"People are Crazy and the Times are Strange"*

*Bob Dylan

++The National Journal opines "It's hard to read the S&P analysis as anything other than a blast at Republicans." Of course, the GOP disagrees and all GOP presidential hopefuls blame Obama but no one can tell you why.

++Michelle Bachmann has called for Tim Geitner's resignation and that President Obama must reveal his economic plans before the market opens on Monday. President Obama actually did spell out his plans in his Weekly Address but no one I know listens to his messages anymore.

++The Chinese government said that America's borrowing days are over. They have called for a one-world currency since they claim the days of the dollar as the world's reserve currency are over. This has been floated by the Chinese over the past four years. But now it might gain some momentum.

++A New York Times op-ed read my mind. It argues that Obama should adopt Nixon's Madman Bomber strategy of politics. But Charles Fried writing at the Daily Beast says that a decent, honest politician like President Obama doesn't stand a chance against tea baggers and today's GOP. Andrew Sullivan in his Daily Dish defends Obama as one of the most effective politician's ever whose achievements have already been substantial and suprassed Reagan's first term. Mother Jones defends Obama as having adopted more progressive policies than anyone in a long time. Bill Maher says that Obama should forget being afraid of looking like an angry black man. Maybe Nixon's madman approach might work--scare Mitch McConnell into thinking he's off his rocker.

++Jon Huntsman has taken the cudgel out against fellow Mormon Mitt Romney. This is a controversy one should watch. Huntsman charges that Mitt has to come clean on all the business he does with the Chinese government and the Chinese elite. It seems Bain Capital under his control did massive business with the Chinese and these ties remain hidden.

++You would never know it from our crack press corps but Israel is exploding. The "tent city protests" named after the tents erected in public squares have morphed into the "mother of all demos". As of now, they have reached 300,000 or about 4% of that country's population. Originally started in Tel Aviv, the demonstrations have spread throughout the country. Nearly 30,000 protesters are camped outside Bibi's Jerusalem residence. What began as a protest against the Knesset passing a Housing bill designed to fast track construction without public review has been transformed into a movement protesting everything from the settlements to human rights. It is the equivalent if 12 million took to the streets in the U.S. An Israeli Spring? Israeli journalists are saying "Bibi is toast." That the Likud coalition government can not stand such an unprecedented rejection by Israelis.

++What to make of Rick Perry's "The Response"--his radical right Christian prayerfest today? Not since Robert Duvall in The Apostle or Farting Preacher 5 have we seen such a spectacle. While his college transcripts show he is as dumb as a sack of rocks, he is slick as snot when it comes to acting the preacher. Check out his act on NYTimes.com. I have to say that I don't come from a tradition that actually quotes the Book of Joel. For the background of the various preachers and prophets check out www.rightwingwatch.com , which has gone beyond the call of duty in listing every bizarre notion these people have ever entertained. Is this the new transformation of the teabaggers--Christian nationalists fronting for the corporations?

++Speaking of fronts--the Koch Brothers' favorite Americans for Prosperity have poured millions into Wisconsin for the recall elections. But they seemed to have slipped up. Americans for Prosperity is being sued by the Democratic Party for sending out mock write-in balllots to Democrats in all six districts facing recall elections on Tuesday. These ballots had the date wrong for the election and voters were asked to send the ballot to a "An Absentee Ballot Processing Center" located at the post office box of a Pro-Life Group. Little media attention has been paid to the fire that destroyed the We Are Wisconsin headquarters, which has been coordinating the recall campaigns against the Republicans. Meanwhile Scott Walker has absented the scene and not making appearances after his disasterous appearance at the State Fair.

++Fox News still loves Saul Alinsky. I thought once Glenn Beck absented the scene our meastro of organizing would recede back into historical memory. No. The Obama Administration appears to have adopted Alinskyite techniques by using Spongebob Squarepants as a way to brainwash children about the environment. Previously, Spongebob was seen as advancing gay causes.

++So far the PPP polls show a pattern emerging in key Swing States. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are basically tied in Florida, Pennsylvania and Nevada. President Obama beats everyone else ,including the new number 2 candidate Rick Perry. GOP pollsters say that with Romney as a nominee their chances are even in taking back the White House. Curious, if you are a determinist who believes the unemployment rate will doom Obama. Apparently, the GOP field is so weak that the best they will give it is 50-50.

