Peter Haller, a former Goldman Sachs VP now working for Darrell Issa on the House Oversight Committee and advocating for the interests of the banks changed his name shortly before moving to work for the Oversight Committee. Now we learn he was involved in the weak attempt by Patrick McHenry to embarrass Elizabeth Warren at a recent hearing.

Bill McKibben, head of 350.0rg and a principal organizer for the White House demonstrations against the Tar Sands extraction and Keystone XL pipeline, was interviewd Tuesday night by KO on Countdown. McKibben’s quietly understated message to the President was direct, personal and moving.

The Secessionist laid out a legal opposition to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in his book, calling them unconstitutional. And yesterday, his soon-to-be running mate Marco Rubio presented a moral argument against them.

Hours after announcing it would be releasing tens of thousands of cables from various countries including Libya, China, Israel and Afghanistan, WikiLeaks announced that it was sustaining denial of service (DOS) attacks and had “regressed” to its backup servers.

President Obama’s job approval rating hits its lowest level yet in Gallup’s daily tracking polling. The three day rolling average found only 38 percent approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president while 54 percent disapprove.

In the 50 state AG “investigation” of the bank foreclosure/securitization fraud saga, there’s a smaller task force of about 13 AGs and two banking regulators who are involved in the negotiations with the banks and whatever else it is that they’re working on. It turns out that New York’s Eric Schneiderman was part of that executive committee, but now he’s been booted off.

FDL is a place where you can connect with and “talk” with people like you who want to know more than the canned pablum fed to you by Big Media and where your own thoughts, analysis and opinions are heard and can spark action. It’s a big noisy, sometimes rambunctious family we have going here, but we’re all together in our search for truth and in our desire to effect positive change.

David Dayen’s News Roundup from August 23, 2011

Here’s the latest news and updates on civil liberties and digital freedom issues from FDL’s Kevin Gosztola.

• The quake that rattled the East Coast.
• Welcome to the club, Japan!
• But…tax hikes kill jobs.
• So are we, Maxine.
• They should tax these millionaires for Jesus.