The larger story here is really about the banks gouging the municipalities in often shocking ways. Michael Bennet is in a position to know a lot about that based on his DPS experience. He could speak out; but the web of contacts between Bennet and the FIRE sector could plausibly present problems for him in doing so. That’s what makes Sunlight’s Poligraft so powerful.

There has been quite a bit of discussion out there about American manufacturers bringing business and jobs back to the United States. I’ve written about this before because I have an especial interest in American manufacturing and small business in particular. Before we either break out the champagne or lock ourselves back into the closet, let’s look at a few things:

Andrew J. Bacevich has emerged in the early years of this century as the country’s most widely read and widely respected critic of U.S. militarism and empire. He has addressed this issue with unprecedented intensity for an academic. With the appearance of Washington Rules, he has produced six books addressing illuminating these themes in the span of a single decade, writing three major books American Empire (2002), The New American Militarism (2005), and The Limits of Power (2008), and editing two other volumes, The Imperial Tense (2003) and The Long War (2006).

As many Americans suffer long-term unemployment, lose their homes, and wonder how they will pay for the groceries or the utility bill, an urge to find a scapegoat is increasingly common. And it is often Latinos and undocumented workers that are blamed for the nation’s economic ills.

The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!

Time to test my psychic abilities. The Small Business Administration will be releasing the contracting numbers for fiscal year 2009, which will show another disappointing year for small businesses.

Judge Walker set an accelerated schedule for consideration of DI’s Motion For Stay in California’s Proposition 8 ban on marriage decision. The real defendant, the State of California, has already filed opposition to the stay, through the Attorney General, the Governor and the City of San Francisco.

Today [Friday], on Day 109 of the catastrophic BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the “static kill” of the blowout nears completion and the 3-month long disaster seems on the verge of moving into a new chapter. The final solution to stopping the blowout permanently is the “bottom kill” with one of the relief wells now within 30 meters of intersecting the failed well bore down at the top of the oil reservoir (4,000 m below the sea floor). That operation is expected to be conducted in the next 2 weeks, and if it is successful, then and only then will this historic blowout be over.

40 Billionaires have signed up to give 50% of their wealth to charity.

Because after a long hard week of raging against the machine, nothing beats looking at one’s balcony garden, even if it is sorta pathetic.