During a recession, demand for public transit goes up. People cannot afford cars and still need to find their away around their local communities. Smart public policy would have added funding for public transit, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it would support public transit jobs. Second, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Third, making it cheaper for folks to get around both increases productivity and makes it easier for someone to take a job outside their immediate area. So there are a lot of wins here.

I’m trying really hard to keep away from the 4,827 Rick Perry articles in the last day in the traditional media and lefty blogosphere. Rick Perry is the new shark attack story.

However, if we must look at the jobs record in Texas, we must. Kevin Drum has a decent enough rundown. I did my own version of this (I’ve been keeping myself to one Perry story a day). The story is familiar – an oil boom and population migration can explain much of the job gains in Texas, and even then, their unemployment rate is a high 8.2%, and a lot of the jobs created are low-wage.

If only Paul Krugman would STFU, I’m sure things would be just fine.

/s

To prevent a planned protest from going “viral,” Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in San Francisco shut down cell phone service at four stations on August 11. The hacktivist group Anonymous responded with plans that included a peaceful protest on August 15. Anonymous drew attention to a move that many believe has no precedent because no government agency has cut off communications out of fear that a protest might happen before.

As the chart shows the interest to GDP ratio is currently at a crushing 1.3 percent, near the post World War II low. However this figure overstates the burden somewhat. Last year the Federal Reserve Board refunded almost $80 billion to the Treasury. This was interest earned on government bonds and other assets it now holds. That leaves a net interest burden of 0.8 percent of GDP, by far the lowest of the post World War II era.

I’m not sure what to make of this. Sandoval’s dismissive response to Terkel indicates that this wasn’t an “oops” moment, and that OFA believes this is a sound political strategy.

Atrios says, “politicians gotta do what they gotta do and if attacking the Jane Hamshers Of The Left and KRGTHULU is the way to get money, love, and votes, then more power to them….If.”

I totally agree, if they’re doing this because they think it’s a good campaign strategy, do what you have to do. The qualifier, of course, is the if.

When the leaders of France and Britain got together yesterday, they were facing realities that are not kind to the European community’s economic future. That they suggested what is bound to stir a lot of bad feelings among the banksters, a tax on financial transactions, shows vision that we desperately need. The U.S. would be in much better shape for the future if there were even the slimmest prospect that such a concept could be floated here.

In 2008, I was one of the many who hit the streets, knocked at doors and stood under the hot Florida sun to help President Obama get elected. After two and a half years, what did I get from my hard work? 1 million deportations and a total devastation of my community! President Obama is the president that has deported more people in our nation’s history –with the grand majority posing no threat to society at all.

If this is the best they’ve got, this childish “If you like high taxes rates so much, why don’t you marry them?” argument, they don’t have much at all. Hilariously, some flak at Heritage tries the idea that Buffett “downplays the role taxation plays in investment decisions.” Because what would Warren Buffett know about investment decisions?

Reporting from on the ground (and by “on the ground” we allow that it could also encompass “from under the table”) “Citizen Journalist” Ann Althouse reports on the very important recall election in her home state of Wisconsin.