The phrase you’re looking for is “death spiral.”

Just in case you needed another reason not to like them, Fischer believes the Taliban may have purposely targeted his dog. On a DEA patrol during their first tour, Drak discovered a stash of Taliban heroin worth, by the DEA officer’s estimate, over a million dollars. Kenneth told me all of this over the course of a long brunch at The Palazzo in Las Vegas. We were both there for the Salute Our Troops event — he, as a wounded warrior, and me there as a witness.

Fischer will never know if there was an actual bounty on Drak, but the two of them “got blown up,” as he puts it, during a routine show-of-force patrol in Sangin last September. An ordinary looking Toyota Corolla, loaded with a couple hundred pounds of explosives, was driving towards them like any other car — until the Jihadi driver got close in and hit the detonator.

After taking his own physical inventory and making sure everything — well, most everything — was all where it was supposed to be, Kenneth checked on Drak. “I reached my hand up his leg, and when I got to his hip, I felt my hand slip inside,” he says. Drak whined the way a hurt dog does, to beg master to please stop. That’s about when the sergeant noticed the large pool of blood from his shoulder wound, and started calling for a corpsman.

Drak and Fischer were medivaced out on the same Blackhawk, but the dog was bleeding out. Drak was attended by a well-meaning Marine who had no rescue training for animals — he simply didn’t know what to do. In a bit of good luck, Kenneth’s best friend, Sgt. Mark Behl, was on the flight. Behl is also a dog handler, and told Kenneth that Drak would be OK, then took over Drak’s treatment. Fischer, his eardrums blown out and the chopper blades thumping, could hear nothing except “dog” and “OK.” But that was enough.

I still haven’t given up waiting for Vol. 2.

Big props to Jim J for the photoshop.

“Apple should sell the world’s first non-TV TV,” McQuivey wrote. ”Instead of selling a replacement for the TV you just bought, Apple should convince millions of Apple fans that they need a new screen in their lives. Call it the iHub, a 32-inch screen with touch, gesture, voice, and iPad control that can be hung on the wall wherever the family congregates for planning, talking, or eating.”

The analyst continues, noting that such a device could eventually replace the traditional television for many users. ”My proposal takes advantage of everything Apple has going for it: Its base of super-engaged customers, its bevy of hungry developers, its ability to open our minds to the possibility of post-PC computing form factors, and its spectacular track record with generating elegant experiences that teach us to do things we didn’t know we needed. In fact, I want this so bad I can almost taste it.”

I’m going to have to think about this one some more. But a 32″ iPad you bring with you from room to room? Why?

An iPad can be passed back and forth for games, or two iPads can share a bluetooth connection for multi-screen gaming. If you’re just watching TV, use the big screen on the wall or the iPad in your lap.

I might be falling into the same group of people who said nobody would ever need a “third screen” between their smartphones and their laptops. You have heard much from those people since the iPad become the biggest runaway hit in consumer electronics.

Do you need a fifth screen in-between your iPad and your TV?

Fusco explains:

We’ve taken into account past elections, including those in which several major issues were of concern, the mood of the country as evidenced by several factors, e.g. consumer confidence, amalgam of recent polls, purchasing etc., media treatment of the candidates, i.e. general media BS, and the respective organizations of both candidates, i.e. who has the more effective ground game, who is coming off as feckless and directionless, who is more prone to destructive gaffs etc.

We make no claim to a scientific presumption, rather, based on Mr. Fusco’s years of political observation, we decided to approach our call on something we’ve labeled “The Fed-up Factor,” that is, how fed up the country is with itself.

For Romney to capture that many states — pretty much every possible R pickup — requires a “wave” election, like we saw in 2008. We had another wave — an equal-and-opposite force in 2010.

Three big waves in a row? Right now, that seems unlikely. But I’d be deliriously happy to be wrong.

[LINK WAS MISSING BEFORE.]

