US companies are hoarding some cash in preparation for the possibility that no debt limit deal is reached by next Tuesday, as well as lining up additional sources of financing in case the credit markets suffer. But executives are going way too far by blaming the debt limit crisis for things that were in place well before this was thought to be an issue.

The Senate Dems are careful to lay out really the only objection, the only actual difference, between the Reid and Boehner bills: one raises the debt limit by $2.7 trillion up front, and the other only raises it by $1 trillion. That’s it. Boehner’s plan can’t pass the Senate and has drawn a veto threat. Reid’s plan can probably get a majority in the Senate, but might not be able to clear a filibuster. In the House, it would probably get a lot of Democratic support, but Boehner wouldn’t bring it to the floor in its current form.

Now, the only scientific proof we will have that this exposure caused certain rare cancers is if we see very high rates of said cancers among the workers. The only way any 9/11 related cancers are going to be covered is if large numbers of workers, who are first denied help paying for their treatments, develop these cancers. Once enough workers suffer without, then we might have the scientific proof that they actually deserved help in the first place. Hello Kafka.

Just because our most popular social safety net programs escaped this current round of shock doctrine doesn’t mean the basic formula won’t be recycled in the near future to justify cutting these programs.

I think we’re reaching a semantic game with respect to the US military presence in Iraq. The political community just won’t ask for an extension of military troops. But the leadership appears to be falling back to allowing trainers to work with Iraqi security forces. That’s what Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari seemed to be saying today.

Why is Standard and Poors out in front of all the other credit ratings agencies in pointing a gun at the US debt rating? Because a guy named David Beers says so.

It’s not just the media’s cultish addiction to some perverted “centrist” view. It’s also the media’s unwillingness to explain that when the President and Congress use terms like “balanced” or “shared sacrifice,” they don’t mean what you think they mean.

To those who want to say that the President is making the best of a bad situation, THIS is the problem. It changes the entire dynamic of the realm of possible economic solutions for the next decade or more. And when the economy suffers from austerity, since a Democrat basically called for it, that’s who will be blamed.

The Bradley Manning Support Network has put together a call-in day for those who wish to show their support for the accused whistleblower to WikiLeaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning. The Manning Support Network, an international grassroots organization that for months now has been organizing in support and for the legal defense of Manning, is urging supporters to call President Obama at the White House and also call the Secretary of the Army John McHugh.

For weeks the White House has downplayed this as an option, but it is hard to believe Rep. Clyburn would make a public statement like this without the tacit approval of President Obama.