from mike whitney:
Barack Obama rode into office in January, 2008 on a wave of optimism. By the time the ballots are counted in Tuesday's midterm elections, Obama's personal approval ratings will have fallen to historic lows and he will be universally recognized as the man who brought ruin on the Democratic party.
While still popular among party loyalists, the president has become radioactive among independents--the critical group of “swing voters” who have fled Camp Obama en masse frustrated with both the lack of audacity and/or change. No one figured they were electing George W. Bush to a third term in office when they cast their vote for the inspiring senator from Illinois two years ago. But that's what they got. To say that supporters are disappointed in Obama's performance, is a gross understatement of the pessimism that's spread like Kudzu among the party faithful. People have become increasingly cynical as they realize that neither party provides a path to real structural change. The system is broken; Obama has merely exposed the rot at the heart of American democracy.
related: why i don't trust the tea party
US selection updates/post-mortem, part1:
chris ware's rejected fortune cover paints honest,
dismal picture of american capitalism
from huffpo:
When Fortune magazine asked comic book artist and Oak Park resident Chris Ware to design the cover of their "Fortune 500" issue, they were probably not expecting his "beautiful and Marxist" interpretation of modern capitalism. Chicagoist reported Friday that Ware was asked to design the May cover of the magazine, but his final product, which featured "Guantanamo Bay prisoners, Mexican factory workers, and a few potshots at business execs and money-grubbing politicians" was apparently not what Fortune had in mind--they killed the cover. Still, a high-resolution version of the Ware cover is making its rounds on the Internet - and fans are delighted.
from allgov:
The nation’s central bank has never been subjected to an outside audit, but growing frustration in Congress with the Federal Reserve may cause that to change. On Thursday, the House Finance Committee approved a bipartisan amendment that grants the Government Accountability Office the power to investigate the Fed’s deals with foreign and domestic banks. The plan, authored by Representatives Ron Paul (R-TX) and Alan Grayson (D-FL), would represent a curtailing of the central bank’s longstanding autonomy that has allowed Fed officials to make decisions without government oversight. In an attempt to derail the Paul-Grayson proposal, Fed supporters offered their own amendment they said was more reasonable. Backers even pointed to the support of eight “prominent economists” as proof their plan was the one Congress should adopt. But many of those economists have close ties to the Fed, raising the question of their impartiality.
