Mr. Sunny

Krugman's piece today, a punchy litany of all the ways in which we are currently fucked, is tough to excerpt, and I can't tell you to go read the whole thing, thanks to Times Select (you might want to roll over that link, BTW). But here's a taste:

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.

Two of the three senior positions at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are vacant. The third is held by Jonathan Snare, a former lobbyist. Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group, reports that he worked on efforts to keep ephedra, a dietary supplement that was banned by the F.D.A., legal.

According to France's finance minister, Alan Greenspan told him that the United States had "lost control" of its budget deficit.

As you can see, it's a blend of the political and the practical, composed in a way that, hopefully, will dent some people into awareness that they're linked. I doubt any of it's news to regulars on lefty blogs (actually, the OSHA one was new on me, but it's hardly unique), but we're the choir, so that's OK.

Indeed, it's interesting to think about the relationship between blogs and this piece, which is clearly indebted to them for at least some of the info, and I think a bit indebted to them for format. Because, while it's intended for cumulative effect, it's also not unlike a links post, or something in the style of Instapundit - all quickies, no comment as such, but you'd have to be pretty slow to miss the editorial POV. It also makes me think of Simon & Garfunkel's "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night," with the boys' lovely voices overlaying a news anchor's recital of the depressing year that was 1966. The key difference being, of course, that only a newscast written by PK, or a lefty blogger, would actually dare to mention all these things without taking time to emphasize Bush's bold leadership and update us all on Where the White Women are At.