….. but it deserves negative attention (HT Daily Bellwether), especially the childish defiance in some of the comments, and fact that the post’s author Pareene is clearly unbothered by what he is “reporting.”

The blog involved was once one of the “leading lights” of the leftosphere. Maybe some still think it is. Fortunately, its best days appear to be in its past. The fact that it hasn’t fallen into oblivion says a lot about the favored party of its remaining frequent visitors.

So the headlines, appropriately, will be “August Report: 4,000 Fewer Jobs.”

The question is whether Old Media will notice the prior month revisions in the Bureau of Labor Statistics report (July – down 24,000, from 92,000 to 68,000; June, down 57,000, from 126,000 to 69,000). If that news gets a lot of play, it will be a stark contrast to how reporters have handled positive prior-month revisions in previous BLS reports.

The apparently bad news bottom line is that (based on what we know and pending future revisions) there were 85,000 fewer people working when BLS did their survey than were working 30 days earlier.

I say “apparently bad news” because I think readers should ponder these points:

• Although teenage unemployment shot up from 15.2% to 16.1%, African-American unemployment dropped again, from a much larger pool of workers than teens. This time seasonally adjusted African-American unemployment fell from 8.0% to 7.7%. After July’s drop of 0.5%, that’s an 0.8% drop in two months; August’s not seasonally adjusted “raw numbers” rate fell a stunning 1.2%, from 8.9% to 7.7%.
• At 7.7% seasonally adjusted, African-American unemployment is at its lowest level since February 2001 (select the appropriate table at this link). In the late 1990s and 2000, that unemployment rate came in lower in seven different months, but never lower than 7.0%. African-American unemployment has shown similar behaviors in previous summers, but those were summers where jobs were expanding at a very nice clip, which is not what has been happening during the past few months.

• Then look at this –

As you can see, the civilian labor force, according to the Household Survey, dropped by 340,000 during the month of August. The number of unemployed also dropped by 24,000, which is why the overall unemployment rate of 4.6% stayed the same. Survey questioners, as I understand it, do not inquire as to the citizenship status of those they speak with.

It’s going to take more than a month or two to get a grip on this, but I have to wonder if on the whole we’re seeing African-American and perhaps other low-skilled citizen workers doing some of the jobs illegal immigrants, who may be a significant element of the hefty “Not in labor force” increase, had been doing.

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UPDATE: Since other reports coming out during this week (to be discussed later) indicate a growing economy, I think the stock market is overreacting to the jobs report.

So many good blogs and posts, so little time ….

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Patrick Poole notes that CAIR is biting the Old Media hand that has been giving it a nearly unconditional pass for years. The Dhimmi Dispatch cartoon is, of course, spot-on, which is really why CAIR is upset.

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Before the term “fauxtography” was coined, there was the Al-Durah case. If you don’t remember or are unfamiliar with it, go to Wizblog to catch up.

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TaxMan has a great bunch of short and sweet posts this week. All over the map, but all done well.

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King’s Right Site — “Kucinich Refuses to meet US Troops.” Sub-headline at linked story — “I don’t want to bless that occupation with my presence.” Dennis, you have blessed our involvement in Iraq with your absence.

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Smoke If you Got ‘Em has a horrible foster-parent story from England you’ll probably not see covered in the States. Go there to see why.

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Ben Keeler notes that aspiring Westlake (OH) police officers had better not smoke ‘em, on or off the job.

Uh oh.

Some people who seem to nearing the land of obsessive-compulsiveness will consider the title of this post “plagiarized.” You see, I didn’t attribute the title of this post to a specific person at the The Technology Front or put “Look Both Ways Before You Cross the Street” in quotes.

The actual author of the post must be really mad, as I haven’t specifically named him. I guess I’d better link to his post or I’ll be in trouble with the Plagiarism Police outposts at the Daily Bellwether and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

And why didn’t the TLF poster tell us where HE got “Look Both Ways Before You Cross the Street” from? Was it from here, here, or elsewhere?

Zheesh.

NixGuy has reached a boil over the long history of this and similar accumulated nonsense, and I don’t blame him. Go there, and I’ll stifle an oh-so-tempting rant over the chronic failure by Old Media (to be fair, excluding the targets of this post’s criticism), going back at least as far as Drudge-Isikoff-Lewinsky, to attribute so many of “their” stories to the blogs and other online sources where news has so often appeared first.

From Maryville, Tennessee’s newspaper, about an area resident whose life was saved in Louisville:

Article published Sep 3, 2007

By all accounts, John Bates should be dead.

He and his wife of 23 years, Janice Sullivan, were in Louisville, Ky. in June to compete in tennis in the National Senior Games. The couple had placed second at the state level, qualifying them for the national competition.

They were at the University of Louisville tennis courts when Bates collapsed with a heart attack. By the time Sullivan got to him, he was lifeless, not breathing and unconscious.

Nearby was a doctor there to watch a friend play tennis, who was also a doctor. One of them saw Bates go down and knew he hadn’t just tripped. The two physicians raced to Bates’ aid and began administering CPR.

Meanwhile, Sullivan was calling out for help and caught the attention of some EMS personnel. They arrived and shocked Bates’ heart several times before loading him into an ambulance for transport to the hospital. Bates’ heart was shocked additional times while en route.

Once at the hospital, Bates was taken to the emergency room at Norton Audubon Hospital where he was placed on a ventilator. He would remain unconscious for 24 hours.

The main concern at that point was the possibility of brain damage. But when Bates woke up, despite having no idea where he was and why, there was none.Right place, right time
Bates said his ordeal was a miracle on several levels.

“Part of the miracle of the event was that anybody was there,” Bates said via telephone from his home in Townsend. “The city of Louisville had planned to have EMS personnel at every site for the Senior Games but this was a practice day. They just happened to have a crew out and that crew just happened to be where we were.”

The other fortunate thing was of course the presence of two doctors who were able to shock Bates’ heart with an automated external defibrillator (AED). Sullivan having the presence of mind not to panic was the glue that held this all together. She has earned hero status in her husband’s eyes.

A cardiologist at the hospital in Louisville implanted an automated internal defibrillator in Bates’ chest before he was allowed to come home. It will continue to monitor his heart rate and apply a shock should ne need it.

Bates, 62, is the former director of the Blount Memorial Wellness Center in Alcoa. He took early retirement a few years ago and then went to work at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge in their finance department. Working at the Wellness Center, he was always in great shape and said a test in the hospital after his collapse revealed his coronary arteries were fine.

His diagnosis was a heart arrhythmia, meaning his heartbeat gets out of whack, preventing oxygen from getting to the brain. It’s an electrical problem, Bates said.

Once Bates got home from Louisville he began seeing a cardiologist who he continues to see every six months. A monitor is placed on his chest to check on the implanted defibrillator. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.