China’s manufacturing activity contracted at a faster pace in May as conditions for exporters worsened during the month, the preliminary findings of a survey by HSBC showed Thursday. The “flash” reading of the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 48.7 in May from a final print of 49.3 in April, HSBC said. A measure below 50 in the survey indicates deterioration, whereas one above that figure shows an improvement.

POSITIVE SPIN: It’s not like we sell much to the Chinese.

A new telephone survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania finds Casey, who is seeking a second six-year term, with 48% support to Smith’s 41%. Three percent (3%) favor some other candidate in the race, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

That’s not exactly encouraging for Smith. But Casey can’t rest easy, either. Incumbents with support under 50% are often in trouble.

TMZ has the scoop and the details.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s off-message criticism of the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s background at Bain Capital gave the campaign an untimely, unwanted headache this week. But more significantly, it exposed a tension that’s developing between the Democratic Party’s centrist wing and its more-outspoken liberal base—one that threatens to fester more openly if President Obama fails to win a second term.

These things take time, too. The GOP is still in the process of getting over “compassionate conservatism.” First came the shock — to the GOP leadership that is — of the drubbing the party received in the 2006 midterms. In 2008, the Democrats managed a repeat, in large part because the GOP hadn’t yet had the chance to purge itself.

Well, 2010 Tea Party election helped that process along quite a bit, and left the Democrats just as shocked as the GOP establishment had been four years earlier. But the Republicans have a ways to go. Should Romney win in November, it will hinge on how he governs. If he’s another Bush 43 (or, hell, Bush 41), then the GOP Civil Wars will continue. If he leans more to the right, the fighting can stop for a while.

If he loses — then things get really nasty. Can you say “Whigs?” I knew you could.

The Democrats watch all this, loving every minute of it. But their worst days are yet to come. The national party is beholden to its Progressive wing, which has very little appeal outside of super-liberal enclaves. But the moderate wing of the national party more or less ceased to exist after 2010. Up-and-comers like Cory Booker should be the Democrats’ centrist salvation, but look at how quickly he got jerked back into line by the Progressive White House.

An Obama win this fall will only strengthen the Progressive more, while doing serious damage to the Democrats’ chances moving forward. An Obama loss? It might just make the GOP infighting look tame.

I can hardly wait.

But remember: Both parties are uneasy coalitions of disparate factions. It’s like that line from The Godfather. “That’s all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one.”

And, yeah, it’s been ten years since the Democrats had their Come to Jesus moment, when the Republicans actually picked up seats in the historic 2002 midterms. Their time might have come.

BONUS: Brilliant photoshops from Travis.

Obama carried only 58% of the vote in yesterday’s Kentucky Democratic primary — against 42% for “uncommitted” delegates to the national convention; “uncommitted” actually out-polled the president in 67 of Kentucky’s 120 counties.

Obama also carried 58% in the Arkansas primary; little-known Tennessee lawyer and Occupy Wall Street supporter John Wolfe won 42% of the vote against the Democratic president in Arkansas.

Two weeks ago, a federal prisoner in Texas named Keith Judd racked up 41% of the vote against Obama in the West Virginia primary.

Positive spin: “Uncommitted” remains slightly more popular than “Federal Prisoner.”

Hope!

First up, Team Obama is counting on at a 50/50 election, which looks OK to them. If you drop Obama down to 50% of the vote, from his 52.9% of four years ago, here’s what you get.

In this scenario, Romney picks off NC, IN, FL and NE’s second district. That’s a 290 to 248 victory for the President, or four better than what George W. Bush pulled off in 2004. Those of us who remember that election know that isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room, but it will do. Unless Romney implodes between now and then, this is probably Obama’s best-case scenario. Maybe he blames Bush.

There’s been talk on the Obama side of maybe picking up Arizona this year, but I haven’t heard much of that talk the last few weeks.

If Romney connects with voters while “his” 527s help make “Obama” a dirty word, he might manage a cozier win in the popular vote, with 51.5%. If we drop Obama down to the remainder, let’s what happens to the map. You might be in for a surprise — I know I was.

Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”

The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.

It’s not like you weren’t warned, proles.

Click here to view the embedded video.