life must be a series of constant unsolved mysteries. "Hey, some weather this weekend, right?" "Yes, interesting it rained on the only two days I had off. OBAMA!!!"
It just makes me wonder. If these good numbers from the BLS are clearly a conspiracy, what were the earlier, less positive numbers from the BLS considered?
ERIC BOLLING (1/17/2012): When you go strictly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, there are more people on unemployment now than when Obama took office.
ERIC BOLLING (1/11/2012): ... loss of 1.7 million jobs under President Obama. Those are the numbers, read 'em and weep. It's BLS.gov, that means that [it's] the government statistics!
ERIC BOLLING (1/17/2012): I'm reading the numbers from the Obama administration right from the Bureau!
One man, with two conflicting points of view of the same government bureau's numbers! Coincidence? Or... coincidunce? (audience laughter) We'll be right back.
And after
noting that his debate with Bill O'Reilly caused some tension back at home, Jon also had another
excellent clip looking not just at how Romney wants to cut funding for
Sesame Street, but
why right-wingers seem to hate PBS so much. He then
discussed this with Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver... in Muppet form.
Meanwhile, Stephen also
looked at the BLS truthers, and how some in the top 1% are
whining that Obama doesn't treat them with enough respect.
He then looked at how the Maine GOP is
attacking one of our own Kossacks for playing World of Warcraft.
Jon talked with The Who guitarist
Pete Townshend, and Stephen talked with NASA astronaut, and husband to Gabrielle Giffords,
Mark Kelly.