Surrounded by his clueless economic team, including outgoing chief pinhead of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Christina Romer, whose replacement has yet to be named, President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) tried to be “Little Mary Sunshine” yesterday while ignoring the fact that August saw a net job loss of 54,000 jobs:

In the month I took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month.  This morning, new figures show the economy produced 67,000 private sector jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private job growth.  Additionally, the numbers for July were revised upward to 107,000. Now that’s positive news, and it reflects the steps we’ve already taken to break the back of this recession.

The net job loss for August is largely because of the layoffs of 114,000 Census temporary workers.

When May’s job numbers showed a net increase of 431,000 jobs, 411,000 of which were Census jobs , Obama bragged that

…most of these jobs this month that we’re seeing in the statistics represent workers who’ve been hired to complete the 2010 census.

However, when Scooter spoke on June 4th, he did not say just how many of the 431,000 jobs were Census jobs:  95% of them.  Instead, the Great Prevaricator cited the overall report, and its deceptively large number as evidence that businesses are

…starting to hire again. Workers who were laid off, they’re starting to get their jobs back. Companies that were almost forced to close their doors are making plans to expand and invest in new equipment.

Yeah?  Notice he did not name these “companies”.

As I mentioned earlier, nonfarm payrolls fell by 54,000 last month, matching the level of revised losses recorded the previous month.  The revision in July layoffs to 54,000 followed an original estimate of a 131,000 drop in payrolls.

The U.S. economy has shed jobs for three straight months, though the losses in August were about half the 110,000 predicted by economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

The unemployment rate, calculated using a separate household survey, edged up to 9.6%, as expected, after holding at 9.5% for previous two months.

According to the U. S, Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (9.8 per-cent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (26.3 percent), whites (8.7 per-cent), blacks (16.3 percent), and Hispanics (12.0 percent) showed little
change in August. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted. 

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) declined by 323,000 over the month to 6.2 million. In August, 42.0 percent of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. 

In August, the civilian labor force participation rate (64.7 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were essentially unchanged.

The number of persons employed part-time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 331,000 over the month to 8.9 million. These individuals were working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Yesterday the president tried to deflect attention away from his horrible economic policy with all his might .  He said that the 67,000 private sector jobs created were “not nearly good enough” and said he would “in the weeks ahead” be detailing

…further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing, including extending tax cuts for the middle class and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest.

Great.  Because everything you and your theoretical economists have tried so far has been a blazing success, hasn’t it, Scooter?

As he did Monday, the president again pleaded with Congress

…to make passing a small-business jobs bill its first order of business when it gets back into session later this month.

 He then scolded Senate Republicans for having

…blocked this bill, a needless delay that has led small-business owners across this country to put off hiring, put off expanding and put off plans that will make our economy stronger.

Asked what the other incentives will be, the president said he would be “addressing a broader package of ideas next week.”

When a report dared to ask to what degree he regrets his administration’s decision to call this Recovery Summer, Scooter started stammering.  Then he said:

I don’t regret the notion that we are moving forward, but because of the steps that we’ve taken.  And I’m going to have a press conference next week, where, after you guys are able to hear where we’re at, we’ll be able to answer some specific questions.

…the key point I’m making right now is that the economy is moving in a positive direction, jobs are being created; they’re just not being created as fast as they need to, given the big hole that we experienced…We’re moving in the right direction.  We just have to speed it up.

Rest assured, Scooter’s been responsible for on this since Day One.

Yesterday afternoon, the first family left for Camp David, for another vacation. On Monday, Scooter will make a campaign stop  in Milwaukee at Laborfest, an annual event put on by his campaign donors and personal advisors in the AFL-CIO.   He’ll also travel to Cleveland next week on Wednesday, where he will address another hand-picked pep rally on the economy.

Then, on Friday, he’ll have a press conference at the White House, his first solo session with reporters since his May news conference on the BP oil spill.

Maybe he’ll actually give an honest answer to an honest question….nawwww.  Probably not.