Last night artist Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston on two outstanding warrants as he was about to enter a sold-out dance event at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The event was the kick off to his ICA show Shepard Fairey: Supply & Demand.

He was charged with two counts of damage to property, i.e. graffiti–the art form which he is best known. Local anti-graffiti activists had complained that the artist was the subject of a museum show.

With the election of Barack Obama, the icons of the 1960s civil rights movement were given another moment in the sun. The first black congressmen, who took office during Reconstruction in the nineteenth century, remained largely in the shadows. In Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen, Philip Dray gives these men their proper place, as pioneers in the story of African American liberation. Dray, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, has created a very timely book as well as an exceptionally good read.

The bottom line on the changes suggested by Collins, Specter and Nelson added to the changes the Senate already made to the House bill is that the compromise Senate bill will create about 728,143 less jobs. This is a back on the envelope figure and very rough, but if anything it should be a slight underestimate. If you just compare the original Senate Bill to the Gang of Four compromise, it comes out to 1,271,000 less jobs

Here are the assumptions and the math.

Live interview with the New Hampshire Speaker of the House

Obama announced his Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a collection of Establishment figures and no liberal economists.

Between domestic psyops (public affairs) and foreign psyops, DOD spends over a $1 billion a year. And the really scary thing is, more than half of that goes toward propagandizing in the US.

Senate debate on the stimulus bill will go from noon to 3pm ET and I’ll be liveblogging here. (Time now extended to 3:30.)

Republicans lie about everything, big and small. They just do. This week was filled with examples given to us by Andy Card, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell, and even allegedly “nice” ones like Susan Collins. In fact, if a prominent Republican was flapping his or her gums this week, it was very likely that a lie is what popped out from between them.

Yesterday during one of my threads, we started talking about ways folks are planning to tuck a few more veggies into their gardens. Or their flower beds. Or into containers. Pretty much anywhere they can for some veggies through the summer to offset the cost of living or the potential loss of income from layoffs or worse. We started talking about the fact that I’m hoping to tuck a few extra veggies into my own yard among the perennials not just for my own family, but because I think some of our friends or family might be able to use them as well…

Two sweet new videos from The Supervillains and Son Lux.