White House pleads for ´emergency´ unemployment benefit extension just 17 days after Obama boasted the lowest jobless rate in 5 years

◼ The White House made a strong defense Monday of a U.S. Senate push to extend ´emergency´ federal unemployment benefits by three months, just 17 days after President Barack Obama told reporters that his administration has done a remarkably good job putting jobless Americans back to work. - David Martosko/Daily Mail [UK]

Fifteen of those intervening days were consumed with a presidential vacation in Hawaii, placing those two statements on nearly back-to-back working days.