Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Psychotic Reaction.

Glenn Beck comments on the new passport form, which may go into effect for people who don’t have birth certificates:

“Why don’t you just put nipple clamps on Americans over this?”

Actually, the proposed “biographical form” is intended for those people who are unable to provide the usual proof of citizenship required for a US passport – namely, a birth certificate, consular report of birth abroad or naturalization certificate.

What do the media have in common with Barack Obama and the Democrats?

Tomorrow, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will give an unprecedented press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee releases a statement from their April meeting. Whether Bernanke is trying this to increase transparency or reassure investors with his command of the issues or build public trust in the institution, or whether he’s just making a bad decision, this represents the never-before-seen opportunity for the media to actually question Bernanke about his views on the economy, monetary policy, inflation and jobs. This comes at a time when the Fed is failing to reach both inflation or employment targets for three years running, so Bernanke has a lot to answer for.

Andy Kroll and Nick Baumann have some ideas about what Bernanke should be asked, and I thought I’d comment as well.

Notice how all but one of those tax credits are geared towards and most affect your average working people? Nothing about all the corporate tax credits. I’m a bit too lazy to go do all the research for this but I’d make a WAG that the reason the corporate tax credits aren’t showing is because they are all broken down to the lowest level possible, most likely by industry. Far easier to keep things looking smaller to say “Oil Industry Tax Credits” or “Technology Tax Credits” rather than just to say “Corporate Tax Credits” – makes them look far smaller than the dastardly Earned Income Tax Credit or Mortgage Interest deduction.

Mamdouh Habib was an Egyptian emigrant to Australia. He was captured and sold to the Americans who sent him to Egypt to be horrifically tortured. From there, he was sent to Guantanamo, where he was ultimately released, but only after more torture. Now, Habib is suing his Egyptian tormenter, former head of Egyptian internal security, Omar Suleiman.

Both parties seem to already know that they will eventually raise the debt limit; they are just playing the kabuki game of public statements before the eventual deal. But Wall Street doesn’t really work that way. I think it’s true that even the hint of a default could have damaging consequences for borrowing costs. Furthermore, given how lucrative the purchase of long-term debt has been for the big banks, they don’t want to see that gravy train stop or even slow down.

Eight unreliable detainees, several of whom are known to have been tortured, provided a great deal of the intelligence justifying the continuing detention of Gitmo detainees.

Boehner won’t defend Big Oil on camera, just through his actions of defending their $5 billion in annual subsidies.

“There is no safe dose of radiation.” So begins today’s guest, Harvey Wasserman, in a recent piece, “’Safe’ Radiation is a Lethal Three Mile Island Lie,” and it occurred to me that it is hard to find a statement that is simultaneously so obvious and yet so controversial.