First, there's this technical definition that says there's a recovery. Why? Because some rich people are getting richer? If the economy doesn't serve the broadest group of citizens and there aren't jobs for people who want them, what kind of recovery is that? Perhaps this is why economists are so often confused.

Maybe, as Atrios says, somebody should do something?

A slowdown in American manufacturing and weak employment data sent stocks lower on Thursday as investors continued to absorb news of a weak economic recovery.

The separate reports from the Federal Reserve and the Labor Department were a fresh reminder of the slow pace of the recovery. Manufacturing, in particular, had shown tentative signs of a rebound in recent months.

The reports were enough to reverse the upward trend of the previous two days, when the market rose 1.1 percent.

“You had a one-two punch in one day,” said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for the Channel Capital Research Institute.

The result was a broad sell-off. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 144.33 points, or 1.39 percent, to 10,271.21. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index declined 18.53 points, or 1.69 percent, to 1,075.63, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 36.75 points, or 1.66 percent, to 2,178.95.

Financial, materials and industrial stocks all fell more than 2 percent.

Peeling the onion that is environmental legislation always seems to track back to Koch Industries. As a Californian, it frustrates me that the already deeply flawed initiative process is now fair game for out of state corporate interests.

WONKROOM: Moreover, here is a rare clip of Americans for Prosperity operative Meredith Turney bragging to Koch Industries executive David Koch that her front group will help take over the Golden State. Koch Industries fears that laws like California’s revolutionary AB32 will hurt their bottom line, that’s why, like the tobacco industry, they are funding front groups. Here, in a Koch Industries corporate document, they say clean energy laws like AB32 will quote “be very bad news for our industry.”

The ads mentioned at the beginning of the video? I'll bet this $3,000,000 contribution from Valero Services, Inc. on August 6th paid for the media buy. With that contribution, the Prop 23 campaign has spent over $6 million, with over 75% coming from out of state interests like Koch Industries and Valero Energy.

Just like they did with Prop 8, the authors of Prop 23 are relying on out of state money, astroturf groups, and an uninformed electorate to stop a measure to preserve the planet, our health, and leave something to the next generation.

More facts here.

I could not agree more with Glenn Greenwald on this one. What the hell is wrong with Howard Dean and any of the other Democrats who have lost their spine on this issue? If we don't have the Democratic Party standing up for the First Amendment, who the hell is going to? We sure as hell can't count on the Republicans to do it. This just disgusts me to no end as it did Glenn.

Howard Dean: "Mosque" should move:

Certain things are disappointing and surprising even for the most hardened cynics. Hearing Howard Dean -- the former liberal standard-bearer -- join Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin by saying the following is definitely one of them. [...]

Making this more repellent is that he doesn't even have the "I-want-to-get-re-elected" excuse. Today, former Reagan Solicitor General Ted Olson -- whose wife, Barbara Olson, was killed on 9/11 -- said he saw no reason for Park51 to move. And Peter Beinart, expediting his ongoing transformation from TNR Seriousness Guardian into shrill liberal blogger, today called on Democrats to -- as he put it -- "Grow a Pair" by standing up to this increasingly toxic campaign. Yet here comes Howard "I'm-from-the-Democratic-wing-of-the-Democratic Party" Dean, advocating that the vicinity of Ground Zero be turned into a Muslim-free zone because some people don't want Muslims near it. It's episodes like this which breed increasing levels of pervasive disgust and even indifference about electoral outcomes.

Read on...

UPDATE: As aggravated as I was with Howard when I wrote this post before it went up for promotion to the front page and before he went on Countdown to explain himself, I respect that fact that he was willing to defend his stance and try to clarify it, but I agree with Keith, he's not doing the Democrats any favors by giving weight to the extremists in the right wing. He may not have meant to, but he did.

The victims of 9-11 are not the ones driving this or that need to be talked to. They already had a chance to have their positions heard when they had the local meetings in New York. The extremists he says should be left out of the debate are the ones pushing this.

