Sen. Harry Reid today named the Democratic Senate appointees to the Deficit Committee:

Reid tapped Sen. Patty Murray of Washington to co-chair the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, and also named Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Republicans have until next Tuesday to name their appointees.

Congratulations to Armando, aka Big Tent Democrat, who will be the co-host of Daily Kos Radio on Sirius beginning this Saturday. What a great choice.

NEW YORK, NY– August 8, 2011 - Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) today announced that it will launch a live, interactive four-week radio series with Daily Kos, the influential online progressive political community, news organization and activist hub.

Daily Kos Radio will launch on August 13 at 10:00 am ET, and air Saturdays through September 3 live from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm ET on liberal/progressive talk channel SiriusXM Left, ch. 127. Daily Kos contributing editors David Waldman and Armando Llorens will co-host the show from SiriusXM’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, breaking down headlines and issues with other members of the Daily Kos community to bring the interactive experience of the blogosphere to SiriusXM listeners coast to coast.

Don't forget to tune in. And not to worry, BTD will be continuing to blog here at TalkLeft.

Amazing photos of the London riots which continue. 16,000 officers are now patrolling the streets.

One of the crimes to be charged: inciting violence through social media. How will they find the rioters not caught in the act? Camera images.

What's the deeper cause behind the riots? No one seems to agree on that.

Busy day. Open Thread.

Some, sadly including some self proclaimed "liberals," insist that today 'proved [S&P;] f*cking right!' This despite the fact the US Treasuries hit 2 year yield lows.

I prefer, via Atrios, the lessons from Brad DeLong:

Stock market down 17% in two and half weeks while the bond market has reduced the yield on the Ten-Year Treasury from 3% to 2.35%, and break-even five-year inflation has fallen from 2.1% to 1.7%. I think that is a very loud wake-up call for Mr. Obama--that it is long past time for him to stop talking about how surrendering to Republicans on long-run spending priorities will bring the confidence fairy who will then gift us with a strong recovery and start actually doing his job.

Yep. See also Krugman.

Speaking for me only

While the markets don't give a fig about S&P;'s analysis of the creditworthiness of US debt, it does appear to fear that governments will be pushed to follow S&P;'s bad economic advice:

The downgrade of the United States�s debt to AA+ from AAA has global implications, said Alessandro Giansanti, a credit market strategist at ING in Amsterdam. �We can see that this may force the U.S. to move more aggressively to cut spending,� he said, something that could drive the already weak economy into recession and weigh on the economies of all of its trading partners. �That�s the main driver� of the stock market declines, he said.

Krugman makes a similar point:

Unless someone misread the S&P; downgrade and it downgraded the global equities market, much egg on the face of the clowns at S&P;, as the yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury is now lower than prior to Standard & Poor's downgrade.

S&P; spoke, and nobody cared. This should be the end of S&P;'s sovereign debt ratings. When no one pays attention to you, what's the point?

Open Thread.

I forgot how time-consuming it is to replace a primary desktop computer. It's taken me almost a week to get everything transferred and reinstalled. I still prefer Windows XP to Windows 7, in every way, but I guess I'll adjust.

On to the Next Food Network Star, Big Brother and Breaking Bad.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome. (I see BTD has an open thread up as well, so feel free to post at either one.)

My old work here.

Digby updates.

I have nothing new to say on the subject. I'm sure y'all do.

Open Thread.

Both Ezra Klein and Felix Salmon defend S&P; from criticisms. Salmon's defense is very telling:

S&P; is not judging the quality of Treasury bonds as an investment.

Say what? Then in what way is S&P; issuing a credit rating? If S&P; acknowledged they were writing a political Op-Ed, that would be one thing. But in fact, S&P; is purporting to do precisely what Salmon says it is not doing - judging the creditworthiness of US government obligations. Salmon's argument makes no sense. More . . .

Via Krugman, Treasury skewers S&P;:

In a document provided to Treasury on Friday afternoon, Standard and Poor�s (S&P;) presented a judgment about the credit rating of the U.S. that was based on a $2 trillion mistake. After Treasury pointed out this error � a basic math error of significant consequence � S&P; still chose to proceed with their flawed judgment by simply changing their principal rationale for their credit rating decision from an economic one to a political one.

[. . .] S&P;�s $2 trillion mistake led to a very misleading picture of debt sustainability � the foundation for their initial judgment. This mistake undermined the economic justification for S&P;�s credit rating decision. Yet after acknowledging their mistake, S&P; simply removed a prominent discussion of the economic justification from their document. In their initial, incorrect estimates, S&P; projected that the debt as a share of GDP would rise rapidly through the middle of the decade, and they cited this as a primary reason for a downgrade.

Clowns. As Treasury says, "[t]he magnitude of this mistake � and the haste with which S&P; changed its principal rationale for action when presented with this error � raise fundamental questions about the credibility and integrity of S&P;�s ratings action."

Speaking for me only

Charles Graner, the prison guard from Hell, has been released after serving 6 1/2 years of his 10 year sentence for torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

At his trial, his lawyer claimed he was only acting as a cheerleader:

Graner's attorney said piling naked prisoners into pyramids and leading them by a leash were acceptable methods of prisoner control. He compared this to pyramids made by cheerleaders at sports events and parents putting tethers on toddlers.

"Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?" Guy Womack, Graner's attorney, said in opening arguments to the 10-member U.S. military jury at the reservist's court-martial.

More....

Marking my territory - I came up with the Madman Theory of Political Bargaining, not Kurt Anderson.

Also, too, I coined 11 Dimensional Chess.

Just sayin'.

Open Thread.

Open Thread.

A New Orleans jury has convicted five former police officers of charges related to their unjustified shooting of six unarmed people and attempt to create a cover-up in two incidents on the Danziger Bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Two of the shooting victims died, including a 17 year old and a 40 year old man who was severely mentally disabled. One woman lost her arm.

Four of the shooting victims were from one family. None were armed and they were crossing the bridge looking for food when police opened fire. Not long after, police shot at two unarmed brothers who were also walking on the bridge looking for food. The 40 year old disabled brother was shot seven times in the back.

At trial, lawyers for the cops claimed they were fired on first and feared for their lives. Not so. One of the cops, Retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shootings, staged the cover-up for the other cops, using his own gun. He was also convicted today. [More...]