So here's the picture that scares me: It's September 2009, the unemployment rate has passed 9 percent, and despite the early round of stimulus spending it's still headed up. Mr. Obama finally concedes that a bigger stimulus is needed.

But he can't get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts. And as a result, the recession rages on, unchecked.

(only 9%? Krugman is quite the optimist!)

Really it's about the public sentiment. If, for whatever reason, you have 60%+ of the public in favor of X and you want to do X then you'll be in good position to get to do X. Among Krugman's many legitimate worries, it's the worry about the public's interest in the right solutions that he seems most worried about. He is concerned, for good reason, that public sentiment en masse is not rational, and is currently only with Obama for reasons that have to do with post election euphoria and honeymoon capital, relief over Bush's departure etc. That might well be right.

When I talk to people about the economy people are stone cold nervous, even terrified, but it's not clear to me what will happen as time goes on. In an atmosphere of of fear, which will certainly only increase as things continue to get worse, I see no reason to think that people will not stampede herd-like to whomever they think can get them out of this mess. Will they run back to congressional Republicans and free market ideology? I'm not convinced that they will.

And she blasts Coulter for helping to "perpetuate negative stereotypes" about Republican women. "I straight up don't understand this woman or her popularity," says McCain. "I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time."

She concedes that Coulter seems to be followed by a "cult that cannot be denied," and was a popular headliner at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, but adds that "when your competition is a teenager who has a dream about the Republican Party and Stephen Baldwin, it's not really saying that much."

It's not Coulter's politics, says McCain -- it's her personality. "Maybe her popularity stems from the fact that watching her is sometimes like watching a train wreck," she says.

And I wondered...has that phrase ever been added to other news stories? Such as:

State X today executed Prisoner Y, "a practice which some consider immoral."

An alleged Taliban leader was presumed killed, along with other persons, when a Predator drone fired missiles into a Pakistani village, "a practice some consider immoral."

The US invaded Iraq, "which some consider immoral."

But I doubt they're worried about the same things you are.

More worried it might get spent on the poor.  Probably just fine with it being spent on cops.  Some poor schmuck might try to rob them!

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Well, er, there were a lot of us, actually, who never saw anything bold or courageous in Obama's political/legislative history, never saw evidence of the kind of leadership that isn't safe (getting people to vote for you is "safe" leadership).  Just never saw it.

I know it's only been less than two months, but if there was ever a time to take the opportunities the office provides to evince true, bold and fearless leadership, it has been in the last seven weeks.  If ever there was a time to take control, instead of allowing events and circumstances to gain ground, it's been in the last seven weeks.

It's not like the writing wasn't on the wall long before he took the oath, not like this just hit him in the back of the head on the afternoon of January 20th.  He's had people working on this for months, and it scares the bejesus out of me that instead of being prepared with bold plans, all we are getting is dither, fiddle and muddle - the next great law firm name.

Australian Drug War jumps the shark...note to Australian authorities, we don't bring dope to music festivals just to throw it all away, that would be stupid....kinda like your drug war.

The now-legendary doll was conceived by Ruth Handler, a daughter of Polish immigrants, said Gerber, author of the newly published "Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her." She and her husband, Elliott, owned Mattel until a scandal involving accusations of cooked books drove them out in 1975, Gerber said.

Handler, who died in 2002, used to watch her own daughter, Barbara, play with paper dolls. Then, on a trip to Europe, Barbara became fascinated with a buxom doll that Gerber said was based on a female German cartoon character, named Lilli, who used sex to get what she wanted.

"My guess is she didn't know what it was when she bought it," because at that point, four years after the Lilli doll's release, it had landed in European toy stores, the author explained.Handler took the doll back to the states and insisted Mattel designers get to work.

"Who would have thought," Gerber said. Barbie was thought up by a woman and modeled on a cartoon character "who was essentially a prostitute."

Heck, anyone who knows a little about money knows the first monthly statements about amortization, credit cards; banking and such are just first to be calculated within Obama's administration window.

It's only been one full economic "month" since Obama took office and guys like Hannity, and Limbaugh on hate radio along with all heads of the Republican Neo-Con Tyrant" Party pound out heated hate conversations on Fox say this is Obama's fault. Hello, stuff as bad as this take years to establish.

The pirates of the Republican Neo-Con tyrant Party that funneled tax money through secret accounts or off shore tax havens are scared yet have no recourse but to rant on a daily basis that Obama is at fault.

President Obama says the United States is open to reaching out to some moderate voices in the Taliban, but critics say that's not the right approach.

In an interview published in the New York Times this weekend, Obama said some military leaders believe that part of the success in Iraq has come from reaching out to Sunni militants there.

The president said while the situation in Afghanistan is much more complex, there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I don't want to prejudge the review that's currently taking place. If you talk to Gen. [David] Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al Qaeda in Iraq," he told the Times.

The Obama administration is reviewing the U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, with hopes of finding a new strategy.

Asked if the United States is winning the war in Afghanistan, Obama said "no."