Video: Let sleeping kittens lie

This video made me laugh, twice.

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Suicides increasing among US troops

From AP:

Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year — the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war.

The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.

The numbers reflect a military burdened with wartime demands from Iraq and Afghanistan that have taken a greater toll than foreseen a decade ago. The military also is struggling with increased sexual assaults, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other misbehavior.

I've worried for a while about the cost of war on individual servicemembers over all these years.  How do you live every minute of every day worrying about being killed, and not have it takes it toll after a matter of days, if not months and years?

I had and interview with Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz about the financial cost of war, which includes the cost of treating wounded (both physically and psychologically) servicemembers.  Stiglitz estimated that Iraq and Afghanistan will end up costing the US more than $3 trillion. Here's that interview:

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ABC's "This Week" to have Ann Coulter on Sunday roundtable

If I were a conservative I'd be offended by the people the media choose to be my representatives.

Whether it's CNN's version of a conservative blogger (and there are sane conservative bloggers CNN could have hired), or inviting Ann Coulter to be on This Week's roundtable, usually reserved for serious people.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't remember anyone this un-serious ever being invited on the roundtable.

At some point, you just have to say no to political and intellectual pornography, regardless of how much it may titillate some viewers.  It's likely to turn off just as many other viewers who don't turn on This Week looking for an upscale version of the Jerry Springer show.

#FAIL Read the rest of this post...

Mitt Romney forgets what a donut is

(H/t McKay Coppins at Buzzfeed) Read the rest of this post...

"The private sector is doing fine"

The President is taking some heat for saying during today's press conference that "the private sector is doing fine."

The Republicans are, understandably, jumping all over this.  While Democratic-leaning writers, like Dave Weigel, are defending the President, saying that in context the President's comments are true and not particularly clumsy:

This is what Obama said.

We've created 4.3 million jobs over the past 27 months. Over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing problems is with state and local government, often with cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help they're accustomed to from the federal government.

This isn't even particularly clumsy phrasing.

Brian Beutler posts a graph showing, I believe, that the government sector is continuing to cut jobs (which is disturbing), while the private sector is continuing to create jobs on a steady path upwards (on the current path it will take another 2 years and then some before we have the same number of jobs in the private sector that we had before the economy collapsed).

Is that proof private sector job growth is doing fine?  (As someone who works in the private sector, things don't feel particularly "fine.") I've asked a few economist friends their opinion and will report back.

I will say one thing, about which I am an expert: PR.  I'm sorry to disagree with Dave, but the phrasing was terribly clumsy politically.  It's not clear how anyone in the White House could write that line, let alone permit the President to say it publicly, when it should have been clear that the line would provoke immediate puzzlement from the public at large, derision from the Republicans, and glee in the media.

UPDATE: The President clarifies via Jake Tapper that the economy is not doing fine.

With Republicans seizing upon remarks he made earlier in the day that “the private sector is doing fine” – arguing that they show a president out of touch with an ailing economy — President Obama sought to clarify his remarks Friday afternoon.

“It’s absolutely clear the economy is not doing fine,” the president said while sitting alongside Philippines President Benigno Aquino in the Oval Office. “That’s the reason I had a press conference. That’s why I spent yesterday, the day before yesterday, this past week, this past month and this past year talking about how we can make the economy stronger. The economy is not doing fine. There are too many people out of work. The housing market is still weak, too many homes underwater and that’s precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference.”

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6.6m more kids have health care due to Obamacare

The administration shouldn't let this data speak for itself.  They should tout it from the mountaintops.

A new survey suggests that 6.6 million Americans under the age of 26 have taken advantage of a provision in the new health care law that allows them to join their parents' insurance plan. That's the largest ever one-year increase in coverage for the age group.

For all of its disappointments, and we've documented many in the past, Obamacare does some extremely important things. Among them, letting kids under the age of 26 get on their parents' health insurance plans. (It also gets rid of pre-existing condition exclusions from coverage and annual limits on benefits, both huge changes.)

The problem for the Obama administration has been almost a fear of owning health care reform. Yes, a few months ago they finally tried to start touting the importance of the legislation. But not enough. They need to be out there every day telling people what they've already gained, and what they are going to lose, if Obamacare is overturned by the Supreme Court, or by the GOP congress and Mitt Romney.

Every time Mitt Romney talks about repealing Obamacare, he should be asked why he wants to take away health care from 6.6m kids, and why he wants to reinstitute pre-existing conditions, and annual limits on benefits.

