Friday Wander

I've been busy today with job hunting stuff but thought I would take a break and see what is going on.


Looks like Condi and Shrub have told Israel to go ahead and finish trashing the Gaza strip and clean out all those bothersome Palestinians. Of course, the rationale is completely illogical and full of shit but that's what they do. Only 18 days.

Christy at FDL has revealed another Shrub finger in the eye...

"Look what the Bushies have turned into a cash cow bonanza before leaving office, only eight years after Richard Clarke told them it was desperately needed and they ignored him. Until now. Hmmmm. . . let's see. . . what could the reason be?"

Over at La Vida Locavore

With the arrival of 2009, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes nearly a billion people a day go hungry worldwide. While India supplies Switzerland with 80% of its wheat, 350 million Indians are food-insecure. Rice prices have nearly tripled since early 2007 because, according to The International Rice Research Institute, rice-growing land is being lost to industrialization, urbanization and shifts to grain crops for animal feed.

Mustang Bobby went and cleaned up his act and has a new look... though I think he broke his RSS feed in the process.

Economic news:

Manufacturing activity fell more than expected in December, hitting the lowest reading in 28 years as new orders and employment continue to decline.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Friday its manufacturing index fell to 32.4 in December from 36.2 in November. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the reading to fall to 35.5.

Which is really interesting since the stock market is up almost 300 points today.

Speaking of the economy... Paul Krugman takes a look at the Republican Party of 2008, which is still sixties somewhere while the country has changed pretty dramatically since then.

But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.

Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.

Meanwhile, it looks as if someone in South Florida has taken the cue from the Iraqi shoe thrower and gone a little crazy...

MIAMI — State troopers are looking for a charity to take thousands of shoes that were dumped on a Miami expressway, tying up rush hour traffic. Lt. Pat Santangelo says the Florida Highway Patrol received a call about the shoes Friday morning.

Lastly, Huffpo is telling us that Caroline Kennedy is going to step into Hillary's slot in the Senate.