NYT reviews Rachel Maddow's "The McVeigh Tapes"

It's on Monday at 9pm Eastern and Pacific, 8pm central. From the NYT:

It’s hard to read faces, but voices are even harder to gauge. Timothy J. McVeigh, the anti-government extremist who killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, had a calm, almost reassuringly matter-of-fact way of speaking. He could have been a building inspector, a driving instructor or a Persian Gulf war veteran, which, of course, he was, having earned a Bronze Star before he went completely off his head.

“See, with these tapes, I feel very free in talking ’cause I know you’re using the information appropriately,” McVeigh told a journalist in a prison interview. “Here, I’m just letting it all come out.” The reporter, Lou Michel, co-author of “American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing,” shared 45 hours of those taped prison interviews to MSNBC.

“The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist,” which will be shown on Monday, the 15th anniversary of the bombing, comes at a time when right-wing militia groups are on the rise, or at least more audible, and heightened anti-government talk is heating up anti-anti-government fervor. McVeigh’s descent into violence is presented as much as a cautionary tale as a commemoration.

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Limbaugh says the Iceland volcano is God's reaction to health care reform

The sad part is how many Republicans listen to this guy. From ThinkProgress:

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Curb your economic growth enthusiasm

From the Economist:

Curb your enthusiasm. Yes, the economy is recovering, as everyone save the nihilists expected. However, the debate ought to be about the strength, not the fact, of the recovery. At the risk of gross oversimplification, the debate is this: do we follow the strong recovery model (the “V”) which holds that deep recessions are followed by strong recoveries, or the weak recovery model (the “U”) that holds that recessions caused by financial crises are followed by weak recoveries? I have long been in the latter camp. In fact, I describe my forecast as “reverse square root”, sort of a cross between a V and U (credit to George Soros for the term): an early cyclical rebound followed by muted growth. I’m still there.

Now, to the evidence. So far, the magnitude of growth does not validate the V. GDP fell more during the 2007-2009 recession than in either 1973-75 or 1981-82 and has recovered less. Assuming GDP grew 3% (annualised) in the first quarter, which is the consensus, then it will be up 2.8% (not annualised) in the nine months since the recession ended, compared to 3.8% after 1975 and 5.6% after 1982. Yes, employment is finally rising, but as The Economist notes, its performance is far worse than after other recessions.

Second, the composition of growth looks unsustainable. A disproportionate amount so far has come from inventories which are not a sustainable source of demand. Relative to expectations, final demand is a wash: consumption has been stronger but housing has been weaker. Our special report argued consumer spending cannot lead the recovery because wealth has been devastated and credit is tight. Contrary to that thesis, consumption has outgrown income in the past quarter, saving has declined, and the trade deficit has widened, though only a bit.

An important reason for caution is that much of the recovery we’ve seen so far is down to fiscal stimulus. It probably accounted for half of the estimated 3% growth in the first quarter. Its contribution will turn negative by the third quarter. We need a virtuous cycle of incomes and spending underway by then, which means stronger job creation than we’ve seen so far. I still think it will happen. The economy is highly unlikely to dip back into recession; 3% growth seems a safe bet. But I don’t yet see the makings of the 5%-plus growth that would characterize a V, though I’d love to be wrong.

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Liberal Democrats making their move in UK election

The Liberal Democrats fell apart just over 100 years ago and became the third party. The left used to be dominated by the Lib Dems until they failed to change with the times. Labour moved in and never looked back until now. They are currently running in second place and the Conservatives are slipping, though still at the top. Labour has to be very worried about this news because they don't seem to stand for much of anything these days other than "not Conservatives." Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is now hoping to ignite the interest of the younger voters to propel him over the top. His showing in the televised debate was a huge success. The Guardian:

Clegg, who appealed to the electorate during the debate to "do something different", saw his party leapfrog Labour into second, and cut the Tory lead to three points, in a YouGov poll yesterday.

A series of new polls out today are also impressive for the party and show a dramatic shrinking of the Tory lead. A ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror puts David Cameron's party on 31%, the Lib Dems on 29% and Labour on 27%. Two polls even suggest the party is now leading both Conservatives and Labour. Such an outcome would give Gordon Brown's party most seats in the Commons – perhaps explaining why Labour aides are more comfortable with the Lib Dem surge.

Campaigning in Bedford, Brown claimed to be the only leader of substance. "As the dust settles after the first two weeks, people will have all their views about style and about presentation," he said. "But an election like this comes down to big choices people have to make about the big issues of the future."