The Republicans understand the way the game is played. If you repeat something enough, it becomes the truth. And its corollary, if you don't repeat the truth enough, it becomes a lie in the mind of the public.

The administration should own the stimulus and own Obamacare (and in my opinion, they ran from each before they were even passed). President Obama saved this country from another Great Depression, and he did some good things with Obamacare that on one realizes.

Democrats have for far too long permitted Republicans to lie about these achievements and convince the public that each was ineffective. The only way to turn around the lie is to tell the truth even louder and more often.

Why is our party so ineffective at messaging when so many of our activists excel at it? Read the rest of this post...

US banks with $60 billion shortfall

If the US taxpayer is going to help the banks in any way (including more free money loans) it's critical that the US government gets major concessions from the banks. We've repeatedly been assured by the banks that all is well and there are no more problems but a $60 billion hole is not insignificant.

For starters, we have to get back to the critical issue of breaking up the too-big-to-fail mega banks. Somehow (cough, lobbyist money) the issue fell off the radar among the political class. What surprise will be next?

The 19 largest US banks are at least $50 billion short of meeting new capital requirements under the Basel III accords, according to rules proposed by the Federal Reserve.

The biggest among them would probably need billions of dollars more by the 2019 deadline to comply fully with the rules.

Smaller US lenders are about $10 billion short of the requirements, the Fed said on Thursday.

The Fed’s proposals, which will be phased in from next year, are part of a larger package implementing the Basel III accords in the US.

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82% of Catholics say birth control is morally acceptable

That means the Catholic church doesn't speak for most Catholics on a key doctrine of modern-day Catholicism.

The Catholic church doesn't represent a majority of Catholics on issue after issue.  At some point, someone is going to wise up and realize that if the church doesn't even represent a majority of its own faithful, then who exactly is it speaking on behalf of when it keeps throwing its weight around on issue after issue in American politics?

Answer: The Republican party.

The serial rape of children really does take it toll on one's moral authority. Read the rest of this post...

Nate Silver: Obama slightly ahead for re-elect, but only slightly

Nate Silver, blogger and electoral numbers guru, reports over at the NYT that the election is close, but that the President still has the lead, though slightly.

Nate explains that while the President has the lead in key states polls, Romney is often ahead in national polls. He attempts to explain why, in addition to giving a monster analysis of how things look, state by state. Read the entire thing. Here are a few key paragraphs about what he calls "tipping point states":

The term the model uses for these key states is tipping point states, meaning that they could tip the balance between winning and losing in an election that came down to the final vote.

Foremost among these tipping point states are Ohio and Virginia. In 2008, both states had a very slight Republican lean relative to the rest of the country. However, the economy is comparatively good in each state, and Mr. Obama’s polling has held up reasonably well in them, putting them almost exactly in balance. Mr. Obama is given just slightly over 50 percent odds of winning each one, just as he is given a very slight overall lead in our national projection. But if Mr. Obama’s national standing slips, he would probably lose his lead in those states as well.

In the next tier of states are Colorado, Iowa, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The first three of these states project to be almost as close as Ohio and Virginia, but they are somewhat less important than it because they contain fewer electoral votes.

Pennsylvania is the reverse case: it is more of a reach for Mr. Romney, but has 20 electoral votes and therefore offers him a huge reward. Even if Mr. Obama were to win states like Virginia and Colorado, it would be nearly impossible for him to win the Electoral College if he lost both Ohio and Pennsylvania along with Florida.

Taken by itself, however, Florida may be a less valuable prize than usual. Right now, the polls there show almost an exact tie. But the model views Florida as leaning toward Mr. Romney, for several reasons.

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Video: Sweet Talkin' Woman, by ELO

1977. Freshman year of high school. ELO is young Chicago for me. And now that I'm spending some time back home, the old music is coming back to me. Haven't listened to ELO in years. It's been far too long. This is one of the top songs on my iphone right now. Hope you enjoy.

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Assad's regime accused of yet another massacre

The situation is not and will not improve as long as Assad remains in power. How many more massacres will have to happen before Russia and China allows the UN to step in with a better response? The Guardian:

Syria's government was accused on Wednesday of carrying out a new massacre in a small village near the central city of Hama, with an opposition group claiming 100 people, including many women and children, had been killed.

"We have 100 deaths in the village of al-Qubair, among them 20 women and 20 children," said Mohammed Sermini, spokesman for the Syrian National Council, who accused the regime of being behind the incident.

The news looked certain to fuel a bitter debate about the increasingly bloody Syrian crisis and to underline the limits of what a deeply divided international community can achieve.

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