You've got to pick up every stitch

I'm feeling better, but still not good. I didn't look very hard for links, but I found some anyway.

This week's panelists on Virtually Speaking Sundays were Dave Johnson and Jay Ackroyd; (Culture of Truth's Most Ridiculous Thing on the Sunday Talkshows was also presented.) They discussed the interesting way the Chinese have been put in a position to bleed our own economy dry by undercutting our industries, among other things. (I couldn't help thinking of Solyndra. Now that they've killed the project, they can jack the price back up any time they want....) They also talked about the source of all evil, the Powell memo. Whenever anyone tries to tell you it's all just an unhappy accident, remember, this was the plan.

Seems the most important news last week was that Jack Welch tweeted that the administration was making up their "improved" job numbers, which meant that everyone had to explain why Welch was nuts. And I don't just mean Krugman - although of course the establishment media had to explain that Welch was no right-winger, even though Welch is indeed a right-winger. That'd be the same Jack Welch who told Tim Russert to call the 2001 election for George Bush, even though it was unlikely Bush had won. But think about this: The big subject for the media, as a result of this one tweet, was pretty much all about how Obama's "great" job numbers were really great job numbers.

Jay Ackroyd on Self-Regulating: "It's all the rage. The centrists who rule us believe we can rely on powerful private interests to just do the right thing. That's a central theme in Neil Barofsky's Bailout--that bank CEOs had reputations that they would want to protect and so could be trusted not to further abuse the public good."

Just what kind of police work is is this? "St. John said investigators did plenty of homework on the residence before deciding to launch the raid but didn't know children were inside." They also thought there was a meth lab there, but there wasn't. They also thought they knew how to use as flash bomb, but they didn't. Homework? I don't think that word means what they think it means. Via Atrios.

*sigh* I can still remember when we had hopes that Fitzgerald would try to get to the bottom of things. "So Fitzgerald structured this case so as to avoid mentioning - much less admitting - that at its root lies a bunch of men guilty of torture. At its root lies the effort to hide the identity of torturers, and CIA's efforts to punish those who brought that to light. If I'm right, and Tate is in that chain of people who exposed the identity of some torturers, then that's part of what Kiriakou's after: to show that he was simply involved in an effort to expose torturers. A whistleblower."

While it is a good thing that someone at least made this criticism of the debate questions, there are still significant flaws in the article. One is with the phrase, "In a mostly exemplary performance," of a performance that included the question, "Let's talk about Medicare and entitlements. Both Medicare and Social Security are going broke and taking a larger share of the budget in the process. Will benefits for Americans under these programs have to change for the programs to survive? " Of course, anyone who knows the first thing about Social Security knows that it is not going broke. (I've only given a quick scan to the transcript, but I didn't see Biden disputing this lie, either.) Still, I am forced to quibble with this: "He claimed, falsely, that the Obama administration changed the status quo on abortion. ... In fact, there has been no such change." Not explicitly on abortion, no, but there has been a change in the status quo, and it is an assault on religious liberty, although not the way Ryan claims. The assault has been on the religious liberty of everyone whose religion does not oppose reproductive rights. And a perfectly good reason to be appalled at the way the Democrats have "protected" reproductive liberty and religious freedom.

"Don't Buy It - The metaphor-speak on the economy generates reactions - or non-reactions - that harm rather than help. Watch your language.
"Hippie punching for dummies: "The poster says, 'The quotes are real. They came from Obama administration officials, Obama himself, Organizing For America staff, Obama supporters, newspaper columnists, various bloggers, progressive activists, and progressive critics.'"

It's a funny thing about Republicans now complaining about sequestration, given that it was their idea. It's particularly funny to hear Ryan complaining about it, since he wrote and voted for the bill. Democrats split down the middle on it, 95-95, and 95 Republicans voted against it, too. But 174 Republicans voted for it, and, oddly, they seem to be the ones complaining about it now while trying to pretend it's all someone else's fault
Meanwhile, why isn't the DCCC trying to defeat a Republican who wants to poison your air and water?

The Justice League of the Ottoman Empire

Yes, it's that time of year again, so go listen to "Season of the Witch" and then, if you have any, throw a little dosh to Susie for all the great work she does.