The next couple months will be consumed with discussion about the Catfood Commission II, and their efforts to reach a $1.5 trillion or higher deficit package. This will frustrate any attempt to pivot to jobs. But as long as that’s known, activists and organizations can point out best practices on that committee while trying to force the conversation in a different direction.

One way to do that is to consistently point out that job creation is the best and most robust way to ensure any deficit reduction, and that reducing the deficit with 9% unemployment is a near-impossibility. Another way is to point out how much deficit savings can be gained merely by engaging in the vitally necessary actions of protecting the earth from climate change.

Congressman Paul Ryan is very serious about America’s precarious financial health which is why he is constantly trying to cut back on needless expenses like medical care for elderly Americans who are perfectly capable of breaking into medical waste containers outside of doctors offices and hospitals where they can forage for expired pharmaceutical samples and ‘gently used’ hypodermic needles. They are, after all, The Greatest Generation … or so Tom Brokaw keeps telling us.

But Ryan thinks it is also very important that we extend a helping hand to our future leaders who are painstakingly culled from our collegiate student herd population and housed in the petri dishes of future excellence more commonly referred to as “sororities’ and “fraternities.”

The booting of Eric Schneiderman from the executive committee of the 50 state AG “investigation” of foreclosure fraud is pretty funny in this context: the AGs are supposed to be undertaking an investigation. Schneiderman is one of the few AGs actively involved in just such an investigation. And so he’s the one who has to get the boot.

This shows the depravity of once-respected Iowa AG Tom Miller, who is spearheading the “investigation.” He has wanted a settlement to put these issues behind the banks from the very beginning. He wants the headlines that come with the settlement, the pot of money to show that his efforts helped homeowners, and the minimal disruption such a settlement would provide. When Miller was named the head of the “investigation,” he immediately received a windfall of campaign donations from the financial sector. He has chased a deal for almost a year, all time that could have been spent on a real investigation of the shoddy foreclosure practices of the big banks.

In May of this year, thousands of people gathered at the White House to spontaneously celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. The Park Police did not ask them for a permit, did not ask them to disperse, and there were no paddy wagons called to haul them away. Of course killing Osama bin Laden was something the President repeatedly spoke of with pride, earning himself not only a bump in his poll numbers but also a Saturday Night Live send-up.

As I sat in DC traffic court waiting for Dan Choi to be released from jail on Monday, it became clear that the objective of the government was to prevent him from doing what the Osama bin Laden celebrants had been freely permitted to do: express their first amendment rights in front of a powerful American symbol owned by the American people.

This has not pleased Ryan or his staffers. They threatened to call the cops on protesters on two occasions, and had police remove protesters at least once. They restricted the use of cameras. They restricted parking. And now, as you can see above, they shut down the offices in Kenosha to foot traffic and forced the public out of the building.

After only two weeks as an announced candidate, two new national polls show Texas Gov. Rick Perry with an impressive double digit lead over the next strongest candidate, Mitt Romney.

The latest long term budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office assume that unemployment will be very high for years to come.

We now have additional proof that raising the Medicare eligibility age would be a ridiculous program on all levels. It would not only cause needless anxiety and suffering to 65 and 66 year-olds, it would not achieve its alleged goal of saving money. In fact, it would increase costs almost everywhere in the health care system.

News. Analysis. Passionately taking a stand. Flair and style. Where else are you going to find the combination of independent media and kick-ass activism that is FDL? No matter who the writer and no matter what the subject, FDL makes you think — and that’s why you come, and keep coming back.

FDL isn’t in anyone’s Veal Pen, and we don’t get big checks from George Soros, someone’s trust fund, corporate PR accounts, or anyone’s campaign coffers.

Instead, we have members. If you are one, thanks; if you haven’t become one already, now is the time.

Dean Baker reminds the media and former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Greenspan that the Fed actual has readily accessible data that contradicts Greenspan’s recent statements on the economy. The data was clearly signaling a dangerous housing bubble.