Monday Reads

Good Morning!

Well, the Deficit Dance continues and the President has scheduled a presser for 11 am today.  The President would like to resolve the debt ceiling issue within 10 days.  What exactly is on the table and what will the obsession with austerity mean for those of us in the working and middle classes and those of us that are poor or living on our old age benefits from social security and medicare?

According to a Republican familiar with the discussions, taxes and entitlement issues were stumbling blocks in the negotiations. Boehner said any deal must result in spending changes and cuts that are larger than the amount of an increased debt limit.

During today’s session, Obama will try to break a partisan impasse over whether to include cuts in entitlement programs and tax increases in a deal.

Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Democrats “never said we will hold the United States’s full faith and credit hostage in the discussions.”

Senator Mitch McConnell is willing to take hostages as indicated by his appearances on Fox talk shows yesterday. McConnell, of course, made no mention of having no problems with raising the debt ceiling 7 times during George Dubya Bush’s war spending and tax cutting spree.

Senate Minority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell discussed the debt ceiling negotiations with Bret Baier on Fox News Sunday. McConnell was in agreement with Speaker John Boehner’s decision not to support a large deficit deal, yet also made a curious assertion that none of his Republican colleagues have ever claimed they will not be in support of raising the debt ceiling.

Baier, filling in for Chris Wallace, pressed McConnell on what would happen if no deal could be worked out and whether he was concerned with the consequences of what might happen if the debt ceiling is not raised. McConnell confidently responded, “nobody is talking about not raising the debt ceiling. I haven’t heard that discussed by anybody.” Yet Baier informed him that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, among others, have explicitly said just that. Baier even quoted Bachmann saying “don’t let them fool you that the economy is going to collapse” if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.

McConnell however apparently didn’t want to address such comments and preferred to stay focused on his opinion of how serious it is to actually raising the debt ceiling. Maybe the fact that some Republicans in Congress actually are determined not to raise the debt ceiling was news to McConnell, but if he doesn’t want to acknowledge the views of some of his colleagues then he might want to avoid making broad pronouncements about them in future interviews.

Newly appointed IMF Head Christine Lagarde is can’t believe that the US would deliberately default on its debt.  She was interviewed yesterday by Christine Amanapour.

As the White House continues negotiations with congressional leaders over a budget deal this weekend, newly elected head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde says that she “can’t imagine for a second” that the United States would default on its debt obligations, saying it would be “a real shock” to the global economy if no agreement is reached.

“I can’t imagine for a second that the United States would default,” Lagarde told “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. “But, clearly, this issue of the debt ceiling has to be resolved.”

“It would be a real shock, and it would be bad news for the U.S. economy,” Lagarde added on the threat of the U.S. not raising the debt ceiling. “So I would hope that there is enough bipartisan intelligence and understanding of the challenge that is ahead of the United States, but also of the rest of the world.”

Among the Republican economic dunces advocating deliberately not paying our bills is the infamous Quiteralla.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has issued a stern warning to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) as Boehner sits down with President Obama Sunday night to negotiate a raising of the debt ceiling: don’t do it.

Palin, in an interview appearing in Newsweek, “made it clear that she’s against any deal that raises the debt ceiling and would hold House Speaker John Boehner’s feet to the fire if he agreed to one” according to the magazine.

  Not only do Republicans seem to be deliberately ignorant of economics, they continue to spread lies with no scientific basis on Meet the Press concerning GLBTs.  Remember, T-Paw is supposedly one of the more ‘moderate’ candidates for president too.  Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty continues to spread the falsehood that there is no science supporting the biological nature of sexuality or for that matter climate change and evolution. (Check out the evolution link for a fun Doonesbury and a sad statement about what Bobby Jindal continues to hoist on Louisiana.)  From which century did these folks get their educations?

 GREGORY: Is being gay a choice?

PAWLENTY: Well, the science in that regard is in dispute. I mean, scientists work on that and try to figure out if it’s behavioral or if it’s partly genetic –

GREGORY: What do you think?

PAWLENTY: Well, I defer to the scientists in that regard.

GREGORY: So you think it’s not a choice? That you are, as Lady Gaga says, you’re born that way.

PAWLENTY: There’s no scientific conclusion that it’s genetic. We don’t know that.

In fact, there is no dispute among health professionals. All major medicalprofessional organizations agree that sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed, from gay to straight or otherwise. The American Psychological Association, the world’s largest association of psychological professionals, describes sexual orientation as “a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors.” There is considerable evidence to suggest that biology, “including genetic or inborn hormonal factors,” plays a significant role in a person’s sexuality.

Pawlenty’s comments underscore the reality that promoting ex-gay therapy and the idea that homosexuality can be changed or denied (which it cannot) are at the root of all anti-gay perspectives. The broad consensus of scientists have condemned such notions — and the kinds of discrimination Pawlenty has protected — for decades.

