CNBC declares "Mission Accomplished" for EU economy

Uh huh. Next to Larry Kudlow, Kudlow's Mini-Me is my favorite wingnut over at CNBC. He's such an avid follower of all things Europe which is why he's now declaring EU victory over the US. See, the stimulus was a complete waste of money according to Mini-Me. Despite new polling in the US that suggests Americans are finally seeing the benefit, it didn't help at all according to CNBC. Somehow an even higher unemployment rate would have been better for Mini-Me and we all know how little the unemployment rate impacts the rest of the economy.

Turning to Europe, yes, France *technically* moved out of recession. As someone who is maybe just a little more familiar with the business world in Europe than Mini-Me, it will be a shock if the growth trend advantage continues over here. All signs on the ground point towards increasing unemployment and a very shaky 2010. Considering how many people are concerned about a double dip recession, it's strange to read about the big victory. Before anyone declares "Mission Accomplished" maybe they should pause for a moment and watch the rest of the program.

Putting aside any technical definitions this recession and its near term problems has yet to fully play out. (One could also argue that the technical terms are meaningless anyway. Americans felt the recession well before the recession technically arrived.) Mini-Me and the Republicans always love waving the banner too soon. The system over here moves much slower both going into recession and coming out of recession. It remains possible that Europe will emerge first and stronger from this recession but somehow it doesn't look likely from what I see and hear. Forget about any short term spikes and let's see how it all plays out over the next 12-36 months. If anyone wants to declare victory at that point, fine, but before then it's all a bit silly. Read More......

Drinking water in US schools polluted with toxins

It's bad enough when adults drink water like this but for kids, it's much worse. It's time to get serious about farm runoff though again, that is a very powerful lobby. Is anyone in Washington ready to take on this fight?

"It's an outrage," said Marc Edwards, an engineer at Virginia Tech who has been honored for his work on water quality. "If a landlord doesn't tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail. But we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep school children safe?"

The contamination is most apparent at schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation's schools. Roughly one of every five schools with its own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.

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Funny, no one got upset when children sang songs for Bush

And mind you, that was for his "great" job on Katrina. Read More......

Jazz in an underground parking garage in Paris

A friend's office complex in Paris holds public parties every so often. The other night, while visiting him, we heard music downstairs and went to take a look. They were setting up a jazz band in the basement parking garage (it had rained earlier and they were worried about setting up in the courtyard). The garage was a brilliant move - they set up their band in one of the empty parking spaces - the acoustics were great, and the ambience was really funny and fun.

Oh, and God bless the French, they had free beer (including a red Belgian beer that was cherry-flavored and to die for) and pork rillettes (a kind of chunky meat pâté that you spread on bread). The clip is only about a minute long, to give you a sense of the ambience. (Just went to the French eye doc, and she gave me the clean bill of health to fly back home in a week.) Read More......

Netroots Nation auction

You can help the annual blog conference, Netroots Nation, by helping us out at our online auction - I'll let Markos give you a sample of the goods:

The Netroots Nation auction is now live. Lots of great stuff, like this Netroots Nation program signed by Arlen Specter!

What? That's not so exciting to you? Well, how about this one signed by Bill Clinton? Or Howard Dean? Yeah, much better.

And that's not all that's available. Go peruse the listings and help Netroots Nation put on an even better conference in 2010 in Las Vegas.

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RNC's Steele feeds Obama communist dictator theme

This is an example of a gift handed to the White House and the Democrats. When the head of the Republican party, who is himself embattled and a bit of a buffoon, compares the commander in chief of our armed forces, during war time, to Stalin and Kim Jong-il, when he compares the United States of America to Soviet Russia and Communist China, he's lobbed you a soft ball for you to hit out of the park.

RNC Chair Michael Steele writes that the video shows "the indoctrination of our nation's greatest treasure -- our children."

"Friend, this is the type of propaganda you would see in Stalin's Russia or Kim Jong Il's North Korea," Steele writes. "I never thought the day would come when I'd see it here in America."

The video, which shows students learning songs praising Mr. Obama for his "great accomplishments" and efforts to "make this country's economy No. 1 again," was posted on the conservative Drudge Report and reported by Fox News, prompting anger from conservatives.

"This is the type of fanaticism Republicans are up against as we fight to stop the Obama Democrats' radical leftist transformation of America," Steele writes in the fundraising email.

Batter up, Democrats. Read More......

Gruesome update on Census worker's death

Very very bad story.

"The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," Weaver said. "And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something."

Two people briefed on the investigation said various details of Weaver's account matched the details of the crime scene....

Authorities have said a preliminary cause of death was asphyxiation, pending a full medical examination. According to a Kentucky State Police statement, the body was hanging from a tree with a rope around the neck, yet it was in contact with the ground.

