Quicksilver Messenger Service — Fresh Air, from the closing of the Fillmore West, July 4, 1971.

Why does it take Senator Barbara B to tell Mr. Banana Holder to do his job? Why won’t he do his job the way he should? Why does Mr. Banana Holder even have his job if he won’t punish people who break the law?

The Wisconsin State Assembly passed a voter suppression bill last night by a count of 60-35. The bill will force all residents to show ID at the polls, starting with next spring’s primary elections. Two Democrats and one independent joined 57 Republicans in voting for the bill.

The big political issue for Mitt Romney’s future is that the Republican base hates the health care law pushed by President Obama, and that law is structurally almost identical to the state level reform Romney signed as Governor of Massachusetts. Romney’s most recent effort to try to thread the needle on this issue has gotten him slammed by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. They call him basically the worst thing you could call any Republican primary candidate, no better than a Democrat.

Two and a half years after privatized auditors largely signed off on practices that contributed to the collapse of Wall Street, and a year after coziness between government inspectors and the oil industry they regulate allowed a massive oil spill in the gulf, the Obama Administration proposes relying on private auditors to ensure that private companies guard our nation’s cybersecurity.

Vermont leads race to the bottom in insurance regulation. Maybe you’ll get lucky and your insurance policy will pay off in full. By the way, house prices never fall.

The cynicism of American politicians is a strong and persistent theme, but this most recent move by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell takes it to a whole new level. A mere six months after Republicans won big by attacking Democrats for “cutting Medicare,” McConnell is now demanding cuts to Medicare or else he will do serious damage to the American economy.

I suppose I’ll take what I can get here from McCain, especially as it’s not like there’s anyone in Washington who’s moving on prosecutions. What’s more, this really debilitates the revival of torture from the Bush Administration rejects. McCain is the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee. He’s going to lead the questioning of Leon Panetta when he has a confirmation hearing for Defense Secretary. The lack of consensus from Republicans at the highest levels will make it very hard for them to make an issue out of it in the hearings.

It’s a corporate fairy tale: working class boy joins the military, goes into banking, brings the joys of mineral exploitation to exotic locales.

About a year ago, I appeared at Netroots Nation with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim and Professor Elizabeth Warren on a panel called “The Forgotten Foreclosure Crisis.” Speaking with Merkley today, I remarked that we could hold the same panel again this year, without changing a word of it, and not be out of date in the slightest. Sen. Merkley agreed.