++Where are the patriots? President Obama announced his new initiative to give tax breaks to corporations for hiring our 1 million unemployed veterans. I felt there was something odd about the announcement. Usually on such an initiative that is wrapped in the American flag, you would expect the President to be flanked by corporate leaders who have already made commitments to the program. Not so. None were there.

++In his speech announcing this initiative, President Obama singled out a veteran who served as a Medic in Afghanistan, saved over 50 lives and was awarded the Bronze Star. The soldier returned to Wyoming and wanted to work for EMS, something he clearly could do given his service. He used the GI Bill to take the necessary courses to upgrade his skills and still no job. He then took college courses to get a degree. Still no job. Have we gone so low in this country that no business leader,medical practice or hospital doesn't recognize it might be a good idea--just for PR--to hire a Bronze Star recipient?

++Why is it that we don't hear from our captains of industry about the need to rehabilitate our national infrastructure? If you watched any discussion on this subject, you will see The President, Senator Kerry, former Governor Ed Rendell and Teamster President James Hoffa. I was part of a study group in the late 1980s which proposed a similar project like the Infrastructure Bank because at that time it was clear that the United States was neglecting its infrastructure. By now it has become critical. Chris Matthews woke up with a wonderful idea. He urged viewers to photograph bridges and roads in decay,locate their congressional district and send the congressman the photos as a way to stimulate public support for such a program. We are now talking about 1,000s of bridges in the United States that have been rated as dangerous and seriously degraded. Only a few years ago we had the tragedy of the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota during Tim Pawlenty's reign, which dramatized the situation.

++My conservative friends love to say that the United States has all the oil and coal right here that we can be independent of foreign energy sources. They blame President Obama for not exploiting these resources. Where are the journalists asking about the thousands of leases that have already been given out to oil and gas companies over the past four years? How many actually have been used? This issue surfaced during the BP oil spill when Interior temporarily restrained deep offshore drilling. The argument of Secretary Salazar was that the oil companies had all these leases but have not invested anything in exploiting them. Where are these people? And as a little kicker, is oil produced in America really American? Does it stay here? It's not like we have a national oil company like China or Saudi Arabia. It's global oil. Natural gas is another story.

++Standard and Poors is threatening to retaliate on the criticism by the Obama Administration on their downgrade. Could we just invoke the 14th Amendment? Get rid of the debt ceiling. And finally tell these rating agencies and our corporate world that America is bigger than you. I have gotten the impression over the last year that somehow all Washington has to react according to markets, rating agencies and statements from bankers, when they are the guys who got us into this mess. Robert Reich has been out on television taking the fight to them, while others are supine. The call for economic nationalism right now would win alot of public support.

++And now the case of Don Vance. Some of us have been frustrated by the Administration's avoiding the prosecution of the lawyers who wrote the "Torture Memos" and the CIA psychologists who devised the torture "program". Basically, the courts have dismissed cases brought by Muslims who claimed torture. But under the radar have emerged at least three cases where Americans have separately brought cases against Donald Rumsfeld as authorizing their torture. Keith Olbermann had Don Vance, a white male, Navy veteran, who has sued in court that he had been tortured for 97 days at Camp Cropper in Iraq. He served as a defense contractor and had uncovered an illicit arms trade between our military and the Iraqi militias. Upon return to Chicago, he contacted the FBI about what he knew and saw and was recruited as an undercover agent and sent back to Iraq. There in the middle of the night, he was handcuffed and shackled and taken to Camp Cropper and underwent sleep deprivation, food manipulation, walling and stimulation bombardment. He says he wasn't waterboarded. After 97 days, he was taken to the airport and put on a plane to Amman, Jordan. He claims the USG has attempted to settle with him many times but he refuses. His case will be heard by the Circuit Court soon. It will be fascinating to see where this goes--especially since it has nothing to do with terrorism, just whistleblowing.

**C.C. blew the game against the Red Sox and yesterday Mariano Rivera picked up his 29th save.