Quick hits

Have to run out and do some errands so a few links to occupy any passersby.

It really is astounding that the populist anger at Banksters never really took hold. In fact it's died down so much, they're right back to their dirty little tricks. Krugman explains.

What’s wrong with financial-industry compensation? In a nutshell, bank executives are lavishly rewarded if they deliver big short-term profits — but aren’t correspondingly punished if they later suffer even bigger losses. This encourages excessive risk-taking: some of the men most responsible for the current crisis walked away immensely rich from the bonuses they earned in the good years, even though the high-risk strategies that led to those bonuses eventually decimated their companies, taking down a large part of the financial system in the process.

I have a feeling if Obama actually went after these crooks he might win over some of the more reachable Tea Party shouters. Or maybe not, but at least he'd please some Indys I bet.

A lot of people pissed off about the insurance mandate that looks likely to be a integral part of any reform bill. Ilya at Volokh Conspiracy says it's likely to survive any constitutional challenge at SCOTUS. Mainly because of the precedent set by Gonzales v. Raich, the medical marijuana case that was brought forward as part of Bush's war on marijuana. Unlikely the five justices who are still on the bench would overturn their own precedent set in that case.

I haven't been able to get through this gallery, but if you're curious, TPM has lots of pix from the Value Voters confab.

I'm not the only one thinking up ways to get marginalize Fox. BuzzFlash has started a guerrila activist movement Turn Fox Off in public places.

And seriously, this is fascinating but it is really gross. Take heed of the warning. Greg Mitchell has video of a woman removing a skull eating botfly from her own head.

To balance that out with something more pleasing, try these pix from the DC Farmers Market.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]