Felix Salmon.

That might explain some of that red shirt/yellow shirt stuff, though, as usual, the politics in Thailand are infinitely complex, compared to the childish variety we practive here.

I'd share the video, but the Bloomberg player won't let me. So here you go.

Did I not get the memo? Then again, she isn't returning to Harvard, so where is she going?

No knock on Warren, but I don't think her appointment makes any difference either way, since she'll be put on a short leash by Rahm and surrounded by thuggish staffers, and FinReg is a farce anyhow.

NOTE Unless she resigns on principle six months in, and runs as a Green. That might make a difference.

UPDATE Or runs in a D primary as a challenger from Obama's left? Pass the popcorn! Maybe that's what the hold up is?

Here. Not owned by BP, in "only" 2500 (AP; the Online WSJ says 380) feet and, according to DHS*, not producing. Again from the WSJ, the name of the rig is Vermillion Oil 380. NOLA has more details on the platform; records indicate it's on the Continental shelf, not in deep water. I'll sticky this if anybody wants to do a little updating.

This is what I keep saying: At the margins*, there's tremendous, innovative ferment -- innovation that doesn't show up in any of the numbers about "the economy," because it's not measured (or even, like so much these days, faked), and doesn't show up in our famously free press because it can't be fit into the prevailing narratives**. However, as soon as you put efforts like this under the rubric of "living rent free," everything falls into place. Eh?

Via Open Farm Tech:

The "kill switch" legislation:

Makes the need for mesh wireless Internet greater than ever as a way to route around a damaged government.

If this is too geeky for you, sklp it. And if it's not?

Pravda has the detail for the wannabe insiders. Romer's all "nobody could have predicted," and she was one of the better administration economists, which is why she's on the way out.

Why not a Jobs Guarantee?

Democrats unlikely to repeal tax cuts for the rich. Mission accomplished!

Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it.

Krugman: The Rs: "Obama went all in for Keynes, and failed."* The Ds: "Nobody could have predicted a bigger stimulus was needed."

After The Big O gives the greatest speech EVAH on Iraq, Booman does not disappoint:

[Obama] deserves credit for holding firm on his promise to remove all troops by next year.

Only the most died-in-the-Kool-Aid Opologist would give Obama credit in the present for keeping a promise in the future.

AEI's CEO, Arthur Brooks, is paid $675,000 a year in salary for servicing his owners, the Koch Brothers.

WV coal ash hearings begin. Read the whole thing for an interesting data point on Cass Sunstein; it's like "nudge" is the new "efficient markets hypothesis" or something.

Southern Studies:

Among the critical issues addressed in [Learning from Katrina]:

1. Poor disaster planning and response put thousands of Gulf residents in harm's way before, during and after Katrina. But after months of delays, FEMA is just now releasing its new disaster framework--and it still omits internationally-recognized standards for protecting storm victims.
2. Waste, fraud and abuse by private contractors hurt Katrina relief and recovery efforts and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Despite widespread calls for contracting reform, federal officials have yet to beef up contractor investigations and oversight that can prevent future scandals.
3. While most Gulf communities have turned the corner, the recovery remains fragile and uneven. Problems with affordable housing, schools and health care access are still big obstacles, and have been exacerbated by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and the BP oil disaster.

These are all features and not bugs. First, the MOTU are both disemploying American workers and disinvesting from America. To them, it makes no sense to rebuild at all, because they want to invest elsewhere anyhow. Second, the MOTU are the private contractors, and to them, collecting billions through fraud as A Good Thing, as we see in the world of finance. Third, to the MOTU, disaster is good, since it makes the lives of useless eaters harder, making them more willing to take shit jobs. The MOTU also wants to undermine the idea that government can actually help people, and the recovery FAIL helps that along.

But there is a bright side!

I kid you not.

Warm tomatoes. Right off the vine, with Maine sea salt. Some smoked sausage (not local, alas). Monkey-fister's three-day brine pickles.

OK, I took out the tag cloud. I guess tag clouds were cool two years ago, but no longer.

... and it looks like the Ds decided it was going to be them. Well done.

Archien has a lot to say about the broken signals in our fraud-ridden pricing system (see also Bill Black here, on signalling), but these paragraphs caught my eye because they're more practical. Follow potash:

Energy of course is fundamental, but even more so is food, you can go without energy a lot longer than without food. ... Mined potash is a necessary element to modern agriculture practices. Limited increasingly by area, that is Canada and Russia dwarf all other known reserves, the price of potash, like many other agriculture commodities went through a massive price spike before the financial crisis. Here's an interesting BBC discussion on the entire global agriculture issue (tx zerohedge). Pay attention to Hugh Hendry's quote near the end. He states,

"For thirty-years, the price of agriculture has collapsed, fallen 90% in real terms. So, we haven't invested in this sector. As a society, as a world society we acutely vulnerable to the business of feeding ourselves."

Agriculture prices have been falling for a couple hundred years. Modern agriculture practices developed in the last hundred years are totally tied to fossil fuels, and no doubt, the last three decades precipitous fall is also tied to the preceding great rise in commodity prices caused by the oil crisis of the 1970s. But Mr. Hendry's point is well taken, we haven't invested in agriculture, in large part because our bubble financial system of the past quarter-century has not accurately priced its importance. If you want to bet which of the great environmental threats will be the first to bite us, I'd put money on our completely unsustainable agriculture practices.

Yeppers.

Bloomberg. Could there be a reason why our elite keeps "losing" records of stuff? Could the reason be -- and this link, from Bill Black, is an absolute must read -- to conceal criminal behavior?

[UPDATE Amazingly, or not, The Rock Hill Herald, a much smaller McClatchy paper than the Charlotte News-Observe, which did the hit piece -- has much more actual reporting.

And snarky hit pieces masquerading as news are what I expect from Pravda, not McClatchy. (And why the hit piece*? Could Op-Eds like this from Greene be the reason?)

Card Carrying Buddhist sends this picture of one of her heirloom irises:

Readers, are any of you also rescuing heirloom plants? Flowers? Vegetables? Heck, trees? Maybe fruit trees for varieties that aren't in the corporate food chain? Those are great projects!

And how CCB does it:

Who's your favorite Beatle?