Very interesting. Not to downplay the unemployment problem, but the size of the unemployment window in the second worst category is 3 percentage points (7 to 9.9 percent), while the size in the categories below it is 1 percentage point, except for the lowest, which is 2 percentage points (0-1.9 percent). That helps get the whole map very dark by the end.

The data is available from BLS. ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/
Breaking that overly large category up, we get
unemp_rate % counties
7-7.9 14.4
8-8.9 13.8
9-9.9 10.5
10+    31
It’s bad, but the graph might misrepresent the data a bit.

By the way, the graph is produced by BLS, not the American Observer; BLS chose the categories. (see http://www.bls.gov/lau/maps/twmcort.gif)

Who took over Congress in 2007? Who gained complete, filibuster-proof control of Congress and the Executive in 2009?

Business people began cutting their labor overhead in late 2007, but unemployment began to soar after November 2008. Hmmm.

If you don’t think there’s a connection ... well there’s this wife of a murdered Nigerian diplomat who needs your help in getting the family fortune out of the country. Yours, not hers.

I can’t emphasize this enough: business people are cutting back on everything, especially labor, because they are quite legitimately afraid of what the current political assemblage will do to them.

You know? If the current government is going to hit my business with a 9% tax on wages and salaries unless I purchase health coverage for them that would come to almost 13% ... guess what? I’m going to make that number as absolutely small as I possibly can. I paid a health tax on wages and salaries for years with my business in Canada. Down a rat hole. It’s one big reason I left.

Between parabolic deficits, health care nationalization (which it most definitely is), exploding energy taxes, and giving the same union thugs who beat up a crippled black conservative in Saint Louis the right to arrive at my employees homes and give them the “free choice” of joining the union, my business and hundreds of thousands of others are in the crosshairs of radical leftists who truly believe that the results of our efforts, vision, and service are theirs to distribute.

If you think the economy is bad now ... give the present crew in power another term in 2010. That’s when we’ll see current unemployment numbers double. Businesses will fold things up as rapidly as possible. It simply is not worth the risk and the incredibly hard work, only to have somebody else claim a preponderant share of your profits in order to build their own little political kingdoms.

In the meantime, I’ve been amazed to see how healthy the cash-only economy around here really is. In a lot of ways the Quiet Tax Revolt has already begun, and the disconnected droids of DC are completely clueless.

Watch that little piece of turf called the Washington, DC metro area.  Thank heavens for all those taxpayers supported jobs, eh?