http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/opinion/10krugman.html?hp

The Face-Slap Theory

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By Paul Krugman
Published: March 10, 2008

Friday’s employment report — which was so weak that it had many
economists declaring that we’re already in a recession — was bad news.
But it was actually less disturbing than whatÂ’s going on in the
financial markets.

The scariest thing IÂ’ve read recently is a speech given last week by
Tim Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Mr. Geithner came as close as a Fed official can to saying that weÂ’re
in the midst of a financial meltdown.

To understand the gravity of the situation, you have to know what the
Fed did last summer, and again last fall.

As late as August the favorite buzzword of financial officials was
“contained”: problems in subprime mortgages, we were assured, wouldn’t
spread to other financial markets or to the economy as a whole.

Change for a Time
How George clocked the energy crisis
© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Sociology/timezones.htm
03/09/08

Back in 2005, there was an energy crisis. Gasoline threatened to go
over $2.00 a gallon as oil prices surged to the $40 a barrel mark. The
south was getting chewed up so badly by storms off the Atlantic that
there was a move to simply rename every hurricane “General Sherman”
and have done with it.

It was the crisis we now refer to as “the good old days.”

George, of course, handled the crisis with the intelligence and depth
of thought that have become his hallmark. He convinced a complaisant
Congress that drastic and immediate measures must be taken, and
Congress rose to the occasion in much the way that they rose to most
occasions, and passed a law and had it on the PresidentÂ’s desk in just
two short weeks, revealing a masterplan to solve the energy crisis by
adding an extra four weeks to daylight savings time, beginning in a
little over two years.

Listen Up

By Clifford D. May

Are you outraged? You're supposed to be, according to Peter Eliasberg,
a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In the
immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, "everybody in the country"
may have had their phone calls "combed through" for terrorist
connections and, if that happened, Eliasberg told the Washington Post,
"lots of people will be outraged."

Would you be among them? Or would you, like me, be relieved to know
that on at least this occasion, the government did its job?

During the 1990s, thousands of terrorists were trained in Afghanistan,
Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere. The government did next to nothing
about that. Terrorists groups and the regimes backing them were seldom
infiltrated. Neither terrorists nor their masters were effectively
monitored. Despite the first bombing of the World Trade Center in
1993, and a string of subsequent attacks on other American targets in
the years that followed, our intelligence agencies knew little -- and
did less -- about al-Qaeda and other militant Islamist groups intent on
murdering Americans en masse.

From The Boston Globe, 3/9/08:
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/03/09/surging_costs.../

Surging costs of groceries hit home

Bread, eggs, milk prices up sharply

By Robert Gavin
Globe Staff

American families, already pinched by soaring energy costs, are taking
another big hit to household budgets as food prices increase at the
fastest rate since 1990.

After nearly two decades of low food inflation, prices for staples
such as bread, milk, eggs, and flour are rising sharply, surging in
the past year at double-digit rates, according to the Labor
Department.

Milk prices, for example, increased 26 percent over the year.

Egg prices jumped 40 percent.

Escalating food costs could present a greater problem than soaring oil
prices for the national economy because the average household spends
three times as much for food as for gasoline.

Oklahoma homobigot Sally Kern

One of the coffeehouse regulars, Fritz, spent a good deal of time on his
response to the hate-filled homobigoted screed by Oklahoma State Rep. Sally
Kern (sallykern@okhouse.gov, Capitol Office: 405-557-7348). She was secretly
recorded in a meeting saying completely unhinged, ignorant, fact-free
vitriol that ended up on YouTube. Among her more outrageous claims:
Studies show, no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has
lasted for more than, you know, a few decades. . .
...They are going after our young children, as young as two years of age,
to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable
lifestyle.

One of my colleagues said We don't have a gay problem in our
community...well you know what, that is so dumb. If you have cancer in your
little toe, do you just say that I'm going to forget about it since the rest
of you is fine? It spreads! This stuff is deadly and it is spreading. It
will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation.

Socialists look set to win in Spain
Voters overlooked a recent economic downturn and supported the Socialists'
sweeping social reforms of the past four years.

Madrid - Soon after the polls closed in Spain's national elections Sunday,
Prime Minister Jos

The panel on this morning's Fox News Sunday talked about the bad economy
President Bush and the Republicans have created and how it will effect
Senator John McCain's campaign. One of the big obstacles McCain faces and I
believe is the one he can't overcome is the economy, stupid. Panelist Fred
Barnes just uses the tried and true Conservative play-book. He says McCain
can combat Democratic attacks by distorting their positions to the American
people.

Barnes: " .What I think he would have to do would be to go on offense
against the Democrats and say look, the Democrats are threatening a trade
war. They not only want to reopen NAFTA with our biggest trading partners,
Canada and Mexico, they want to stop any more free trade agreements. [snip]
Secondly, they will raise taxes in the teeth of a recession which would
obviously, that would make things worse."

the Democrats face the possibility that Obama supporters will not show up in
November...

Proof?

Here
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030908dnpoldemvoters...

Buh Bye Tucker! MSNBC Cancels Carlson's Show
Insiders tell TVNewser Tucker Carlson's 6pmET show Tucker is getting the
axe, but Carlson stays on as a political contributor to all MSNBC shows at
least through the 2008 election. The official announcement, expected
tomorrow, will include details about who will replace Tucker at 6pmET as
well as other political programming additions. Sources say the network is
going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent.

In recent days, Jossip, as well as other blogs, ratcheted up the talk that
Tucker would be replaced "for a new project." In its 33-month run, Carlson's
show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats. At 6pmET, it
builds on its Harbdall lead-in on some days, but loses audience on others.

Carlson is expected to host the show through next week, with his new role
and title to take effect March 17. We're told he'll also be reporting from
the campaign trail. Read on.