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In an odd coincidence, the last two election cycles have seen a drastic, unexpected drop in the unemployment rate immediately before the election. And in 2012 and 2010, the unemployment rate increased the month or the next after the election. Just as big a coincidence, both 2014 and 2012 saw the drop come in September, but reported in October, the best time to report supposed good news on the economy. This comes on the heels of this election cycle's surprise news that the unemployment rate decreased .2% to 5.9%., a mere two months after the unemployment rose to 6.2%. For...

In an odd coincidence, the last two election cycles have seen a drastic, unexpected drop in the unemployment rate immediately before the election. And in 2012 and 2010, the unemployment rate increased the month or the next after the election. Just as big a coincidence, both 2014 and 2012 saw the drop come in September, but reported in October, the best time to report supposed good news on the economy.

Muslims across Minnesota gathered this weekend for one of Islam’s major religious holidays, one rooted in prayer, charity, sacrifice to community — and nothing to do with beheadings or violence. “This is Islam,” said Makram El-Amin, the imam at Masjid An-Nur mosque in north Minneapolis, where families gathered Saturday for a morning of prayer and socializing. “All Muslims across the world are observing this at the same time. It’s the opposite of a minute group in Syria and Iraq perpetrating crimes in the name of Islam.” Horrified that Islam is being linked to fanatics, Muslims in Minnesota and across the...

WASHINGTON — Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland was at the grocery store the other day when he ran into an elderly black woman who expressed growing concern about President Obama’s safety. Why, she asked, wasn’t he being better protected by his Secret Service agents? The furor that led to this week’s resignation of the director of the Secret Service resonated deeply among blacks, outraged that those supposed to be guarding the first black president were somehow falling down on the job — and suspicious even without evidence that it may be deliberate. “It is something that is widespread in...

Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland was at the grocery store the other day when he ran into an elderly black woman who expressed growing concern about President Obama’s safety. Why, she asked, wasn’t he being better protected by his Secret Service agents? The furor that led to this week’s resignation of the director of the Secret Service resonated deeply among blacks, outraged that those supposed to be guarding the first black president were somehow falling down on the job — and suspicious even without evidence that it may be deliberate. “It is something that is widespread in black circles,”...

Advantage, Democrats — unless the 248,000 new jobs in September suddenly force Republicans to go on the offensive. I will explain in a second what the Republicans’ next move could be. But first, you may have read that the Labor Department on Friday, in its last jobs report before the mid-term elections, revealed that job growth and the unemployment rate both improved nicely in September — in fact, better than I expected. That’s going to make the Republican battle to take over the Senate a lot harder because issue No. 1 with Americans is the economy. Jobs = votes. In...

A study published by the New York Federal Reserve found that the number of job openings rose by an estimated 20% in the six months following the lapse of the federal government's extended unemployment benefits. The lapse occurred because the Republican controlled House refused to vote to extend the benefits. Fatih Karahan, one of the authors of the study, cited the "mutually reinforcing effects of decreasing the burden on businesses to fund the benefits and decreasing the incentives of recipients to shun employment. If your tax burden of supporting benefits declines you can afford to hire more workers. Similarly, if...

Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money. The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and...

Top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett was given a cameo role in the latest episode of CBS's The Good Wife. The airing of the episode comes after a busy week for President Obama -- which included bombing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a series of meetings at the United Nations, and various international crises. Jarrett appears to play herself: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The scene features Jarrett on the phone with Julianna Margulies (who is the star of The Good Wife and who plays Alicia Florrick), being coached by Alan Cumming (who is playing a political...

Winston Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something in your life.” Is no instance is this quote more applicable than the tenure of Attorney General Eric Holder, who stepped down on Thursday after leading the Department of Justice for six years and in, turn, became a prime target for Republicans intent on destroying everything that both he and the Obama Administration stood for. Despite constant attacks, as well as deliberate misinformation by Republicans, Holder stood strong and for six years became a champion for civil rights, gay rights, and voting rights. Holder himself...

