Hearing the word “compromise” at all in association to the debt limit talks is a bit of a revelation, so I suppose there should be some hope that something gets done after all. But take a look at this article from Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane. It posits that Republicans are considering a compromise on their demands for all spending cuts. The compromise is that they’ll allow a different kind of spending cut.

The negotiation table is like the poker table: you don’t get a seat unless you have the chips to play. By failing to prove she actually has the will and/or the power to say no, Pelosi has shown the President she has no leverage.

The allegation that Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser grabbed a colleague by the neck has devolved into a he said/she said. Prosser has denied choking Justice Ann Walsh Bradley prior to a ruling on the anti-union law, but Justice Bradley has confirmed the report.

The government says it hasn’t subpoenaed the phone records of any reporter. Presumably they mean no reporter has been the target of a subpoena. But with a community of interest subpoena, of course, the government would get Risen’s call data without subpoenaing him directly.

• Little late, guys.
• Michele Bachmann, welfare queen.
• Headed for a double-dip?
• Oh, that’s where the recovery went.
• The GOP, always looking out for the little guy.

Bad weekend for opponents of human rights…in various forms.

Collective Soul – Shine

I came across this video in the twitterverse and wanted to share it because it gives you a good idea of what is involved in actually using GM seed and the (hoocoodanode!?) consequences. Farmer to Farmer.

So apparently, while sitting on record amounts of cash, industry is willing to invest in technology but not people.

One of the more revealing elements of the Greek bailout discussions is not that the IMF and European finance ministers want another round of austerity from Greece before providing funding, and not even that banks are being urged to take haircuts or engage in restructuring to accommodate the Greeks. It’s that other element – privatization of state assets – that is the tell here. This is the real extraction from the Greeks, the real shock doctrine scheme at work here. Greece essentially must sell the family silver – their ports, their state-run water supply systems, their utility company, their telephone company – to get out of the mess created largely by the financial crisis and the Great Recession.