Krugman: This is a Depression

Over the past year, I’ve seen these words posted by many of the FP’ers here, and they are thus: “It’s sad to see what passes for happy news about our economy these days.” IMHO, folks are grabbing at straws. Frankly, I get the sense from some that it’s bordering on (wilted) “green shoots” déjà vu. Those talking points didn’t work for our Party in 2010, and they sure as hell won’t do the job for us in 2012. Perhaps, as Paul Krugman notes in Monday’s NY Times (and if you read the collective commentary of some of the better-known economic pundits in the MSM over the past 48 hours), we really are teetering on the abyss. READ MORE

Deadly Attack on NATO Convoy in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan — Gunmen attacked NATO oil tankers stranded in southwest Pakistan for the second time in days as Islamabad warned it could enforce its blockade of the US lifeline into Afghanistan for weeks.

The attackers shot dead a driver and destroyed seven tankers in a blaze of fire late Sunday, the second attack in four days in Pakistan's volatile region of Baluchistan, which is rife with separatists and Taliban militants.

There was no claim of responsibility but Pakistan's fragile alliance with the United States crashed to new lows after November 26, when NATO air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in what Pakistan said was a deliberate attack.
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Mystery Company Buying Up US Gun Manufacturers

By Natasha Singer, The New York Times 04 December 11 Lined up in a gun rack beneath mounted deer heads is a Bushmaster Carbon 15, a matte-black semiautomatic rifle that looks as if it belongs to a SWAT team. On another rack rests a Teflon-coated Prairie Panther from DPMS Firearms, a supplier to the U.S. Border Patrol and security agencies in Iraq. On a third is a Remington 750 Woodsmaster, a popular hunting rifle. The variety of rifles and shotguns on sale here at Cabela's, the national sporting goods chain, is a testament to America's enduring gun culture. But, to a surprising degree, it is also a testament to something else: Wall Street deal-making. READ MORE

The Return of Bad Newt

By Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns, Politico

04 December 11

The all-too-familiar character from the 1990s has only peeked out in public a handful of times so far. But already, Newt Gingrich flush with pride over new polls showing his left-for-dead candidacy now leading the pack - is letting his healthy ego roam free again, littering the campaign trail with grand pronouncements about his celebrity, his significance in political history and his ability to transform America. "I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress," Gingrich said this week on Sean Hannity's show. "I'm going to be the nominee," he informed ABC News while in Iowa. "I was charging $60,000 a speech and the number of speeches was going up, not down," Gingrich said in South Carolina, explaining why he didn't actually need his consulting fee from Freddie Mac. "Normally, celebrities leave and they gradually sell fewer speeches every year. We were selling more." READ MORE

Gingrich: 5-Year-Olds Working Is an 'Education in Life'

By David Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday that it was good life experience for children as young as five or six to have a job. For more than a week, the candidate has been talking about the virtues of child labor, calling current restrictions "truly stupid." "I got a little controversy going a week ago because I suggested that children could work," Gingrich told a forum with local business leaders in Greenville, South Carolina Thursday. He explained that a successful young woman had told him that her grandfather had paid her to run errands at the age of five. He also gave the example of a father that paid his 6-year-old son to help him wash the car and clean up the yard. "Now, this is education in life," Gingrich declared.READ MORE

Mitt Romney Isn't Made Of Clear Plastic

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 04:00 PM PST By Nicole Belle The DNC has come out with a pretty effective ad about Mitt Romney that hopefully should start getting a lot of play. You know, for a guy who is charitably described as "plastic," transparency doesn't come easily. I have to admit that I finally had an epiphany on Romney over the weekend when I first saw the ad. They call Romney a career politician and there was a part of my brain that said, "hold on, that's not really correct, is it? The only office he's held is Governor of Massachusetts and that was only for a single term." But you know what? He really *is* a career politician...just not a very successful one. READ MORE Web Video: "Mitt Through the Ages"

Colbert Roasts Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner