Breathtaking

President Obama has another weekly address that is breathtaking in its honesty and clarity. It stands as a welcome counterpoint to the repuglican strategy to be breathtakingly dishonest and obstructionist as a time of great national crisis.


Speaking of national crisis, atrios tells us the vacancy rate is 1 in 7

The vacancy rate is stunning.

Across the nation, 19 million houses and apartments — nearly one out of every seven — are vacant, the highest percentage since the 1960s. But only about six million of those homes are for sale or for rent. That means millions more could still flood onto the market, depressing prices further.

Benen says 'IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ENOUGH, FOLKS'....

During the debate over the economic stimulus package, there were a few voices raising concerns that the spending wasn't nearly ambitious enough for the task at hand. Those voices were largely ignored, especially by major news outlets, which focused on how it could be smaller.

The result was a good bill that could have been far better. And now there are growing indications that, as a result of congressional efforts to shrink the bill and the administration's overly-honest approach to negotiating, policymakers may have to try again.

The nation is losing jobs so quickly that the government, racing to deal with the crisis, is having trouble keeping up.... It also means that the government faces even more pressure to take further action to stabilize the economy and the financial system. [...]

The stimulus package was designed to "save or create" 3.5 million jobs, according to the administration. But the nation has already lost 4.4 million jobs since the start of the recession. ...

Heather Boushey, senior economist with the Center for American Progress, said, "It's not going to be enough, folks. I hate to break it to you."

Various folks have picked up on this video, including C&L: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi tells us how he really feels about Rush Limbaugh on Hardball. I've never seen Matt pull his punches and he sure as hell doesn't hold back here. But I think they are missing the key point here. Sandwiched between Taibbi comments we see "very serious person" Margaret Carlson telling us that Limbaugh is very entertaining and intellectual and beloved by many. She is part and parcel of the msm culture that finds Limbaugh acceptable and fun ... and welcome. This is the same Margaret Carlson who found it so very very entertaining to make fun of Al Gore in 2000, and was very much a player in the media gang rape that helped turn the election to Bush. Why is she on my teevee? Really, why is she allowed out in public?