It's Always Darkest When It's Darkest

Just a quick post with the latest in bad news numbers.  Andrew Sullivan has this as his chart of the day (link) and I agree.  So with that is Calculated Risk's percent job-loss report (link):



















You can go ahead and puke now.  And feel free to blame whomever you'd like.

Call Me Fanboy. Fanboy Wiebe.

I seriously have a man-crush on Paul Krugman.  His piece today on Paul Ryan is a complete tear-down of the man's ideas.  He uses plenty of facts to back up his argument.  And then he rips the news media for treating him seriously.  Here's Krugman's close (link):

So why have so many in Washington, especially in the news media, been taken in by this flimflam? It’s not just inability to do the math, although that’s part of it. There’s also the unwillingness of self-styled centrists to face up to the realities of the modern Republican Party; they want to pretend, in the teeth of overwhelming evidence, that there are still people in the G.O.P. making sense. And last but not least, there’s deference to power — the G.O.P. is a resurgent political force, so one mustn’t point out that its intellectual heroes have no clothes.

But they don’t.  The Ryan plan is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America’s fiscal future.

And you think he's done, right?  But wait... Look at the piece below in italics.

David Brooks is off today.

I can't say that it was Paul's decision to put that at the end.  Maybe it was the NYT just letting us know that Mr. Brooks is off today.  But it is at least INTERESTING that Brooks is exactly the person who would praise Ryan.

Ohh, Mr. Krugman.  You had me at "One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans."

This Week's Twitter Links

Maybe I can make this into a weekly habit.  Below are this week's links (beginning on August 3rd):

Not the best way to run a race

I may not like Ryan's plan, but at least he's talking

Being the head of the federal reserve doesn't make you correct

Do you like Palin's chances?

I said Brown

"Some miracle"

Not the best time to be a homebuilder

Learning from Jose Canseco

Those damned liberal activist judges!

If anything I do makes me unpopular, shouldn't I just do nothing?

Is scientific research wasteful government spending?

Is Iran reaching out?

Because government spending is wasteful.  By definition. Right.

Limbaugh says stupid things

Evidence?  Who needs evidence when you control the media?

Being for a larger deficit means being against health care policy

Remember those carefree college days?