Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Gold continues its march towards $1,500 an ounce, silver has crossed the $40 resistance point, and oil is $111 and rising.  Asariel notes the UN's world food price index was up 2.2% in February.  That was really before the mess in MENA.

Meanwhile on the way into work this morning I'm listening to an interview with Social Security trustee and former Bush econ adviser Chuck Blahous on Sirius/XM POTUS.  Chuckles there basically said the because the President hasn't fully backed the Catfood Commission's report, that the Ryan Unicorn Plan 2012 is the only game in town, and that if Democrats want to have any say in this, they'd better get behind their own plan to cut taxes on the rich and declare war on the middle class, and destroy the poor, or they might forfeit their right to be at the Big Boy's Table.

Oh, and today's shutdown drama continues.  The Dems have offered up more billions in cuts, but the Tea Party is now in control over Orange Julius and is basically going to shut the government down over Planned Parenthood.  Amazingly enough, Amanda Marcotte called this exact scenario six weeks ago over at Alternet.

This time around, anti-choicers have quite the laundry list of Democratic concerns they can hold hostage. On top of defunding Title X, the continuing resolution also zeroes out the funding for health care reform and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as cutting the EPA’s budget by a third. Considering how Democrats gave in to severe restrictions of reproductive rights before to save health-care reform, the obvious play from Republicans here is to secure the cuts to family planning in exchange for funding health care reform, and most importantly, not shutting down the government in the midst of a terrible economy, which would send the already mind-boggling 10 percent unemployment rate up even further. If Republicans use the economy, the government, and health-care reform as blackmail to get rid of Planned Parenthood, it’s not hard to see Democrats accepting the compromise. Especially if you consider how easy it would be for Democrats to convince themselves that expanded insurance coverage would negate the need for Planned Parenthood, though it very likely wouldn’t. But most importantly, it’s hard to hardball an opponent who is practically begging you to do your worst. And there's a long list of Republicans who’ve indicated they welcome this idea of taking the fight to a government shutdown.

It's getting mildly scary out there.  Just saying.