syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist ross douthat.vid brooks is away tonight. mark, where do today's or the recent economic numbers fit into what passes for government and politics in washington right now? >> i think it was a psychological lift. i don't think it was an economic breakthrough. but at a time of relentlessly d news, the fact that it was not negative made it very positive. >> lehrer: you're talking about the jobs report. what about the stock market? >> well, the stock market is sobering to say the least. and it is, you know, anybody that's figured out, the stock market to me has just been what do people think is going to happen on the economy and generally speaking people think the economy is bad, and they're not optimistic about the future. >> lehrer: ross, do you agree with what was said in the earlier discussion that the government doesn't have any silver bullets left to do anything about this thing right now? the economic thing. >> i think in the short term that's definitely true. i think that given the political corre

shields and douthat anda. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across syria again today, demanding an end to president bashar assad's regime. the syrian government proclaimed victory in crushing the uprising in one city, hama. troops there opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least 13 of them, on this first friday of the holy month of ramadan. we have a report narrated by jonathan miller of "independent television news." >> reporter: even a house of god on a friday isn't safe on this a day of protest dubbed by demonstrators as the day god is with us. syrian soldiers fired into this mosque in homs, hitting one worshipper and causing panic. in damascus, they surround another mosque. there was live firing and teargas on the streets of the capital this afternoon. ordinary syrian people prepared to die to see the back of basher al assad, the dictator prepared to kill to stay in power. this is the city of hama this morning, day six of the siege. 250 dead si