MICHAEL WALSH: Obama’s Big Chance: He’s got to be truly bold on jobs.

CHART: 30 Years Of Bipartisan Debt-Ceiling Raises.

ROBERT SAMUELSON: LABOR DAY BLUES. “On this Labor Day, there is little good news about labor. We have entered a long period of crushing unemployment and downward pressure on wages that may well transform the nation’s economic and political landscape. There was no job growth in August, and the overall numbers are stupefying: 14 million unemployed; nearly 9 million part-time workers wanting full-time jobs; 6.5 million who want jobs but are so discouraged that they’ve given up looking and are, therefore, not counted in the official labor force. People are only gradually recognizing the magnitude of the problem.”

GOVERNMENT BY FEMINISM: “The domestic-violence incident involving former New York City deputy mayor Stephen Goldsmith illustrates what Harvard Law professor Jeannie Suk has written about. Domestic violence has become an area where the government takes control away from the individual woman.” Feminism is all about taking control away from the individual woman, and putting it into the hands of women, as determined by . . . feminists.

UPDATE: A response. Plus, from the comments: “Modern feminism is just socialism with a vagina.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Palin’s Surprise Visit.

SURELY THAT’S A SMALL GROUP: “For those of you who still take Juan Cole’s views on Israel seriously, a reminder.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? Gas $1/gallon more than last Labor Day weekend, causing tourists to stay home.

UPDATE: Reader Richard Aubrey writes:

Strikes me that in the early Seventies,prior to the oil shock, a gallon of gas was about one fifth to one sixth of an hourly minimum wage. Today, it’s about half, give or take a dime.

We had a used ’73 Impala for a while. Huge car, just what we needed.

to haul twins around with their stuff. Nice acceleration, considering that double-nickel had started about the time the thing was built and four-cylinders were completely adequate, at least for level ground.

Got twelve mpg.

So, let’s say that in the early Seventies, you could go twenty-five miles, mixed, for about one third of an hour’s minimum wage. Today, the same for about a half an hour’s minimum wage.

Who’s winning this one?

Not the citizenry.

STEVEN HAYWARD:

Now, as to mike259259’s second point that conservatives are anti-science, well, at least two things come to mind. Which ideology is it that throws a hissy fit over genetically modified organisms and childhood vaccinations? Or files lawsuits to stop de-listings of recovered species (like the gray wolf) even after the government’s science advisory bodies say “the science” says they should be de-listed? Who’s not respecting science now?

But rather than stopping with the simple observation that ideology or politics drives acceptance or rejection of certain domains of science, it is worth pressing on to ask why liberals dislike some kind of science, and conservatives other kinds.

Indeed.

TEA PARTY GROUP TO HOFFA: Resign!

After Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. called for a “war” against Republicans and tea partiers on Monday, one tea party group is calling for the union leader to resign.

“Calls to violence can never be acceptable in this civil society,” the Rockford, Illinois tea party group said in a statement. “Hoffa’s remarks were made in an introduction to Obama speaking to Auto Workers and Unions in Detroit and this sort of angry, hateful, call to violence should be repudiated by the President with a call from the President to ask Hoffa to resign his very public position of influence.”

While warming up a Labor Day crowed in Detroit before a speech by President Obama, Hoffa Jr. said unions need to pick a fight with tea partiers and congressional Republicans.

“President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa Jr. declared. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and take America back to where America we belong.”

The Rockford tea party called Hoffa’s comments “incendiary and dangerous.”

A far cry from the Hope And Change of 2008, isn’t it?

UPDATE: “Somebody didn’t get the memo.”

Plus, via email, this from the St. Louis Tea Party:

St. Louis, MO– The St. Louis Tea Party Coalition regrets the unfortunate call to violence by Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa. We believe that the political process–not terrorist tactics–will restore American exceptionalism. We expect the men and women of the Teamsters to do the right thing and remove Mr. Hoffa from office.

On Labor Day, in remarks introducing the President of the United States, Hoffa effectively declared civil war on citizens who support the Tea Party movement, saying, “The war on workers, and you see it everywhere, it [sic] is the Tea Party . . .President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of a bitches [sic] out . . .”