Pawlenty has previously said that “the science is bad” on whether human activity has had any impact on global warming. When it comes to Pawlenty’s unfamiliarity with science, perhaps he was just “born this way.”

Since T-Paw is nearly irrelevant at this point, he also took a few gratuitous pot shots at Michelle Bachmann since they both are vying for the crazy vote.

“I like Congresswoman Bachmann. I’ve campaigned for her. I respect her. But her record of accomplishment in Congress is non-existent,” Pawlenty said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Pawlenty said the three-term lawmaker didn’t have the necessary experience, accusing her of doing little more than delivering good speeches.

“We’re not looking for folks who just have speech capabilities,” he said. “We’re looking for people who can lead a large enterprise in a public setting and drive it to conclusion. I have done that, she hasn’t.”

The NYT’s Catherine Rampbell writes a compelling piece on the invisibility of our country’s unemployed.

Fourteen million, in round numbers — that is how many Americans are now officially out of work.

Word came Friday from the Labor Department that, despite all the optimistic talk of an economic recovery, unemployment is going up, not down. The jobless rate rose to 9.2 percent in June.

What gives? And where, if anywhere, is the outrage?

The United States is in the grips of its gravest jobs crisis since Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House. Lose your job, and it will take roughly nine months to find a new one. That is off the charts. Many Americans have simply given up.

But unless you’re one of those unhappy 14 million, you might not even notice the problem. The budget deficit, not jobs, has been dominating the conversation in Washington. Unlike the hard-pressed in, say, Greece or Spain, the jobless in America seem, well, subdued. The old fire has gone out.

In some ways, this boils down to math, both economic and political. Yes, 9.2 percent of the American work force is unemployed — but 90.8 percent of it is working. To elected officials, the unemployed are a relatively small constituency. And with apologies to Karl Marx, the workers of the world, particularly the unemployed, are also no longer uniting.

A Wichita, Kansas doctor has decided to take on the uphill fight to offer Abortions in what is undoubtedly hostile territory. This brave doctor is holding the ground for women’s health in a state with some of the country’s most extreme anti-choice terrorists including Operation Rescue.

Now a little-known physician has stepped into this tinderbox environment to take the mantle — indeed, the very instruments — of the man many abortion rights advocates regard as a martyr.

But Dr. Means is certainly not the ideological warrior many expected to fill his void. She said her decision to start performing abortions was as much about making money for her struggling practice as about restoring access to a constitutional right.

A second effort to establish an abortion clinic is under way, led by a group of prominent abortion rights advocates. The group has raised money but is still searching for a doctor willing to provide abortions in a city where doing so has in recent years required a bulletproof vest and an armored car.

“It’s about restoring access and standing our ground,” said Julie Burkhart, a former political director for Dr. Tiller who now runs the group Trust Women.

Elizabeth Warren will appear before congress on Thursday. This will be her last appearance before her bureau protecting consumers from bad banking practices becomes reality.

The GOP has made a strong attempt to paint the new bureau as far too powerful and lacking in any sufficient oversight. And Republicans will continue to press Warren Thursday.

“This hearing will give Professor Warren an opportunity to provide clear information – which has so far not been articulated in public statements, budget justification, FOIA responses, or previous congressional testimony – about how the administration intends to go about protecting consumers,” said an Oversight spokesperson.

Meanwhile, the CFPB’s strong (and vocal) backers tout it – and Warren – as a much needed and long overdue government advocate for consumers in the financial system.

The relationship between Warren and the GOP has always been icy at best, given Republicans long-standing opposition to the CFPB, and people that will be watching the hearing closely are expecting more of the same.

“What we’re likely to see is more demonstrations of a Republican Party that’s determined to become a kind of goon squad for Wall Street,” said Richard Eskow, a senior fellow for the left-leaning Campaign for America’s Future, which has repeatedly backed Warren.

For her part, Warren is looking forward to the hearing, according to the CFPB’s spokesperson.

I have one thing that I’d like to recommend you view from Fairewinds if you have about 5o minutes.  It’s called “Why Fukushima Can Happen Here: What the NRC and Nuclear Industry Dont Want You to Know”.  It’s totally worth the time.

In this video nuclear engineers Arnie Gundersen and David Lochbaum discuss how the US regulators and regulatory process have left Americans unprotected. They walk, step-by-step, through the events of the Japanese meltdowns and consider how the knowledge gained from Fukushima applies to the nuclear industry worldwide. They discuss “points of vulnerability” in American plants, some of which have been unaddressed by the NRC for three decades. Finally, they concluded that an accident with the consequences of Fukushima could happen in the US. With more radioactive Cesium in the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant’s spent fuel pool than was released by Fukushima, Chernobyl, and all nuclear bomb testing combined. Gundersen and Lockbaum ask why there is not a single procedure in place to deal with a crisis in the fuel pool?

Well, that ought to give you a few things to watch on CSPAN this week!  Meanwhile, please share what’s your reading and blogging list this morning!!