A Brilliant Plan

Down 634, up 429, down 519, up 423 . . . how quickly we get sensitized to the new normal. Fear and greed on steroids.

A BRILLIANT PLAN

Watch this. Its premise is that we need to create jobs – and that perhaps we can. The credit downgrade and the wildly gyrating stock market may have sufficiently scared Congress into doing something. But what to do? Exhume the Republican requests for stimulus money, wherein many Republican House members argued – in writing – for projects that they claimed would improve life and create jobs in their districts . . . and approve all those requests.

It sounds a little dull here, but watch. It’s delicious.

SO WHERE IS CONGRESS

I’ve gotten emails criticizing the President for not calling Congress back from its vacation. In his remarks at a Michigan battery factory yesterday, he responded:

You know, in the aftermath of this whole debt ceiling debacle, and when the market’s going up and down as it is, there’s been a lot of talk in Washington right now that I should call Congress back early. The last thing we need is Congress spending more time arguing in D.C. (Applause.) What I figure is, they need to spend more time out here listening to you and hearing how fed up you are. (Applause.) That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’ll be traveling to a lot of communities like this one over the next week. That’s what Congress should be doing — go back home, listen to people’s frustrations with all the gridlock. Listen to how frustrated folks are with the constant bickering and the unwillingness to compromise and the desire to score points, even if it’s at the expense of our country. And if they’re listening hard enough, maybe they’ll come back to Washington ready to compromise and ready to create jobs and ready to reduce our deficit — ready to do what you sent them there to do.

DNDN

Remember Guru, who is certain Provenge doesn’t really work? “Actually,” he wrote me last night, “you’re going to be shocked but Dendreon is a screaming buy here. Urologists all over the country are signing up to be Provenge providers now that the Q code is in place. There are three doctors in Hollywood Florida alone who just signed up. I talked to a reimbursement specialist yesterday. There is a theoretical concern about Medicare cutbacks from the deficit panel November 23. But it won’t matter.”

He still thinks it won’t work, but that doesn’t mean it won’t sell.

HOW FDR WAS ALMOST KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE

It seems a destroyer accidentally fired a live torpedo at the ship he was on. You can read it easily in Wikipedia, here; or more colorfully, with a little more effort, in Kit Bonner’s USS Iowa At War, using Amazon’s “search inside” function, here. Search on “Willie Dee” – you’ll see the remarkable tale. It begins on page 44. (Thanks, Fred.)