President Obama gave a speech presenting his new jobs program, called the American Jobs Act (AJA), to a joint session of Congress last night. Here is a round-up of the reactions to the speech. The price tag for the bill comes in at about $447 billion.

AP’s fact checkers rate President Obama’s claims that the AJA is paid-for, bipartisan, deficit-neutral and immediately effective as false.

Critics of the president have made much of the fact that Obama repeatedly called for them to “pass the bill” in his speech. The count? See for yourself:

Captain Ed over at Hot Air notes the curious absence of any mention of “energy” in President Obama’s job proposal. Meanwhile, Robert Reich, Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor, gives the speech two cheers and one jeer. Reich believes it was a step in the right direction, but not bold enough.

Elanor Clift, a liberal supporter of the president, argues Obama made a clear and compelling case for his new jobs program. She argues it is a “common sense” mix of bipartisan proposals that amount to a sound program to stimulate the economy.

If President Obama’s speech were only about economics, its proposals would pass easily in both chambers of Congress. Though bigger and bolder than expected, it is still at its core a common-sense mix of ideas that both Democrats and Republicans have supported.

Jay Cost argues that the AJA is Stimulus, part deux.

Much of Obama’s speech from last night was directly imported from other addresses. It was full of his usual tropes – strawmen characterizations of his opponents, a soaring paean to American greatness that only ever mentioned big government, and the typical denunciations of “politics as usual,” implicitly defined as everything that hurts his political prospects in 2012.

John Podhoretz, a critic of the president, agrees and is underwhelmed. Podhoretz argues that Obama’s “jobs” plan is no different from his original stimulus bill in 09, which did nothing to “stimulate” the economy or help with unemployment.

But Obama’s fetishistic invocation of the glory of infrastructure projects is directly related to his unyielding certitude — a certitude unaltered despite the failure of his last stimulus — that the federal government needs to take a lead role in thecountry’s employment crisis by employing people directly itself.

Whatever the merits of Obama’s job proposal, the politics are clear. Given the failure of the first stimulus to actually stimulate the economy and the continued threat of a double-dip recession, Obama’s re-election bid is in serious jeapordy. The below graph, which shows the actual unemployment rate versus the post-stimulus projections of the Obama administration in 09 illustrate why many congressional leaders have either dismissed Obama’s new plan or are highly skeptical of it. Obama’s credibility on the economy has taken a serious hit and it may be too late for him to do anything about it:

That question has been raised in the wake of the spontaneous celebration that occured in response to OBL’s demise. I certainly understand those of faith who hesitate to cheer the end of any life, and I understand those who are uneasy with the ‘party’ atmosphere that emereged on Sunday.

But I celebrate.

I celebrate the end to his reign of destruction.

I celebrate the justice obtained for his innocent victims.

I celebrate the unparalleled courage of our military forces.

I celebrate the awesome skill Seal Team 6 displayed in taking OBL down.

I celebrate the fact they gave him an opportunity to surrender.

I celebrate the fact they minimized civilian casulties and collateral damage.

I celebrate Presidents Bush and Obama for their dogged pursuit of this monster.

I celebrate the intelligence personel who worked for years, unheraled, to bring him down.

I celebrate the countless innocents, Muslim and Christian, who will now not be victims of his murderous terrorism.

I celebrate the untold number of young pople who won’t be poisoned by his evil ideology.

I celebrate the fact OBL had to face his Maker and account for his actions in this life on Sunday.

I celebrate. D.GOOCH

Lot’s of interesting things going on in the world. The Chinese have a saying, “may you live in interesting times.” It’s not something you say to people you wish well of.

In Wisconsin labor battle news, the Wisconsin state assembly voted to pass Walker’s budget, which includes the elimination of some collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions. It passed 51-17. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin state senate Democratic delegation is still AWOL somewhere in Illinois and defiant.

The labor battle that started in Wisconsin has spread to a number of other Western and Midwestern states. Indiana, Iowa and Ohio are now in the mix, both Indiana and Ohio with newly elected Republican Governors and recently formed Republican majorities in the state legislatures. While the protests have been fairly large and raucous, and sometimes nasty and violent, including a mass rally in Wisconsin’s state house rotunda, public opinion polling indicates the public is fairly divided on labor unions.

On the current labor unrest, there is a mixed bag in the polling world. A majority of the American public, 67%, are opposed to the “fleebagging” of the Wisconsin and Indiana Democrat state legislative delegations, and supportive of Governor Walker in Wisconsin, there is majority opposition to the elimination of collective bargaining rights for public unions, though I wonder how many Americans understand the distinction between public and private unions and how that impacts the budget. Still, numbers like that should give the GOP pause. However, there’s no question that support for labor unions has been in a free fall over the past twenty years, and that certainly has implications for the current battle.

Clearly both sides see a political opportunity here, as both Obama and Speaker Boehner have spoken out on the issue. The stakes are high, as Democrats depend on unions for their GOTV (get-out-the-vote) operations.

As far as the ideological debate goes, some have gone so far as to call for a banning of public unions, reversing JFK’s executive order from 50 years prior. Krauthhammer, concuring with Goldberg, sees this as a moment of blinding clarity. Krugman thinks its a crass partisan power grab. Others suggest it is hypocritical to focus on union influence in politics when wealthy entreprenuers such as David Koch can get a 20 minute conversation with Governor Walker…well, at least that’s who the caller claimed to be. Still, is the fact that a rich GOP doner can get Walker on the phone actual influence? We’ll talk about the difference between access and influence when we get to interest groups in section 3.

In a bit of older news, did Thucydides, the reputed Father of Realism, hate Realists?

Wither Libya? And is Saudia Arabia next?

$5.00 a gallon gasoline by 2012? Ho boy. Oil is approaching $120 a barrel. There’s no question the Mideast unrest is having a substantial effect on oil prices, but don’t underestimate the effect of Obama’s moratorium on Gulf oil drilling. Remember, candidate Obama was perfectly OK with increased eneregy prices if that’s what it took to reduce cabron emissions, and his Cap & Trade policy undoubtedly would have sent gas prices up had it been enacted.

Are we headed towards a government shut down? If so, who will be to blame? Republicans have urged Democrats to accept a $4 billion cut, but if they don’t the government may shut down. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all. York believes the GOP shouldn’t fear a government shutdown. There are some indications Democrats are moving in the GOP direction, as reports indicate they are drafting their own proposal for cuts. I think alot of the “well, the GOP got blamed in the wake of the Gingrich / Clinton shutdown, so they’d be blamed this time” meme is fairly unconvincing. Not only is this a different electorate, 15 years later, but it is also a very different setting. The Gingrich / Clinton shutdown happened when 1) the GOP controlled both Houses in Congress, 2) the economy was booming and 3) Clinton had failed to pass health-care. None of that is true today. I don’t know who the public would blame for a government shutdown, and I’m not even sure they would be that upset about it. Certainly there is some polling that suggests that the public wants to see significant cuts in the budget.

Is Obama’s decision to not have the Justice Department defend DOMA in court a violation of his oath?

Five personality flaws that science will cure in our lifetime.

87% of movies would be better with Micahel Keaton in them? I certainly liked Batman. Multiplicity…eh, not so much.

What political and social lessons are there in The Forbidden Planet?

Shew! That’s a lot going on! Tune in next time for the ANTHOLOGY of INTEREST!!!!!