Debt Ceiling talks: Let’s make a deal or hostage-negotiation.

In his article the other day, Matthew Norman (The Telegraph UK) quite aptly compares President Obama’s problems with trying to negotiate with the Tea Party to that of the fictional American President in the 1998 movie “Deep Impact.” The president in that movie, portrayed by the Academy Award winning actor, director and narrator Morgan Freeman, is faced with an apocalyptic moment, a comet is on a path to earth set to hit the Atlantic coast.

Firedog Lake to SEC: Revoke S&P’s authority as a credit rating agency.

So what’s up with Firedog Lake and its petition to the SEC to revoke Standard & Poor’s authority as a credit rating agency? Standard & Poors has gotten into the political arena doing its best to be a kingmaker for the 2012 elections and to decide the course of our economy on behalf of Wall Street and the super wealthy, that’s what. S&P threatened to “downgrade the US credit rating if cuts were not made to Social Security and Medicare to reduce the deficit,” blatantly ignoring Social Security’s long-term surplus of $22 trillion, the needs of the elderly, and more.

Voter Suppression is not a myth, and neither is the system of apartheid.

Voter suppression is not a new strategy for the GOP, it’s a standard. In the words of Paul Weyrich, co-founder of The Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority and some other far-right of the right groups, had this to say about “getting out the vote” in 1980:

Sen. McConnell denies he won’t negotiate, except with the President?

Sen. Mitch McConnell

Did I hear correctly? Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell won’t negotiate with anyone except perhaps the President? Really. Then, when that tidbit hit the airways, his office promptly fired back a denial of same fast! I’m hopeful that such a report was made by an over-zealous reporter (more than likely from Fox News). I’m hopeful that Sen. McConnell, having served in the Senate for some time, understands the severity of the situation and is at the ready to make whole the ridiculous waste of time House Republicans just put this country through…

Speaker Boehner does what we thought he would do all along – cave into Tea Party demands..

House Speaker John Boehner says today he’s talking about jobs — NOT. He says he put revenues on the table and yet there isn’t anything in his current bill that remotely resembles revenues. It’s just more show, albeit a little more frustrated, with Boehner as the centerpiece. Boehner did the predictable, cave into Tea Party unrealistic demands. Namely, pass a bill that is pure insanity that includes a constitutional amendment as part of raising the debt ceiling. Rep. John McCain put it best (the first time):

Corporate Personhood and the Right to Lie to Us.

We have to keep on pushing forward and not let up on any front. Tell the GOP holdouts on a balanced budget cut approach as the President outlined last night is the way to go — everybody shares in cleaning up the mess! And don’t let up on the inquiry into News Corp in this country. Its time to get rid of the free lunch program for the rich on powerful.

Thom Hartmann: Why Fox News has the Right to Li…, posted with vodpod

Mother and son hit by drunk driver. Drunk driver get 6 months. Mother faces 3 years.

Here’s one that will rock your senses. A mother and her small children exit a bus to get home. They stand at a street corner waiting for the light to change. But the mother’s young son bolt’s from her side following behind someone else across the street. Mother runs to grab her son and both are hit by a drunken driver. Mother survives but her son dies. The drunken driver gets six months jail time and the mother gets three years. There’s something very wrong with this picture.

My friends at Color of Change need our help in getting this grieving mother released. Read the full story and sign the petition.

Murdoch apologizes but says he’s not responsible for illegal activity within News Corp.

First Lady’s partnership with nation’s grocers has many benefits.

First Lady Michelle Obama at Brinkley Middle School in Jackson, Miss. 2010

Amid all the news noise over the debt ceiling and the lack of governing know-how displayed by core Tea Party members of Congress, there is good news for the health of our nation and more. First Lady Michelle Obama meets with several national grocers at the White House to announce their efforts to bring fresh fruits and vegetables — and jobs — to underserved communities.

Color of Change: Should sagging pants get you kicked off a flight? Arrested? Jailed?

That’s the question that I got in an email alert this morning from my friends at Color of Change. Personally, I don’t like sagging pants. One of my grandson’s visited the other day and his pants were sagging, showing his undershorts. I quickly mentioned how such display was not happening at Grandma’s house. He pulled his pants up and said, “Sorry, Grandma.” And that was that. What I did not do was call the police and have him arrested because of his choice of clothing style. But that is what US Airways did when one of its passengers — on his way to a funeral — came on board with sagging pants.

Media Matters. Don’t let Rupert Murdoch escape the truth.

My friends at Media Matters need our signatures.| One of the great things about our country is that no matter how powerful and influential you are, you are not above the law.

No one knows that better today than Rupert Murdoch after the FBI launched an investigation into claims that reporters at News Corp. tried to hack into the phones of 9-11 victims’ families.

Sen. McCain. News Corp problems are just a British issue.

Really? As the rest of the world watches not only with great intrigue but with mounting concern over the unraveling of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Great Britain, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says it’s a “British issue.”

Rep Eric Cantors $350 BN Mediare/Caid Cuts and the 45 thousand who die each year because of no insurance

So now what do Republicans want to do? Rep. Eric Cantor proposes to cut $350 billion from Medicare and Medicaid as a “deal” to agree on the debt ceiling issue. With those kinds of cuts, how many more lives will be lost? Apparently, Cantor and the rest of the GOP are interested in saving lives. Check out the memo highlighting Cantor’s proposed cuts on TPM, then give Cantor a call and ask him what value does he place on human lives and the quality of health care. Then ask him about the rise in foreclosures and the families destroyed as a result of same. Then ask Cantor why he and the rest of the GOP thinks its okay to give all the breaks to the wealthiest Americans instead.

If Murdoch’s news group hacked Royals in UK, what’s his news group doing in US?

The wires are hot with the story unraveling in England over Rupert Murdoch’s British media group. As formal investigations are underway, it’s now suspected that the Royal Household email and cell phones have also been hacked.