SO WERE THOSE JOBS CREATED, OR SAVED? “The worker, Naomi Cohn, told The Post that she was hired and fired a number of times by Census. Each time she was hired back, it seems, Census was able to report the creation of a new job to the Labor Department.”

POLITICO: Mixed messengers highlight Salazar problem. “The White House’s failure to designate a single spokesperson — with a corresponding schedule of media updates to show the administration in action — may have been intended to convey an all-hands-on-deck approach to the BP oil spill. Instead, it has created a public relations vacuum, being filled by critics of the president’s approach. And the one man who might have filled that role — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — already has had a pair of high-profile stumbles, with not one, but two of his comments effectively retracted from the White House podium.”

WILL FREE MARKETS give way to state capitalism? “In Bremmer’s telling, the world’s autocratic states learned a valuable lesson from the implosion of the Soviet Union: command economies do not work and when they fail, they can bring down the over-arching political system with them. They also watched the post Soviet experiment in crash liberalization with horror. To protect their hides and preserve their privilege, autocratic rulers in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have created a ‘hybrid’ system that leverages many of the tools of capitalism to generate wealth while the heavy hand of the state ensures that wealth is put to the service of the elites and rulers of each country.”

MICKEY KAUS: “Is CDP vice-toady Eric Bauman correct in saying that my positions are ‘more in line with the California Republican Party than the California Democratic Party,’ or is that the sort of mindless if-you-aren’t-in-labor’s-pocket-you’re-not-a-Democrat thinking that will lead the party to defeat? You make the call!”

DEFAMATION by stupidity?

BYRON YORK: Covering Obama, press encounters Nation of Islam. “President Obama’s home is in the same Chicago neighborhood as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. On Saturday night, the overlapping of Obama’s and Farrakhan’s worlds made for a strange, and sometimes testy, encounter between the Secret Service, the press corps covering the president, and the paramilitary security force, the Fruit of Islam, surrounding Farrakhan. . . . Some observers will make light of the whole thing — just a little misunderstanding with those weird Nation of Islam guys — but the fact that Farrakhan’s security force is close to the president’s home is likely a matter of continuing concern to the Secret Service. And on Saturday night, the two forces ran into each other.”

TOOLS FOR GREEN GARDENING.

REMEMBERING Dennis Hopper.

THE JAMES ASHER SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM: “In its efforts to put politics above the basic who, what, when, where, and why of journalism, McClatchy has become a joke, and a rather sad one at that.”

THREATENING TO jail parents for a year for truancy in California. “The bill is the brainchild of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general.”

KING CANUTE is in over his head.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What Our Media Taught Me.

TALKING TO Alabama Tea Party candidate for Congress Rick Barber.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: May’s Big Selloff Could Be Just the Beginning.

PETER WEHNER: Obama, the Thin-Skinned President. “Obama is among the most thin-skinned presidents we have had, and we see evidence of it in every possible venue imaginable, from one-on-one interviews to press conferences, from extemporaneous remarks to set speeches. . . . With Obama there is also the compulsive need to admonish others, to point fingers, to say that the problems he faces are not of his doing. . . . The ingredients are in place for some serious problems down the road. Those who care for the president need to recognize the warning signs now, sooner rather later, before it becomes too late, for him and for the nation.”

THE DIFFERENCE a school can make.

USA TODAY: Poll finds anger over country’s leaders.

Americans are increasingly optimistic about the economy, but that brightening outlook hasn’t softened their outrage over the country’s direction and its political leadership, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Two-thirds of those surveyed this week describe themselves as “angry” about the way things are going in the USA, the highest percentage in the decade the question has been asked. By nearly 2-1, they would rather vote for a candidate who has never served in Congress over one with experience.

Change!

FROM WEBER, The Girls’ Guide to Grilling.

IS OBAMA THE NEW CHENEY? “Rather, in terms of Cheney’s inability to fake emotional involvement. Bill Clinton was a master of insincerity; when he felt our pain, we almost believed it. Cheney, on the other hand, once sheepishly admitted that he ‘doesn’t do funerals.’ Emotional symbolism wasn’t his forte, and he knew it. Obama strikes me as, in that respect, a similar personality.”

MICHAEL YON reports: “Brigadier General Daniel Menard was fired from command in Afghanistan.”