Paul Krugman: The Way It Is (9/30 column)

[highplainsdem]

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The Way It Is
The New York Times
September 30, 2005
Author: PAUL KRUGMAN


Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He sold all his stock in HCA, which his father helped found, just days before the stock plunged. Two years ago, Mr. Frist claimed that he did not even know if he owned HCA stock.

According to a new U.S. government index, the effect of greenhouse gases is up 20 percent since 1990.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a 33-year-old Wall Street insider with little experience in regulation but close ties to drug firms, was made a deputy commissioner at the F.D.A. in July. (This story, picked up by Time magazine, was originally reported by Alicia Mundy of The Seattle Times.)

The Artic ice cap is shrinking at an alarming rate.

<snip>

And so goes the new Krugman column, which is a litany of the mind-numbingly bad news we've been getting, due to the malfeasance of an adminstration and political party that embody both the culture of corruption and the culture of stupidity. After another 14 paragraphs concisely describing another 14 scandals, disasters and stupidities perpetrated or abetted by the Bush adminstration and the GOP, Krugman simply concludes, with a nod to Walter Cronkite, "That's the way it is."

[Inland]

1. It's five minutes past midnight now

and we have three years before Bush is out and another god knows how many years to put out the fires before you can get to global warming et al.

[highplainsdem]

2. I would never have believed BushCo could do so much damage so quickly.

I knew they would be a disaster but underestimated how much of a disaster...