Mousetronaut

The unemployment rate has dropped. Not so surprising really, it has been coming down steadily. What's big about this small number is that it is now under 8%. It's at 7.8% now, so yes, that is lower than 8%. The reason that is making news is, for one thing, the Republicans have been kind of drawing attention for some time now that the rate is over 8% and now it isn't. So that's kind of a yikes moment. And the other thing is that some people have been saying the books are cooked. That is not a good recipe, believe me. Lots of fiber but not much flavor.

If you like to look at charts, here is a chart that shows private sector job growth. Personally, I love charts. You can see a whole bunch of information at a quick glance. This one shows a constant upward trend. The red lines show the last year of George W. Bush in the White House and the blue lines show Barack Obama in the White House.

Stephen has been paying close attention to the plight of the rich. As he put it, "It's not easy having green." In the recent stock market recovery, the top one percent of earners only got 93% of the gains. The wealthy are paying the lowest tax rate since the 1950s. The Dow last week closed at its highest in five years. Granted those things sound good, but the rich still have "trickle down tears." You see, they might end up having to pay a little bit more for their private jet. Can't we convince the middle class and the poor to help out? One thing Stephen was able to do for them was to create a Certificate of Richness.

Official Stephen Colbert Certificate of Richness
The Holder of This Document Has Amassed Inconceivable Wealth That He Truly Deserves, and More Importantly, Someone Likes Him.

It is signed by Stephen Colbert, has a nice blue border, has a gold seal on it and is available for $1 million.

Another thing Stephen has done is create a new political party, the
Protecting Industry Titans & Yachtsmen party. Hopefully this will help. Stephen does what he can and America is thankful for that.

Election Day is coming up soon - November 6. Stephen talked about Arkansas where the Koch Brothers have pledged to spend nearly $1 million there on Republican candidates. And then he talked about Maine where Colleen Lachowicz is running for State Senate, but she plays online video games. Stephen hinted at the possibility that she may have played Risk, Monopoly and Operation in her younger years. So, judge for yourself. I mean, have you ever played a game?

The guest last night was great, in that he also is an author. Mark Kelly was on to promote his new book, "Mousetronaut." There were a few things that confused me or befuddled me last night. First of all, the title of his book. "Mousetronaut." That's it. Today's books have long titles. Shouldn't it have a long title too, something like, "Mousetronaut - The Short Tale of a Brave Mouse and His Long Tail." Or maybe, "Mousetronaut - How One Rodent Singlepawedly Saved a Mission and Restored NASA To The Glory of the Moon Walking Days Not the Moonwalk Like Michael Jackson But The Moonwalk Like Neil Armstrong." Eh, maybe "Mousetronaut" will work fine.

The other think that confused me was my TV listing for last night's show. It said the guest was Author Mark Kelly. Okay, maybe that is to show that he has a lot in common with Stephen Colbert. Couldn't the listing also have mentioned that Mark Kelly was an astronaut? The only thing I can figure out is that it was easy for him to bring the tools of his trade as an author to The Colbert Report - a book. For him to bring the tools of his trade as an astronaut might have been more expensive, more labor intensive and it would have taken up too much room in the studio. What could he do, bring a shuttle?

Luckily, Stephen was able to get that whole outer space connection into the discussion when he casually mentioned the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. For that we say thank you, Stephen.