Paul Krugman rightly gives Chris Christie hell for dropping out of the Hudson River rail tunnel project, the largest infrastructure project in the country. He explains that this is probably the worst possible time to cancel infrastructure projects, with unemployment in crisis and job growth stagnant. From not only a jobs standpoint but an economic development standpoint, this was a pathetically bad decision.

According to Colorado state law, a party’s candidate for governor must get over 10 percent of the vote to retain the legal status of a major party. If Maes fails to cross that threshold, the Republican Party in Colorado would be demoted to minor party status. At only 13 percent, this is the lowest Maes has been in the polls. The general trend of all polling has Maes steadily losing support as the right-leaning vote coalesces around Tom Tancredo, who is running on the American Constitution Party ticket. Although the chance is probably remote, there is at least a possibility that Maes could fail to get 10 percent in the general election.

Jon Stewart is right; the “win” of yesterday actually just got us back to square one. It retained due process for homeowners, but we’re still in the midst of a total morass, which no clear path out.

the economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, with the topline unemployment rate unchanged at 9.6%. 77,000 of those losses came from reductions at the 2010 US Census, so taking that out of the equation you’re still at -18,000. The private sector gained 64,000 jobs, the ninth straight month of private-sector gains. But government and public-sector jobs outside the Census also crashed, a victim of continued rolling budget cuts, mostly in education. That has furthered the jobs crisis.

Data octopus. That’s how one European Parliament official described the US’ continued grab for unfettered access to more and more European data.

Another “The Rules are for the Little People” wingnut goes down.

Did someone say hypocrite?

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals — Paris (Ohh La La).

Today is a birthday. I usually like birthdays a lot, because everybody at the party is happy. But today’s birthday is not a happy one. I heard on television that nine years ago today, the fighting started in Afghanistan. Nine years seems like a really long time and it sounds like this fighting is really bad. A lot of people are dying over there.

According to Gallup, the number of unemployed Americans has ticked up noticeably from 9.4% in mid-September to 10.1%. Given that “Jobs and the Economy” is by far the dominant issue for voters right now, this is not good news for the incumbent party. . . and that would be the Democrats.