I would not be as aggravated at Howard Dean as I am if I didn't think he was one of the good guys who's just dead wrong this time around and if I didn't think his comments were fueling those who want to spread hatred instead of tolerance. I'm sick to death of them using any Democrat to justify their bigotry.

You can watch the Countdown interview here.

his vorpal sword: The Nattering Nabobs of N-Word-tivity

A Tiny Revolution: Tables, Turned

Bernard Avishai: Cordoba House: Too Far Away

Pruning Shears: America's bad reputation gets a little worse

Sadly, No! "Unreal" Story From Hoft, Shockingly, Turns Out To Be...Well, Unreal

The Daily Mash: Outrage over plans to build a library next to Sarah Palin

Ya know, Senator, it was going to be really hard for Democrats to run against George W. Bush this time around until you opened your big honkin' tweet.

Open thread below....

I've always wanted to be able to sit down at the piano and rock this Skip James song out. Wishful thinking...

Don't get your hoop-skirt panties in a twist; the power behind "September 12 is Burn a Confederate Flag Day" is the wonderful satirist Jesus General.

Burn the Confederate Flag Day is a protest against the right's exploitation of racial prejudice for political gain. We urge you to burn the Confederate flag, a long-time symbol of racial hatred, on Sept 12, the date when the racially-divisive Tea Party holds its annual hate fest.

Those who object because the rebel flag is "part of their heritage?" So is Willie Horton. The hoop skirts and plantations are completely dependent on the slave trade and Jim Crow, and it's about time someone called conservatives on their nostalgia for racial inequity. Shame.

The organizers expect participants to obey local fire ordinances. Open thread below....

From the ever-thoughtful NRSC, a new ad dripping with fear, loathing, and co-operative pollsters. Maybe time to quit the circular firing squad and aim at the real bad guys now?

If it's true, and he wins, it wouldn't surprise me to see Crist caucusing with the Democrats. Wouldn't that be a shocker?

When Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced that he was formally leaving the Republican Party, it was seemingly in label only. An impossible primary path to a Senate nomination compelled him to launch an Independent bid. On philosophical terms, he remained a fairly basic conservative, albeit one who backed the president's stimulus package.

Months later, it's becoming more and more difficult to label Crist's departure from the GOP as simply a superficial endeavor. Either out of electoral expedience or ideological disenchantment, the governor has spent the past few days either purging himself of his Republican roots or actively courting Democratic audiences.

Crist recently refunded the $9,600 contribution he had received from Jim Greer, the indicted former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. On Wednesday morning, he campaigned in the Democratic-stronghold Broward County, to solid reviews. The day before, he was caught on camera mocking the GOP colleagues he left behind: "I used to be a Republican... Thank God."

In the span of just a few days, Sarah Palin has demonstrated that her ignorance of the First Amendment is total. One day after repeating her earlier call for Muslim Americans to "refudiate" their freedom of religion, Palin defended the disgraced Dr. Laura Schlessinger. But in tweeting that Dr. Laura's "1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist," Palin showed once again she has no idea what they are.

With no sense of irony, the former half-term Governor of Alaska and the same woman who once accused candidate Hillary Clinton of "whining" rushed to defend Dr. Laura not from government censorship, but from the "shackles" of public criticism:

Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")

For her part, Dr. Laura told CNN's Larry King the night before that she was quitting her radio show to "regain my First Amendment rights" supposedly lost after her staccato on-air use of the N-word:

"I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry or some special-interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent."

If that language of faux victimization sounds familiar, it should. After all, it's been a staple of the Palin persona since the moment she stepped onto the national stage.

Sarah Palin's first unfortunate run-in with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution came during the home stretch of the 2008 presidential campaign. During an interview with conservative WMAL radio, she regurgitated her usual talking points against the "elitism" and "filter" of the "mainstream media" before coughing up this nugget:

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations, then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

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