Yeah, what’s the deal with all the talk about reining in Social Security?

Here’s the official TPM analysis of Norm Coleman’s highly meritorious lawsuit to overturn the recount.

Former FEMA Chief Brownie driven from home by wildfire.

“We never think of the fact that something like this can happen.”

From the rival daily, the Seattle Times …

The future of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer appeared uncertain tonight after a local television station reported the newspaper is setting the stage for closure — but then the managing editor of the paper said he knew of no such plans.

KING-TV reported at 5 p.m. that the P-I will be put up for sale. The information was attributed to an unnamed “source close to the deal.” The television station said that neither Hearst Corporation, which owns the P-I, nor the paper’s publisher was available to immediately confirm the report. However, the source said the news could be officially announced as early as tomorrow.

The P-I then reported that the paper’s managing editor said he knows of no plans to sell the paper. At about 5:15 p.m., soon after the KING-TV report was aired, managing editor David McCumber told the newsroom’s staffers, “If this is going on — and I don’t know that it is — it’s going on at a level that’s far above me, and nobody has seen fit to clue me in. I think it’s a bunch of rumor. You look at the state of this business — it wouldn’t surprise me if something was going on, but I have no knowledge of what that something is.”

From the PI’s own website (musta been fun to write) …

The future of one of Seattle’s two daily newspapers was called into question Thursday by a TV station report, though top leaders at both papers appeared surprised by the report.

KING 5 reported at about 5 p.m. that “a source close to the deal” said Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle P-I, would announce as soon as Friday that it’s putting the P-I up for sale.

The report, which also appeared on the station’s Web site, added that “Hearst does not expect another buyer to step forward and that Seattle will likely become a one-newspaper town within the next few months.”

The P-I’s managing editor said he knows of no plans to sell the paper. At about 5:15 p.m., soon after the report was aired, managing editor David McCumber told the newsroom’s staffers, “If this is going on — and I don’t know that it is — it’s going on at a level that’s far above me, and nobody has seen fit to clue me in. I think it’s a bunch of rumor. You look at the state of this business — it wouldn’t surprise me if something was going on, but I have no knowledge of what that something is.”

At TPMMuckraker over the last few days we’ve been digging into the story behind the grand jury investigation of Bill Richardson. Whether Richardson himself is in any trouble — and there’s no clear evidence he is — there’s a very big story in the background. That is widespread fraud, pay-to-play corruption and bid-rigging in the municipal bond business. Here’s a piece from the Times today on the same topic. This is one of those stories that’s weedy and a bit hard to understand. But it looks like a big deal — a sort of broad ranging fraud in which the financial services industry was leeching cash away from city and state governments for years.

At a 10:30 a.m. ET press conference, Obama is expected to roll out his intelligence team of Blair/Panetta. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

Judis isn’t buying into the Obama stimulus package just yet either.

David just linked this article below. But I’m going to do so myself because I think the piece from John Judis as well because I think it’s so important. The scale and types of spending on infrastructure make me think Obama’s economic planners are not getting the severity of the crisis we face. Definitely read this article. It’s short, clear, will take you just a few minutes.

Daschle open to allowing filibusters of health care reform.

From TPM Reader LG …

One of the most insightful things I ever read from you was this, about the Iraq War/GWOT:

“For its prime promoters and cheerleaders and now-dwindling body of defenders, the war and all its ideological and literary trappings have always been an exercise in moral-historical dress-up for a crew of folks whose times aren’t grand enough to live up to their own self-regard and whose imaginations are great enough to make up the difference.”

I wonder if something of the same phenomenon isn’t in evidence now in reactions to the economic situation. No one believes this isn ‘t a very serious mess, but “Great Depression II !!!” seems extreme, to say nothing of historically uninformed. I can’t help but think that some of that same narcissism you identified earlier might be at work here as well.

I think we’re in a genuine crisis. One that is immediate and an overlapping one that is going to stretch far into the future. But we all, and I don’t exclude myself, must be ever wary of the way our own egos and excessive regard for our own short moment in history (which is an extension of our egos) can become a distorting lens.