And yes, that’s a direct quote from the Boston Globe’s news section, not an editorial — and frankly, I’m not sure which would have been more surprising.  It seems that the brush with death on Morrissey Boulevard has sharpened the objectivity of the Globe, which is still owned by the New York Times, at least enough to add Massachusetts to the states discovering that the Obama administration’s claims of jobs “saved or created” are fraudulent:

While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.

That lead has appeared in almost that exact form in every newspaper that has bothered to check on Obama’s numbers.

One of the largest reported jobs figures comes from Bridgewater State College, which is listed as using $77,181 in stimulus money for 160 full-time work-study jobs for students. But Bridgewater State spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the college made a mistake and the actual number of new jobs was “almost nothing.’’ Bridgewater has submitted a correction, but it is not yet reflected in the report.

In other cases, federal money that recipients already receive annually – subsidies for affordable housing, for example – was reclassified this year as stimulus spending, and the existing jobs already supported by those programs were credited to stimulus spending. Some of these recipients said they did not even know the money they were getting was classified as stimulus funds until September, when federal officials told them they had to file reports.

“There were no jobs created. It was just shuffling around of the funds,’’ said Susan Kelly, director of property management for Boston Land Co., which reported retaining 26 jobs with $2.7 million in rental subsidies for its affordable housing developments in Waltham. “It’s hard to figure out if you did the paperwork right. We never asked for this.’’

The federal stimulus report for Massachusetts has so many errors, missing data, or estimates instead of actual job counts that it may be impossible to accurately tally how many people have been employed by the massive infusion of federal money. Massachusetts is expected to receive an estimated $1 billion more in stimulus contracts, grants, and loans.

Massachusetts has already received $4 billion in stimulus funds.  Even accepting the initial Obama claim, that comes to over $323,000 per job saved or created.  At that rate, the remaining $1 billion would create less that 4500 new jobs. That hardly seems like a cost-effective way to create new jobs.  The only jobs it “saved”, to the extent it did it at all, were those of bureaucrats.  The Globe reports later in the article that the money went to cover state budget gaps, as we have seen in nearly every application, and not towards any economic stimulus.

How many jobs has Massachusetts lost this year in the same period while Porkulus “shuffles” funds?  More importantly, how many will Massachusetts lose in the future as the federal government pulls capital out of the private sector to pay off Porkulus debt?  How many investors saw this as a price signal and kept themselves liquid rather than help start new businesses or expand existing ones in order to prepare for the deluge of taxation to follow?

If the Obama administration has lost the Boston Globe, then they have lost credibility with everyone.  Well, okay, not MS-NBC and its leg-tingle anchors, but only pink slips would wake them up anyway.

Let’s add Massachusetts to this august list of states whose media are discovering the fraud of Porkulus:

• New Hampshire
• Florida and Georgia
• Ohio
• Wisconsin
• New Jersey
• Virginia
• Texas
• Illinois
• Colorado
• Washington
• Massachusetts

More will be forthcoming, and when they do, we’ll feature them here at Hot Air.