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Catholic Church ostracizing nuns who supported health care reform

Had the nuns only raped small children, then they'd be welcome. Read More......

Clinton says he was wrong to follow Rubin's and Summers' advice on derivatives

An interesting admission, especially since Summers is a top economic adviser to President Obama. From Jake Tapper at ABC:

Clinton acknowledged that he was wrong to take what he now views as bad advice from his Treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, who told him the market for complex financial instruments known as derivatives ought to remain unregulated.

"On derivatives, yeah, I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take [their advice]," Clinton said, "because the argument on derivatives was that these things are expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of investors will buy them, and they don't need any extra protection and any extra transparency. The money they're putting up guarantees them transparency.

"The flaw in that argument," Clinton added, "was that first of all sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency."

What is a derivative? Watch:

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Teabaggers fine with speaker talking about taking up arms, but freak out when he questions Sarah Palin

Whether or not this guy was an infiltrator, i.e, a Democrat posing as a Teabagger, what's most interesting is that the beginning of his speech, where he suggests that they all need to take up arms against the government got zero reaction from the crowd. But when he suggests that maybe they all shouldn't vote for Sarah Palin, suddenly everyone rises up and says he's an infiltrator.

So, taking up arms against the government is not extreme enough to brand you as not part of the Tea Party movement, but not voting for Sarah Palin is. Very interesting.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Looks like Wall Street reform is the main topic on the shows today. Tim Geithner is on "Meet the Press."

Scott Brown is on "Face the Nation." Funny thing about Brown. While he was the darling of the teabaggers, Wall Street invested heavily in Brown during his campaign earlier this year:

In a six-day span just before the US Senate election, Republican Scott Brown collected nearly $450,000 from donors who work at financial companies, a sign the industry is prepared to spend heavily in the upcoming midterm elections to beat back new controls and taxes President Obama wants to impose.

The donations, from hundreds of financial executives, far exceeded what Brown received from doctors and others in the health care industry in the final days of the campaign.

Those Wall Street bankers will expect to get their money's worth from Brown.

And, Mitch McConnell, who is shamelessly lying about reform, just lying about it, is on CNN. Let's see if Candy Crowley actually challenges his lies -- and the fact the he's doing the bidding of Wall Street. On behalf of Wall Street, McConnell is now leading a filibuster of the reform bill. Be interesting to know how much Wall Street has promised to McConnell. Obviously, as we saw from that $450,000 in just six days for Scott Brown, they can really deliver with the campaign contributions.

The main news maker today will undoubtedly be Bill Clinton. He's on ABC with Jake Tapper. Jake has been tweeting previews of the show and this one caught my eye:

Clinton: Rubin + Summers Gave Me Wrong Advice on Derivatives, and I Was Wrong

Never dull with Bill Clinton.

Here's the lineup. Read More......

Elvis Costello

It's going to be gardening day. We're expecting sunshine and temps up around 68F so we're pulling out the brooms and starting the long process. Lots of things moving out there and the hydrangeas are growing very well. A few pots cracked over the winter due to the especially cold weather so we may need to start looking for a new pot or two. Read More......

European airspace closed again

It's odd looking up and not seeing anything besides a few birds up in the sky. The ash isn't exactly noticeable because there were few clouds in the sky yesterday. It's not a strong blue but that's often the case due to pollution.

Our friend at least has been ticketed for Monday so provided they fly, he's in luck. Yesterday as he phoned his airline (American) he had an amusing problem with their voice activated system. He was doing OK with the initial questions and the system could give out that "18 April" was the same as "April 18." Fine. Then it asked for his name. Our friend has a bit of a London accent so the way he pronounces his name wasn't the way the voice automated system thought it should sound. After three attempts and him getting a bit worked up about it, I stopped him and pronounced it with my American accent. Bingo. I came back a few hours later and he was back on the phone with the airline voice automated system and had a laugh because he was now speaking with his attempt at a Texan accent. It worked.

Another story and here, lots of satellite maps and images of the ash clouds. BBC:

Millions of stranded travellers face further air chaos as the volcanic ash from Iceland that has closed most of Europe's airspace continues to spread.

An estimated three-quarters of flights were cancelled on Saturday. About 20 countries closed their airspace - some have extended flight bans into Monday.

Disruption is now said to be greater than that after 9/11 and the volcanic activity shows no sign of abating.

Two airlines have carried out test flights to see if it is safe to fly.

The Netherlands' KLM said one of its planes, a Boeing 737, had reached its maximum operating altitude of about 13km in the skies over the Netherlands, and there had been no problems during the flight.

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