Good Tuesday morning to all. Some very interesting developments across the nation today involving Cuba, sexting, San Francisco-European-NY values...and we begin in Texas, a state I've been considering moving to...if I can:

Leading Drudge today, it looks like Texas is mad as hell at Washington telling it what to do, but it still needs the federal money..

Is this the thread where we will at long last discuss all the important topics?  Time will tell...

Saga continues with Somali pirates . American captain attempted to escape but was recaptured.

Wells Fargo is looking good. Stock rises on positive profit news. Not all is dire.

Happy Weekend.

Good Wednesday morning. Well, some very interesting news stories have hit the G. Reader today, and here are some that i'd with you. Topics include gay marriage, taxes, health care, inflation, and drugs. a little bit of everything.

When inflation goes very, very wrong: This is kinda funny, but it shouldn't be--the fact no one is stealing it is very telling.

The National Organization for Marraige ramps up their side of the 1M1W Marraige debate with scary storm clouds. I'm a little confused (still) about what exactly they are talking about, but the group is very diverse.

Nate Silver analyzes the paradox of taxes and deficits among American voters.

Via Mark Thoma , a good article on bubbles and depressions.

Central Italy rocked by 6.3 earthquake . over 92 dead and priceless medieval buildings fall in ruin.

NY Gov. hits new low in approval rating.

Have at it.

Promoted by skymutt... I have no authority here, but nobody minds, right?  These are good, should be good for open threads, and we are getting into the blue on the last open thread.

News Cycle Roundup time! Good morning! It's a wonderful 55 degrees here in NYC. And although I'd prefer mid-60s like the promise Spring brought growing up down south, I guess it won't be coming until May. Speaking of promises half fulfilled...

Obama: Make under 250K? As promised, your tax cut is here! I told you none of your taxes will go up..well, except these little taxes over here .

Media Matters is outraged because Fox News adopted the Republican budget op-ed as a Fox Fact .

Erick Ericson via Redstate: Grab your guns! Beat a state official! Fight for phosphates in Washington State!  So what if it's federalism at work. It's not how I like it though. Revolution! Aargh!

I really don't like when people criticize polls for "oversampling." Oversampling implies the pollster intentionally picks more Democrats (or Republicans) to get a result, but this assumes that the nation is 33% Democrat, 33% Republican, and 33% independent. I seriously doubt that's true.

Froma Harrop: Liberal Democrats,  be advised: You really need your Blue Dog counterparts .

American Spectator: Dodd is a Dud .

Scientific American: Economics and Rational Human Thought don't mix well .

Broder: Obama finally may be showing a little assertion .

No, not that one. This one : Fascism.

I know, I know... It's a bad, bad word to throw out there in serious discussion and a word that will surly get taken to mean something other than intended when talking about it in an economic context.
 

Obama gets quite active in the Auto Industry:

Some frustrated U.S. taxpayers cheered President Barack Obama's tough steps to shore up the reeling auto industry on Monday but critics called his decision to fire General Motors' chief a heavy-handed power grab.

Obama signs Omnibus Public Lands Management Act into law. (more below the fold)

That phrase was coined by Frederic Bastiat back in the mid 1800s. The wisdom and relevance of that phrase was echoed 100 years later as the heart of Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson .

Obama celebrates the Iranian New Year . See link for a clip of what was seen on TV in Iran this morning.

These are precisely the moments I'm glad he's the President and not McCain.

Obama on Leno . See transcript through the link. He doesn't support taxing the bonuses at 90%. I agree.

Hat tip to The Liberty Papers .

Will update with some news soon.  Hope all is well with everyone.

For a plethora of reasons, I'm generally sympathetic to and for the arguments of legalizing and/or decriminalizing drugs...especially marijuana. It's well covered territory on both sides of the argument but, in the end, the anti-legalization arguments fail to convince me that it's a better way to handle this issue. To me, it's not an issue of whether people can or will have access to these drugs because they do. So, "illegal" clearly does not mean "no access" or "diminished access" or "keeping us all drug free". Likewise, "legal" does not mean the opposite.

With regard to the Cramer vs. Stewart affair, Will Wilkinson offers some commentary based on this great piece by Glenn Greenwald .

Greenwald's main point:

...there's absolutely nothing about Cramer that is unique when it comes to our press corps. The behavior that Jon Stewart so expertly dissected last night is exactly what our press corps in general does --

...

Today is Friday the 13^th .  Are you superstitious about anything?

Stewart gave Cramer the business last night.  Do economic cable talk shows directly effect the market?

...only he doesn't seem like a real conservative in common usage of the term. (He seems more like the L word ;))

The governor from South Carolina has credentials...at least on a cursory level...to get me to finally vote GOP for President for the first time in my life.

Reason's Matt Welch has the story about new expose' on Sanford at the American Conservative magazine.

Highlights that caught my eye:

The SCOTUS severely limits the Voting Rights Act.

Obama calls for stricter teacher accountability .

Will Iraq's continuing deterioration cause Obama to readjust his withdrawal plans?

Why am I so tired today?  I know there was a time change and all, but come on!

What's the good word?