This is life-changing? It's how I've *always* wrapped my cables. ALWAYS. Jiminy, Gruber.

"The real problem is on the demand side of the economy.

"Consumers won't or can't borrow because they're at the end of their ropes. Their incomes are dropping (one of the most sobering statistics in Friday's jobs report was the continued erosion of real median earnings), they're deeply in debt, and they're afraid of losing their jobs.

"Introductory economic courses explain that aggregate demand is made up of four things, expressed as C+I+G+exports." YEP. It is time for government spending like crazy men—in wise, infrastructural areas.

FTE on the 2010 US Senate election. I had a fleeting thought about taking on Shelby for Senate for 1.7s.

"The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

"I would like to see the administration do everything it can to accelerate the retooling assistance that Congress has already enacted. In addition, I have made it a high priority for my transition team to work on additional policy options to help the auto industry adjust, weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars here in the United States of America.

"And I was glad to be joined today by Governor Jennifer Granholm, who obviously has great knowledge and great interest on this issue.

"I've asked my team to explore what we can do under current law and whether additional legislation will be needed for this purpose." I read this as: "We will bail out Detroit, but only if they put out better vehicles—NOW." And that's a right answer, I believe.

"So it's worth checking out what the city of Berkeley's doing: As the mayor's former chief of staff, Cisco DeVries, explains over at Grist, the Berkeley FIRST initiative, which gets underway next week, will let property owners install solar systems without paying the hefty upfront cost—instead, the city will issue a municipal bond to cover the installation, which is then paid back over 20 years via a new line item on the property owner's tax bill. (If the property is sold, the tax is just transferred to the new buyer). The beauty of the thing is it's entirely voluntary—no taxes, no mandates; it's just that, if you do want solar power, it's easier to finance. If Berkeley's scheme ends up being popular, I'll be curious to see if the private sector starts cobbling together similar offers." Holy. Fucking. Shit. Great idea.

"I think something that a Republican party that really wants to catalogue its weaknesses and vulnerabilities– instead of insisting to itself that this is still a conservative country, as it weeps softly over a Tom Collins– needs to confront is the possibility that small government is popular only as rhetoric and not in practice.

"Small government conservatism is supposed to be the lifeblood of the Republican party. That's been the brand for a long time. Much has been made of the Bush administration's seeming abandonment of those principles. As I've said, I think that this was less an act of betrayal than a moment of recognition of the real responsibility of governance. One way or the other, though, the fact is that the Bush White House did not shrink government, and this fact has not been lost on the conservative intelligentsia." There has been a recognition of the value of government. I have ideas for how the GOP can position itself, but they wouldn't listen to me.

"The Palin farce is already the stuff of legend. For a generation at least it is sure to keep presidential historians and late-night comedians in gainful employment, which is no small thing. But it would be a pity if laughter drowned out serious reflection about this bizarre episode. As Jane Mayer reported recently in the New Yorker ("The Insiders," Oct. 27, 2008), John McCain's choice was not a fluke, or a senior moment, or an act of desperation. It was the result of a long campaign by influential conservative intellectuals to find a young, populist leader to whom they might hitch their wagons in the future."

"The climax of Barack Obama’s 1995 memoir, 'Dreams from My Father,' occurs in rural Kenya when the author sits between the graves of his father and his grandfather and weeps. Obama, then in his late twenties, hardly knew his father and never met his grandfather, but in the course of writing the book he had learned their stories in devastating detail. Both were proud, ambitious men who travelled far from the Luo-speaking villages where they grew up—indeed, Obama’s grandmother still has her son’s Harvard diploma hanging in her house nearby. Their respective struggles in the world ended painfully, in bitter loneliness. Beside their graves, Obama, a middle-class American, both mourns and, for the first time, understands his African forebears." Pay attention to the date of release.