Getting to know The Stimulus.

A sad expectation in news coverage these days is it's dull acceptance that Obama's attempt to stimulate the economy were a failure.

Now facts disagree with that. But those angry conservative pundits and talking heads disagree, and far be it from any news reader to challenge such vim and vigor.

But so you can have some facts on hand in future for your own conversations, here are some useful charts. If this doesn't help, as your conversation buddy won't shut up and won't take their fingers from their ears...print the charts up, roll up the paper, and hit the freaking idiots with it.

From Electablog (thanks to LOLGOP, at @LOLGOP) (w/ charts and video):

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The good news is: The people who still propagandize against the Stimulus are only doing so because their paycheck or their sanity depends upon it. 

The fact is: The Stimulus has had the singularly most impressive positive effect on the American economy of government intervention since World War II. Simply: It worked. 

The ONLY argument against the Stimulus is an argument for it. It was too small. Krugman said so in 2009. Seriously, the one argument the anyone has against the Stimulus was: Bush’s economy in late 2008 was much worse than we wanted to admit. 

At the time, it was difficult to say how bad the economy was. Was it Iraq bad? Afghanistan bad? Katrina bad? We were constantly testing new lows. Also there was a cautiousness about overestimating the damage for fear that it could spin completely out of control. 

People who say the Stimulus could have been larger or better spent forget that it passed by one vote—one vote as the President faced a Republican Party that refused to even offer a plan to save the economy. 

Yes. That was what the Stimulus was designed to do: SAVE THE ECONOMY. 

It was the winter of 2009. As we were high on electing a sane president, we were also in absolute FREE-FALL. Every month it got worse. Bush/Cheney’s stench of failure had metastasized into actual economic wildfire. 

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Follow the link and look at the shift in in GDP (Gross Domestic Product), Employment, and Averages of Initial Claims (of unemployment).

Knowledge is power. But the depth of the bullshit filling the media pool is deep. Get those hip waders on now.