Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Catnip 5/15/12

att5845


AT&T. Bird's eye view. Not the greatest of shots as the sun was setting and the shadows fall in the park, but O...M...F...G... what a stadium. The views are incredible. Will get back for a day game and shoot the hell out of this place soon. Check the 1000 px here - it's a little better.

Optimistic America. Two out of three got to admit it's getting better, it's getting better, all the time. Or they think it will, anyway. "Though an overwhelming 71% rate economic conditions as poor, a 58% majority predict they will be good a year from now. While those surveyed are inclined to say they are worse off financially than a year ago, nearly two-thirds say they think they'll be better off this time next year." Hope?

The Obama SuperPac Priorities USA gets in on the Bain action with a $4 million online/TV ad buy in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. And they too have a Romney record site at www.RealRomneyRecord.com.

Keep your eye on the California budget story. As Digby points out, this is one big economy we are talking about (9th largest in the world, "ahead of Spain, India, Canada, Russia and Australia"), and it's about to undergo some severe austerity measures - which could act to drag down the rest of the nation. Now, California has been going through years and years of this, and may muddle through once more, but at some point...

Sargent's bold headline of the day: "Romney set to attack deficit that Bush created." TPM has a handy chart about tax cuts and wars to prove the point. And, just to push this right over the edge of the absurd, Romney hits the stump today to ask for more of the same - bigger tax cuts, and increased military spending.

Businesses are starting to notice that the gridlock in Congress is setting us up for a crisis later this year. "Across the U.S. economy, anxiety is rising about the potential for widespread disruptions after the November election, when a lame-duck Congress will have barely two months to resolve a grinding standoff over taxes and spending." Fasten your seatbelts, and look for this to become a campaign issue as the year wears on.

House Republicans will do anything to keep those Bush tax cuts intact. More threats to tie "tax reform" to another extension of the breaks for the wealthy, a vote sometime this summer, yada yada yada... see, gridlock, above.

The Eurozone (formerly known as Europe?) falls into an official recession. How is that austerity working out for everyone?

Gotta run, busy day ahead...