I don’t think growth will rebound, certainly not to a level that would lead to a rapid reduction in the unemployment rate. In fact, if the economy improves and more people return to the labor force, the result could be an uptick in that rate. We’re still moving at stall speed, not enough to return growth to trend, though not so slow to sink into recession. And then a European bank could fail and cause ripple effects that put us right back into the pit. We have the tools to solve this crisis, but the best we can hope for in Washington is that they don’t do anything actively harmful.

Depending on which polling firm you ask, the leader in Iowa with only days until the caucus is either Ron Paul or Mitt Romney. According to CNN/ORC poll Romney is in first place followed by Paul.

Here’s another unfortunate and completely predictable consequence of our drone wars: when they become unsustainable, and the CIA or JSOC have to leave the country which they carpet-bombed, the natives who helped them designate targets get marked for death.

This feels suspiciously like “he came in and trashed the place and it’s not his place” journalism. Maybe the ghost of David Broder animated this journalist for the purposes of the story.

From Raw Story and via Gawker, we learn that Mitt Romney wants to commercialize all of PBS, apparently because he doesn’t understand that China holding US debt isn’t about government spending profligacy but is connected to their exchange rate and export policies and our desire to watch football on 60 inch televisions. But never mind that.

A variety of links to articles/interviews on current topics that may, or may not, be of interest.

The latest Iowa Republican poll is out trying to predict the caucus, a process of people often coalescing around their second choices — in this case, the person who hates gay people who have abortions the next most intensely.

Waylon Jennings – I`ve Always Been Crazy

Friend of the Blend, Joe Murray, a former staff attorney for the American Family Association, has written a sizzling op-ed in the Des Moines Register addressing the Wildmon family hate machine’s participation in the 2012 GOP Clown Car endorsement game.

I have to applaud the persistence of some of the Occupy efforts.