Madeleine Peyroux — Dance Me To The End of Love, at the Montreal Jazz Festival, June 2008.

I’m pretty tired of the endless debt ceiling kabuki, so I wandered over to Clownhall, hoping to be entertained. Never fails.

Israel passed a law punishing people who advocate for a boycott of the settlements. The law is definitely not only a blow to freedom of speech in Israel but also another act of repression against Palestinian solidarity activism in Israel.

A “friend” just forwarded this to me. It’s clearly going out to Dems still stupid enough to still be on the mailing list. Here’s my furious reaction.

If you get this despicable “plea” from Warner and the Democrats, I hope you’ll “respond appropriately.” I’d love to hear it.

The Bush administration told taxpayers to hand over hundreds of billions of their hard-earned dollars to bail out Wall Street banks because the financial institutions were too big to fail. Now, Rupert Murdoch, owner of politically powerful publications and broadcast stations, claims his News Corp. is too big to know.

It is difficult to know why the CDPP has decided now to officially go after David Hicks’ royalties. One wonders if it had anything to do with the warm reception and ovation he received when he spoke to “a packed audience of 1000 people at the Sydney Writers’ Festival” last May. At the same event, Hicks “also warned that Julian Assange could face a similar abandonment by the Australian government, if the US government get their hands on him.”

I have, and always have had, tremendous respect for Cenk Uygur. His contract with his audience is that he will never put himself in a position where he cannot say what he really thinks. And in turning down MSNBC’s offer to host a weekend show so he could give his audience a fair appraisal of what happened, he honors that contract.

Finding a way out of the unnecessary box created by judicial rulings and Justice Department appeals, military leaders will certify the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy tomorrow afternoon. This includes Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and all of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Only the President’s certification would be needed at that point to start the 60-day legislative review clock that will ultimately lead to repeal of the policy.

Penny Sue Pritzker, the Hyatt Hotels heiress whose Superior Bank subprime loan corruption made her unfit to serve as Barack Obama’s Commerce Secretary, has a strike on her hands at the Park Hyatt in Chicago, where temperatures approached 100 degrees today.

Penny Sue’s response to the workers striking for better conditions for housekeepers after almost two years of stalled negotiations? Turn on the heat lamps under the glass awnings, right where the picket line is.

I think we’re dealing with another yo-yo situation, where the White House puts out a trial balloon, gauges reaction, and then pulls it back, allowing everyone to see what they want to see but mainly confusing the issue.