"And they even had duct tape around his neck," Weaver said. "And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."

...He could see writing on Sparkman's chest, but could not read that it said "fed."

Authorities have said the word was scrawled with a felt-tip pen.

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Leader of the free world, or cardboard cut out?

It's a pretty wild video. Taegan explains:

Eric Spiegelman puts together a series of photos which strongly suggests the White House may have sent a cardboard cut out to New York instead of President Obama himself.

It takes only 20 seconds to see 130 pictures where he has exactly the same expression in every single shot.

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

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Uninsured 22-Year-Old Boehner Constituent Dies From Swine Flu

From ThinkProgress:

A 22-year-old woman from Oxford, Ohio, died from swine flu on Wednesday. Kimberly Young graduated from Miami University in December and continued to live in Oxford, Ohio, within Minority Leader John Boehner’s congressional distrct. Reports now indicate that after initially getting sick, Young put off treatment because she was uninsured.

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Public Option update

McJoan over at DKos has a good update as to where the public option stands in the Senate Finance Committee (that committee is currently in the middle of its mark-up, which basically means they're debating, and voting on, amendments and after that's done they'll vote on whether to send the bill to the full Senate). Joan includes an action alert as to who to contact in the Senate, and their contact info. It's the weekend, so offices are closed, by their voice mail is open, as are their email in boxes. So please do contact them. Read More......

"It's just like the Hitler Youth all over again"

Democrats, and the White House, need to shut this kind of talk down, immediately. They didn't stop it when it first started, a long time ago, and now it's finally getting traction and is no longer considered that extreme. And in fact, conservatives are finding stories that fit their Hitler narrative - stupid things like this school singing a pro-Obama song. (I wouldn't want my kid's school, had I a kid, singing a pro-Bush song, but one school making a mistake does not a national socialist Hitler movement make.) These stories are damaging the president, and the Democratic party. They're not being shut down, they're being permitted to fester, and they're growing. All we can do is repeat the refrain that the Democrats, and the White House, need to hire someone who knows how to fight back, and then give them the permission to fight back. The Netroots is one example of a resource the Democratic party has that has a proven ability to fight back. We're ready to help. Read More......

80s dating morning open thread

Clips from videos guy made for dating services in the 1980s. Hy-sterical.

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Mott the Hoople

Between the guitars and the permed hair, you know it's the 1970s. I sure hope the band wasn't operating any heavy machinery after the gig. Read More......

British Air to charge extra for sitting together, choosing aisle or window

(NOTE FROM JOHN: This is actually much worse. What they're saying is that you can't reserve your own seat, period, unless you pay extra. They will pick you a seat at random (wanna bet it's a middle seat?), unless you pay $15 to $100 more per ticket.)

They can go Cheney themselves. Even in the best of times, this was about the worst major airline around. The crew is always miserable and the BA service inflexible. Whenever I price shop their costs are never very good, but even if it were I would choose another airline. Now they want up to $100 if you want to sit together with your spouse or kids. Imagine flying on vacation with the family and being asked to pay a premium for keeping everyone together. (For some families, sitting apart may be preferred.) Just another reason to avoid this horrible airline like the plague.

The new charges, which range from £10 to £60, will hit people who wish to ensure they sit together on a flight or secure a window, aisle or emergency-exit seat.

BA will still allow passengers to reserve seats without charge in the 24 hours before departure. But from 7 October those willing to pay will be able to secure their preferred spot in the cabin when they make a booking. BA said the move would "give customers more control over their seating options".

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British royals untouchable in budget cut debate

Worthless and so damned expensive. At least everyone else who is facing cutbacks knows that everyone is in it together. Almost.

The Royal Family is to be exempt from any cuts in public spending next year when its civil list funding is settled for the next 10 years.

Although all of the major political parties are vying to demonstrate their willingness to wield the axe on public spending, MPs will be powerless to reduce the £7.9m a year paid under the civil list because of an obscure deal struck between Buckingham Palace and the Treasury in 1972 when the current legislation governing royal finances was drawn up.

Palace officials made clear earlier this summer that they are actually seeking a rise in the annual civil list payment to cover "increased costs" despite the fact that they currently have a £21m surplus in the reserves on the civil list account.

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But is it art?

I got to hang out last night with Matthieu Lerondeau, a top French Internet political strategist, and the geek for Segolene Royal's unsuccessful bid for the French presidency a few years back. One of Matthieu's employees at his firm, Netscouade, was telling me about a form of "Net-art" that consists of compiling Google photos on a specific topic. One of the most famous is "woman eating grapes." Alexandre, the employee, sent me a link to the grape chick. I'm intrigued, but also feeling a bit old. What do you think - is it art?


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