http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/04/news/econo...dex.htm?cnn=yes

Fuck if I know why they characterize this as "unexpected". It's not like our country's economic policies have been changed for the better.

Bush & the Repukes ain't about change for the better. Bringing about a plague of locusts, starvation, and the death of your first born?

Yeah. They're down with that.

(Oops! Left off the other 4. Sorry. That's 444,000 new jobless claims. My bad.)

Yes, but think of the extra jobs created to process those unemployment claims!

Since most state unemployment agencies have online systems to handle this due to the shear mind-numbing volume of applicants for assistance in this Bush Economy from Hell, I don't quite think the three jobs remaining are gonna cover it.

Though I will say the California State unemployment online system needs SERIOUS help...... I had to help not one, but two friends apply recently, and it took all of us to navigate that crazy bitch successfully. No wonder there are so many homeless people in this state. By the time they figure out all the convoluted mumbo-jumbo in that lame interface, they're getting evicted. And they still actually have to submit their "Yes I looked for work" form via snail mail, instead of by computer, further slowing down the benefits reception process by several weeks.

Add to that the long-term homeless dumped onto the streets when Reagan cut funding for the mentally ill, and east coast/midwest governments literally put people onto trains and buses and shipped them to California when their state budgets were overwhelmed during the "prosperous" 1980's, and this state has been in a world of hurt for a while.

On top of that, due to the fact that Republicans opposed equal pay for equal work, women and their children are disproportionally affected when job markets take a turn for the worst, because they weren't doing that good in the first damn place.

So THANK YOU Republitards!