Another sign of the times...

Today's news: Dow tumbles 634 points on recession fears -- the sell-off comes in reaction to the downgrade on U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's...

(LA Times): "President Obama tried to reassure the world that U.S. leaders could put aside the political disputes that put the country on the brink of default before a last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling. 'Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America,'" Obama said in a midday speech from the White House. 'And no matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a AAA country.' But his comments failed to stop the market slide, which came on the heels of the Dow's 512-point shellacking on Thursday."

Someone let us know when "The Recovery" is over. Let us up -- we've had enough...

"Debt man, talking" -- Obama at today's news conference...

(h/t: Instapundit, bumpersticker; R. Limbaugh, caption)

He's not laughing at you...

...he's laughing with you. (Right?)

“President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness met today in Durham, NC, at Cree Inc., a company that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting,” according to a Fox News story. “One of the Council's recommendations to President Obama was to streamline the federal permit process for construction and infrastructure projects. It was explained to Obama that the permitting process can delay projects for ‘months to years ... and in many cases even cause projects to be abandoned ... I'm sure that when you implemented the Recovery Act your staff briefed you on many of these challenges.’

“At this point, Obama smiled and interjected, according to the report (see video clip below), “‘Shovel-ready was not as ... uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.’ The Council, led by GE's Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter. The Obama administration promised the Recovery Act (‘the stimulus’) would prevent the jobless rate from going over 8 percent.”

The report points out that the national unemployment figure “now stands at 9.1 percent.”

Hilarious, right?

(h/t: original video - Fox News)