Vivid AND reasonable. Thank you.

Great report, Kevin. Thanks for staying on top of the story.

I don’t quite understand this sentence:

The State’s Attorney claimed Church “wanted to recruit four co-conspirators (16 people) to conduct the raids, and that reconnaissance had already been conducted at CPD Headquarters located at 3510 South Michigan Avenue for the purpose of a planned attack.”

4 co-conspirators = 16 people?

An unattended detail from today’s live blog at the Athens News: Greece owes 430 million euros on bonds come Tuesday. My understanding is that these maturing bonds fell under UK law and thus outside the negotiated Private Sector Involvement bond deal (aka partial default). Apparently, for want of a government, nobody knows whether Greece is going to pay it or not.

http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/8/55470

“Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis has said he asked Prime Minister Lucas Papademos to decide whether the country will pay a remaining amount of 430 million euros of a bond maturing on May 15, which was not part of a major bond swap. “I have not taken a position on whether the bond should or should not be paid,” Filippos Sachinidis told Reuters. “I have sent a letter to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos asking him to consult with political party leaders and make a decision,” he added.”

Why Is “Fail Whale” Trade a Problem for Romney, and Not the Administration That Watered Down the Volcker Rule?

It’s a trick question. The answer is: Because President has said he supports gay marriage.

As for the poll showing that traders support Obama’s re-election, I’m trying to imagine why the London Whale, French-born Bruno Michel Iksil, wouldn’t vote for Obama if given the chance. Can’t think of any.

The GREAT news is that Obama is an unprincipled lying sack of shit. The stench of political calculation steams from this almost laughably-timed announcement. “I personally see nothing wrong with same-sex marriage — though of course states shouldn’t feel obliged to share my opinion (after all it’s not a human right we’re talking about), and Lord knows federal contractors shouldn’t feel that they can’t discriminate against same-sexers in the workplace.” This whole disgusting and insulting story of Obama’s “evolving” (“You know, a few days ago I didn’t believe same-sexers should be allowed to marry — despite the reports of my public opinion years ago”) only goes to prove that the Mayberry Machiavellis of his re-election campaign have decided Obama won’t lose any votes with such a position. That is political progress, American style.

“NOTA” — isn’t that the anglicized pronunciation of the Spanish “nada” — nothing?

Hmm…cut food stamps as an offset to other costs. Now where have I heard that before.

http://washingtonindependent.com/91851/obey-white-house-suggested-cutting-food-stamps-to-pay-for-edujobs-funding

The Washington Post story makes clear the Gang of Six were the relative liberals in the whole process. Lord help us.

Thanks for the link. One hates to invoke the execrable Allen West to support any position, but of course no Democrat is going to question improving jobs numbers. The academic cited in the article presumably is a more credible critic, but in the end we all have to do extra legwork to try and understand what’s really going on.

And I imagine the powers that be are counting on few people having the time or inclination to do any such thing. I have even just seen a posting from Dean Baker here on FDL which appears to accept all the numbers as given. It is not encouraging that economists don’t look more closely at the BLS-massaged numbers with something like skepticism.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, the BLS figures showing considerable job growth are peculiar at best. The non-seasonally adjusted employment data provide an interesting corrective:
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/dsrv

The nation’s total employment in November 2011 was 133.172 million. It decreased to 132.952 million in December, a loss of 220,000 employed workers. In January 2012 the total employment dropped to 130.263 million, a loss of 2.689 million employed workers in one month. For the two months this totals 2.909 million fewer employed workers in the country — which the BLS has managed to turn into a net gain of over 400,000 new jobs over the two months, through the alchemy of seasonal adjustments and “losing” people — 1.2 million in January alone — from the work force.

I don’t know that the BLS has been politicized in any way, but their methodology does not appear to be an “open book” and so it’s hard not to be skeptical of the way the raw numbers are ultimately being spun.

Some sage advice from Lily Tomlin, the value of which gets proven virtually every day in American politics: “No matter how cynical you get, it’s almost impossible to keep up.”

My sentiments exactly. People talk of the Republican clown car, but I would add Obama as the Emmett Kelly of the group — the sober-faced buffoon intended to manipulate voters more cynically than anything else coming out of that car.

As others have observed: At last — the markets are behaving rationally.