Eulogizes Eric Holder as "a non-political person" Whatever shred of actual relevancy Chuck Todd hoped to achieve as the new moderator of “Meet the Press” just collapsed yesterday during his MSNBC interview regarding the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder. Chuck Todd eulogizes Eric Holder as “a non-political person”: “He did a lot of the tough stuff that you would say, ‘Hey, the attorney general has to do tough stuff, this is not a forgiving job, you have to do tough stuff. But, what’s interesting about him, he is a very non-political person. And I think people used to mistakenly...

Wow. The Washington Post either has a really weird sense of humor, or they are wildly disconnected from the political atmosphere in America. In an opinion piece (I know, it’s kinda hard to tell nowadays) writer Mark Maske speculated on a possible career option for Eric Holder, now that he has resigned from the position of Attorney General. According to Maske, Holder should lend his credibility and professionalism to the troubled NFL… And no, I don’t think this was satire. According to the WashPo:Here is one bit of unsolicited advice for the NFL: Hire Eric H. Holder Jr. and put him...

President Obama has refused to commit American soldiers to the fight against the brutal Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), saying “we don’t have a strategy” to defeat the terrorists. Network newscasts have praised the president’s statements against ISIL, labeling them “tough.” They also praised the expediency of his “fighting words.” Newsbusters reports: After President Obama admitted on Thursday that he had “no strategy” for dealing with the ISIS terrorist network, on Wednesday, the network morning shows rushed to portray the aimless commander-in-chief as a tough-talking leader ready to “destroy” the radical killers. At the top...

Phyllis Bennis is a Melissa Harris-Perry fave. How bonkers-left is Bennis? She's a defender of Iran and its nuclear ambitions, and wants Israel wiped off the map, to be replaced by a single Palestinian state. On today's MH-P, Bennis once again put her radical views on display, arguing that many US soliders aren't truly volunteers, but are "forced in by poverty and lack of other opportunities." "That's absolutely ridiculours," responded Iraq war veteran Earl Catagnus Jr. View the video here.

As Western Journalism reported this week, recent polls indicate a record high number of Americans believe Barack Obama has been a failure as president. A staggering 52 percent of respondents to the Washington Post/ABC poll shared that opinion, with an overwhelming majority of that group “strongly” agreeing with the sentiment. Of course, about four in 10 believe the Obama administration has been successful, meaning at least a portion of the base that elected him twice remains defensive of his policies. As his second term drags on, however, more and more dyed-in-the-wool leftists are abandoning the increasingly unpopular president. The latest...

It's a view of the Michael Brown shooting we hadn't seen before, but could it be enough to shape the way a grand jury handles the controversial case? An exclusive video first broadcast Wednesday on CNN shows two construction workers' reactions just after a police officer shot the unarmed African-American 18-year-old last month in Ferguson, Missouri. The contractors shown in the short video clip told CNN they saw Brown with his hands up as Officer Darren Wilson pursued him and opened fire. Several legal analysts describe the video as a "game changer." Others said it might not make much of...

... RealClearPolitics spoke with a source close to the Palin family, who wanted to provide their version of the events in question...

<p>In 2012 the same CNN network now trying to gin up racial animus around the Mike Brown shooting was proclaiming George Zimmerman to have announced “f****** coons” via phone with a 911 dispatcher as he watched Trayvon Martin disappear behind a building.</p>

Let’s start with the end. When it’s over — when you make it through the marathon that is Ken Burns’s beautiful, seven-part documentary “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” which begins Sunday night on PBS — you may find yourself with a lingering, nebulous grief. You’re sorry it’s over. You’re sorry they’re over. You’re sorry a certain expression of American ideals is, or often appears to be, completely over. My study habits haven’t improved since college; like an idiot, I put off watching all 14 hours of “The Roosevelts” until I absolutely had to watch them on a deadline binge this...

Tomorrow evening begins the first of Ken Burns' 14 hour documentary on PBS, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. The good news about this documentary is that we can be sure it will be free of any political advocacy since Burns has no bias and..... Huh? Am I kidding? Of course I am. The fact is despite Burns' laughable denials, he is a bitterly partisan Democrat to the extent that he gave a speech  in 1998 in which he declared himself to be a "Yellow Dog Democrat." The speech was also chock full of scathing attacks upon Republicans which makes his...