The big political problem is that the regular people affected don’t feel like they are better off than they were 2 1/2 years ago. While there is still time for the economy to turn around before November 2012 the Federal Reserve is not predicting a speedy recovery nor does there seem to be any help coming from Congress.

At the beginning of the month, July 4 was seen as a soft deadline for arriving at a solution on the debt limit and deficit reduction. That doesn’t appear likely now, although the meetings next week look like the last-ditch effort to find a deal. What happens if that breaks down? Treasury has given the hard deadline as August 2, after which the debt limit will have been reached, and extraordinary measures by Treasury no longer effective.

Well, it is hard to know exactly where we stand in the whole Libya dust up. As you know we are way past the War Powers Act’s requirement for congressional approval to continue hostilities. The Obama Administration has said they don’t need the approval of Congress since the activities of US forces are only support roles not combat. Both bills were defeated by large margins

What’s important to note is that AARP says it opposes cuts to Social Security as part of discussions on how to reduce the deficit. Notice they don’t say anything about opposing cuts to Social Security anywhere else — only where it pertains to deficit reduction. That’s a pretty weak defense, if you ask me.

Brad DeLong has an excellent idea.

The House is voting today on two measures. One, to authorize the Libya mission for one year while banning ground troops, will fail. The other, to defund the mission (with notable exceptions), is likely to pass. Then the Senate won’t take up the defunding bill, and possibly take up the authorization, which has been pushed by John Kerry and John McCain.

The hacks and charlatans, and the banks and governments that listen to them, are now imposing the equivalent of leeches on the Greek government, its economy and its citizens.

Folks, right now, we need to support Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Wendell Berry Call for Civil Disobedience on Tar Sands. We need to stop the ‘Keystone XL Pipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands straight to Texas refineries…

The war was sold to the American people as a very short-term operation to protect civilians. It has now dragged on months longer than was promised. It is also abundantly clear that our military actions have little to do with protecting civilians, and is now basically about backing one side in a civil war to force regime change.

The FBI is currently investigating the circumstances that led Florida to give a multiple hundred-million dollar handout to a company with a long track record of human rights abuses and contract noncompliance.