In Frank Rich’s column he explains how Faux Noise betrayed General Petraeus with their trumped up Manhattan Islamic Cultural Center controversy.

So virulent is the Islamophobic hysteria of the neocon and Fox News right — abetted by the useful idiocy of the Anti-Defamation League, Harry Reid and other cowed Democrats — that it has also rendered Gen. David Petraeus’s last-ditch counterinsurgency strategy for fighting the war inoperative. How do you win Muslim hearts and minds in Kandahar when you are calling Muslims every filthy name in the book in New York?

Paul Krugman explains in his column how the Republicans’ plan gives a $680 billion tax cut to the rich that is not in Obama’s plan.

Making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.

Only a tiny fraction of small-business owners would receive any tax break at all.

It’s hard to think of a less cost-effective way to help the economy than giving money to people who already have plenty, and aren’t likely to spend a windfall.