Jon Stewart faces off tonight against Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money, with whom he’s been feuding. Ding ding ding! Come out fighting! Or wanking!

A study claiming the Employee Free Choice Act would destroy 600,000 jobs is being seized on by business groups and the media. But few have looked at who backed the report — and no one is looking at the shaky research itself.

As a member of the US Senate, David Vitter is one of the most powerful men in the country. And this is how he behaves:

According to an HOH tipster who witnessed the scene, the Louisiana Republican arrived Thursday evening at his United Airlines gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only to find the gate had already been closed.

Obama followed up his memo of the other day–promising not to use signing statements like Bush did–with a signing statement used like Bush did. Most troubling, he used it to counteract efforts to make it easier for whistleblowers to report problems and wrong-doing to Congress.

You didn’t really expect Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John “yes, I may have lost, but I’m still a cranky, idea-free asshole” McCain, to break news during Wednesday’s appearance on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow, did you? But, check this out. . . .

The day after Citigroup analyst Deborah Weinswig downgraded Walmart stock based on fears that the Employee Free Choice Act would pass, she participated in a private Citi conference call hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein was on the call:

At one point, Weinswig herself engaged the discussion (after mostly moderating questions) by highlighting some anti-EFCA academic material.

Please welcome Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston back to FDL. He’s joining us in the comments — jh

David Cay Johnston wrote the book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense [and Stick You with the Bill].

Join me in welcoming AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel, who provides a reality check for the media spin around the Employee Free Choice Act. Bill was on NPR today in a discussion of the issue with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Check it out here.

As most of you know, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate this week.

Make no mistake: This is a big deal.

Here’s all you probably need to know about Bloody Bill Kristol’s replacement at the New York Times.

If you watched recent tv news coverage of the passage of the Omnibus spending bill, you would learn that this “massive” bill was “loaded with pork” — a monument to irresponsible, wasteful spending. That was tonight’s message from “reporting” on PBS’s News Hour and Judy Woodruff’s interview with Norm Ornstein from AEI. But it was false.