I can't think of a song that better captures my feelings today, ten years after. 

 

I wonder what's gone wrong. I can't help it. I wonder what's gone wrong...

On 9-11, An American Tune

Public Policy Polling is out with some numbers that a Democratic president might want to think about. From PPP's post about those numbers:

...this week's poll is how bad Obama's numbers are with a few key and usually dependable Democratic constituencies. He's under water in union… Read full post »

Calculated Risk has the commentary on the latest  White House "pivot to jobs" plans as reported by the NYT:

This is depressing ...from the NY Times: White House Debates Fight on Economy

Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintai

… Read full post »

In his blog today, Paul Krugman posted a video clip of the great band Portishead performing "Roads"* live. Appropriate. 

Ohh, can't anybody see
We've got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say

How can it feel, this wrong
From this moment
How can it… Read full post »

“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

All the bad things. Poor president Obama. He's just powerless to stand in the way of the Republicans. Only thing is, he isn't.

This stuff isn’t happening… Read full post »

 
Why the Obama tax deal with Republicans is insane

 The central premise of U.S. economic policy since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 has been that the people in the private sector who know how to invest – the rich – do a much better job… Read full post »

 I know the Daily Show is "fake news", but if you missed last night's segment with Joe Nocera of the NY Times and Bethany McClean of Vanity Fair about their new book, "All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis", I suggest that this qualifies for the… Read full post »

Craig Murray goes for the dough.* From his blog:

I Decide To Join the Establishment

Somebody posted two parcel bombs. Grave threat to western civilisation. Our basic principles are at stake. They hate our freedoms. Biggest threat since World War 2.

… Read full post »

Is this a progressive alternative?

This alternative tax cut proposal was analyzed by the centrist Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the liberal CBPP created these charts based on the Brookings… Read full post »

Here's how austerity works...

 NY Times: In Ireland, a Picture of the High Cost of Austerity

As Europe’s major economies focus on belt-tightening, they are following the path of Ireland. But the once thriving nation is struggling, with no sign of a rapid turnaround in sight.

...

… Read full post »

What follows is my transcription of comments by Dr. Howard Dean from his November 23rd appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan. 

I don’t really have much to add beyond saying that I agree with Dr. Dean, am left wondering why it is apparently so damn hard for our… Read full post »

This argument isn't gonna fly:

Telling people to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase, Obama told ABC's "This Week."

"What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your/… Read full post »

Remember the deal that was reported to have been struck between the White House and big pharma over the summer in which big pharma promised to cut out 80 billion dollars worth of gouging in return for the administration's agreement to abandon its campaign promise to voters to revisit Medicare Part-D… Read full post »

 I can't think of much to add to what these extremely well informed protesters have to say.

 OK...that dig at these folks may not be fair. The people in this video certainly think that they are well informed, and as much as I may disagree with them, they/…

Read full post »

I don't have much to add to what Dr. Dean says here. His comments begin at around 6 minutes in. As Dr. Dean says, "the public option is the compromise position and without it, no serious reform can take place."

 Just watch. It's a very good and very informative discussion well… Read full post »

I just heard the news. A man I used to know died yesterday. The end came unexpectedly in his sleep. He was no more than fifty.

It's been many years, close to twenty, since we talked. I knew him well initially as my first marriage began falling apart. I essentially knew him… Read full post »

It sounds scary, huh? I mean, with a title like "The Crash Course", it's gotta be bad, right? Well...no. I admit that the title might could have used a little more "focus grouping" but the information is what counts and the information is, I think, some of the… Read full post »

“The thing I miss most is being able to sit in a room and talk to a patient for an hour ... we're so compressed with our time and the amount of

… Read full post »

"And I think the reason for that is -- in the time since I was there, 40 years ago, the Democratic Party has become like the Republican Party, deeply influenced by corporate money. I think Rahm Emanuel,

… Read full post »

So…I’m reading the Washington Post online and upon first glance at the headline (Iran’s Invisible Nicaragua Embassy) I thought that perhaps the Iranians had somehow stolen Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility and supersized the thing. But no, that’s not the kind of i… Read full post »