“This is sad,” said St. Louis Tea Party Coalition co-founder Bill Hennessy. “We went through this in August 2009 with [AFL-CIO President John] Sweeney’s letter to the rank-and-file to ‘get in their faces,’ and the White House told supporters to punch us back twice as hard. By contrast, we’ve held dozens of peaceful events. We just wish people like Hoffa would let us exercise the First Amendment in peace and safety.”

In sharp contrast to Hoffa’s call to violence, St. Louis Tea Party Coalition is launching its 12-month “The After Party” campaign on September 15 at 7:00 pm at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Clayton. The stated purpose of The After Party is to restore the human fabric of society. For more information about The After Party visit http://stlouisteaparty.com/category/the-after-party/.

The Teamsters aren’t so big about “human fabric.” More like cement shoes . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Labor Leader Calls For War On Republicans. “I’ve been saying since before the 2008 election that Obama’s nearest historical analogy wasn’t Jimmy Carter or FDR, but Juan Domingo Perón.”

MORE: A reader emails: “I’ll bet there are a lot more Tea Party supporters among the rank and file than Hoffa thinks.” He’ll learn.

MORE STILL: Ann Althouse:

I realize “let’s take these sons of bitches out” can be interpreted to mean let’s vote these terrible people out of office. But “take them out” is not an idiomatic expression that corresponds to “vote them out.” Take them out? Maybe that’s not the phrase he intended to use, but if it was unintended, it was still a gaffe. A revealing gaffe. Unless you’re speaking in a positive way — referring to taking someone out on a date, for example — “take them out” is a violent command. With “sons of bitches” right there, it’s unmistakably violent. Now, you can say it’s only metaphorical, and all Hoffa really wants is to oust these people from office.

But it was only last January that Obama and many other Democrats were saying that violent metaphors, including a simple target on a map, were dangerous incitements for the unstable irrational folk out there.

Yeah, but it’s probably racist to point that out, or something. Plus, a reader emails: “I find Hoffa’s remarks reassuring. They’re backed into a corner and lashing out. It’s pure desperation. It’s over for the radical left. But……it’s gonna get ugly. Thugs…..”

Yeah, it’s Wisconsin writ large. They’re losing, and they’re losing ugly. Luckily, it’s hard to get good goons these days.

STILL MORE: Desperate Times In Detroit. “Did Obama disapprove of Hoffa’s incendiary message? Apparently not; he mentioned Hoffa only to say that he is proud of him. But, what the heck: he sat through ‘God DAMN America’ for twenty years without protest, so I guess he can put up with Tea Party ‘sons of bitches,’ too. . . . In the meantime, my suggestion to any Republican is that he respond to Obama’s challenge by saying, ‘We’re not going to double down on failure.'”

FINALLY: “President Obama’s Labor Day speech was divisive, partisan, and decidedly inappropriate for a national holiday meant to unite Americans. But the president’s choice of Motown as a backdrop was meant to highlight what appears to be a national success story: the renewal of Detroit in the wake of his administration’s managed bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. In truth, however, Detroit represents the greatest failure of this president.”

NOT A LOT OF EXCITEMENT about Obama’s pending jobs speech.

PREPARING FOR FLOODS WITH houses that float? I’m skeptical.

AT AMAZON, the computer outlet.

AT AMAZON, up to 75% off in the Labor Day clothing clearance sale. (Bumped, because a lot of people liked it and it’s still going on.)

THOUGHTS ON the end of the Post Office. “My postman just delivered a 615-page catalog from Restoration Hardware. Why was that a feasible business to move for Restoration Hardware? I’ve never mail-ordered anything from them. Why is the government subsidizing this inefficiency? If I were interested in buying something from RH, I would go to their website. Instead, I have to lug this heavy object to the garbage can/recycle bin? Think of the carbon footprint. I do! But I don’t believe the government believes the climate change hype. Because they never act like they do.”

Actions speak louder than words.

QUIT YOUR TERRIBLE JOB NOW: 7 Tips For Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs.

CHINA AND LIBYA: “During the recent fighting in Libya, the rebels complained of encountering government troops armed with new Chinese weapons. Accusations were made that China was selling weapons to the Kaddafi dictatorship despite a UN embargo. A little investigating found that this was indeed the case, and that Chinese arms merchants had approached the Libyan government earlier in the year, offering to sneak the weapons in via Algeria and South Africa. The last shipments appear to have arrived in July.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Unemployed Face Tough Competition From The Underemployed.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on lamps and light fixtures.