As I understand it, today’s appalling Dow tumble of more than 600 points is primarily in response to Standard & Poors dropping U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ along with the shaky European economy plus the bad unemployment figures. But the real cause, of course, was the volatile climate brought about by rightwing terrorism over the debt-ceiling and budget-deficit standoff. Sen. Mitchell and Speaker Boehner are partly to blame for this, but Cantor, Walsh, Bachmann and the other 60-odd right-wing loonies in the House bear particular responsibility. Damn them to hell.

Here‘s N.Y. Times columnist Paul Krugman on the laughable non-credibility of Standard & Poors.