JR at The Talk Show American (who I know reads this blog) recently posted the following on his blog:

7 July 2005; 12:54 ET: Preliminary reports from a source inside the Pentagon indicate that one of the operatives involved in this morning’s bombings in London was recently released from the prison at Guantanamo.

UPDATED 10:35 PM ET: A clarification was made by the source providing this information, noting that “one of the bombers who is believed to be involved in this attack was recently released from the prison at Guantanamo, Cuba.” The source did not elaborate about how the suspect was reportedly identified so early, although suggested he was onboard bus 30 that exploded outside of the British Medical Association at 9:47 local time. We are continuing our investigation.

Wow. I recall that many of the allegations of torture and abuse came from former guests at Gitmo, most of them British nationals who were Muslims. Could one of these former prisoners who claimed abuse have been the suicide bomber on that London bus? Stay tuned for if true this would be a shocking discovery.

I know this is old news (July 8th), but it bears mentioning in light of the fact that unemployment numbers dominated the Nov. elections to the point of absurdity. Now that the labor market has recovered somewhat, everyone on the left seems to be slow to celebrate the good news. Now by the numbers:

Unemployment stands at 5% even, down from 5.6% a year ago.

146,000 jobs were created in June. A full 195,000 were expected to be created so this is not exactly wonderful news, but on the other hand I think most jobs analysts don’t know their elbow from a hot rock.

Canadian unemployment was recently announced at 6.7%.

German unemployment remains steady at around 10% and hovers around 5 million people out of work, the most since 1933 and the ill-fated Weimar Republic.

French unemploymentt (unsurprisingly) closely mirrors the German numbers with 10.2%.

This is the lowest US unemployment has been since Sept. 11th. The above numbers are shockingly bad for the EU and Canada and would seem to validate the idea that statist economic policies are a disaster for the people who suffer under them.