Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thursday morning quick hits

23% That is aWol's approval rating in the latest Zogby poll. Only 16% believe the country is on the right track, down from 23% at the last poll. Both numbers represent record lows. "Bad economic news is settling in and Americans are getting anxiety ridden," Zogby said..."By any objective standard, when you look at economic indicators, there is no good news for people to read about or hear," he said. "Most economic indicators are pointing downward and Americans are absorbed by that." Consumer confidence hit a 28-year-low as the economy lost jobs and prices for food and consumer goods continued to climb, driven by spiraling oil prices and the still-imploding housing market.

34 That is the number of pages that were missing from the farm bill passed by Congress and sent to the president for his veto. Action on the override stalled when the error was discovered, and the White House got their glee on and started crowing that it was an opportunity for Congress to "fix" the bill. The House is expected to re-pass the entire bill today and send it on to the Senate. But the fly in the ointment is the fact that the current farm bill expires on Friday, so an extension to the current legislation will have to be passed, too. Congress wants to have the new bill passed by the Memorial Day recess so they can go back to the folks they represent and tout their efforts on behalf of their constituents.

Remember the White House's temper tantrum
over the Richard Engel interview, and the accusations of "selective editing" that erupted last week? The always-erudite Dan Froomkin does, and he deconstructs the White House pushback and concludes that the little bitch pitched a hissy-fit because he was actually, you know, challenged by Engel, who has more time in Iraq than any other correspondent and speaks fluent Arabic. He much prefers to sit down with the stenographers from the Politico and the fluffers from Faux News who can be counted on to pitch softballs.

Furman U Faculty are protesting Bush delivering this weekends commencement speech and are threatening to sit out the ceremony rather than be in his odious presence. What makes this particularly noteworthy is the fact that Furman is a conservative-leaning Baptist college.

McCain will miss Petraeus CENTCOM confirmation hearing
before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. He is out raising campaign cash instead. So far this session, McSame has missed 60% of the floor votes in the senate. In 2007, he missed so many votes that when the "liberal/conservative" rankings came out, he didn't even register.

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