Wither the withered John McCain?

Luther Allison — Cherry Red Wine (Watching You).

What’s the point of a public protest if it’s held behind closed doors?

Pioneering historian Howard Zinn dies at 87.

In her weekly press conference today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was fairly adamant – a proposed spending freeze should apply to defense, not merely non-security discretionary spending, as the President seeks. “I don’t think we have to protect military contractors. I do not think the entire military budget has to be exempted,” Pelosi said.

Harkin claims to be a strong supporter of the public option and/or Medicare buy-in. He repeatedly claimed that the public option had the support of over 50 Democratic senators. Harkin also promised to revisit the public option after passing the Senate bill. Here is your chance, Sen. Harkin.

Bernanke’s “ideas” are all over the 2008 collapse of our economy—and his uncaring hand on the rudder has helped steer us into this “jobless recovery” (a term I am embarrassed by every time I use it). The American people know it, some senators know it, and the Obama Administration is foolish to pretend that they don’t know it.

It’s said that politics creates strange bedfellows. I was reminded how true this can be when I traveled to D.C. in recent weeks to figure out why several advocacy groups and legislators with histories of advocating for minority interests are lining up with big telecom companies in opposition to the FCC’s efforts to pass “Net Neutrality” rules.

Most unsettling about their position is the argument that maintaining Net Neutrality could widen the digital divide.

We’re proud to announce the two latest employment opportunities here at Firedoglake, which you can check out by visiting our jobs page. One opening is for a DC Political Reporter, who will have the exciting privilege of being our full-time political correspondent on Capitol Hill. The other is for a Deputy Managing Editor, who will coordinate, edit, and publish content from our wonderful team of writers.

On behalf of the rest of the FDL team, I invite you all to check out our job postings and apply. We look forward to reviewing potential candidates over the next few weeks.

Everybody’s talking about this slapdown David Shuster had with Andrew Breitbart, the guy who employs chief TeaBugger James O’Keefe.

Aside from all the yelling, what I find notable about this is the way Breitbart succeeds in preventing Shuster from explaining what O’Keefe has been charged with: entering US property “for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated by the United States of America.”