The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied Troy Davis clemency. The five-member board reviewed pleas for clemency yesterday and did not make a decision until this morning. Davis is scheduled for execution tomorrow, September 21. Clemency or the issuance of a stay of execution was Davis’ last available avenue for avoiding lethal injection.

Darrell Issa is a happy man. After flailing around for a while, he finally thinks he has a product to push, an example of Obama corruption, with the Solyndra story. There’s even another piece of it that has popped up in the form of LightSquared, a wireless startup which, according to allegations, was the subject of unfavorable testimony to Congress by Air Force Gen. William Shelton until the White House intimidated him into changing his view. Issa is ready to widen his investigation. Loan guarantee programs for clean energy have actually migrated to the subject of a potential government shutdown, with Republicans trying to cancel a program for hybrid vehicles to pay for disaster relief.

Republicans definitely think they have a winning hand by criticizing corruption in the clean energy realm. It’s a tailor-made Glenn Beck conspiracist rant where the corruption lines up with a philosophical view against climate change and a lucrative view in support of wealthy oil and gas company contributors over the clean energy industry. The government, you see, cannot “pick winners and losers” in the energy space. Can’t do it.

Unless those winners happen to be in Republican districts and states.

The new closeness of this race could have big national implications. Democrats will have 23 seats to defend this cycle compared to the Republicans who only need to defend 10 seats. A Democratic win in Massachusetts could help make up for likely Democratic losses elsewhere, like in North Dakota. It is easy to picture a scenario where the outcome in Massachusetts is the difference between Democrats narrowly holding onto the Senate and narrowly losing the chamber.

If I had a nit to pick with Obama’s deficit reduction plan, it’s that he’s framing increasing taxes on the wealthy in the service of reducing the deficit — traditionally a Republican goal — rather around the idea that progressive taxation builds a healthier democracy. But he’s on the right track.

How do I know? Because David Brooks hates it.

From USA Today comes news of a survey by a group of Baylor researchers on the values and beliefs of the American public. The study examines the intersection of personal faith/religious expression and economic beliefs, views on gays and lesbians, spirituality and mental health, and other issues.

What leaped out at me from the USA Today write-up was the confusion that many folks on the conservative end of the religious spectrum have.

They’re worshiping Milton Friedman and calling him Jesus. Sorry, folks, but there is no commandment that reads “Thou shalt pull thyself up by thine own bootstraps.”

I’m not sure anyone outside of Ralph really thinks that Palin had any idea about what her Iowa speech contained because, for all she knows, she probably stood at the lectern and repeated the word ‘boner’ over and over again for about twenty minutes before being lured offstage with something shiny and a six-figure check. But Ralph sees a prettier version of himself mouthing approximations of the things he has been saying for years and all of the sudden he gets starbursts in his pants which hasn’t happened since, well actually, never.

At 12:01am, the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was formally repealed. Gays and lesbians can now serve freely in the US Armed Forces. The official notice from the US Army was released last night, in a completely understated document. “The law is repealed,” says the letter from Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno, Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler. “It is the duty of all personnel to treat each other with dignity and respect, while maintaining good order and discipline throughout our ranks. Doing so, we will help the US Army remain the strength of the Nation.”

Stand with Lt. Dan Choi: Oppose His Punishment at the Hands of the White House and Military.

Occupy Wall Street put up a tarp overnight. Using trees in the park, the occupation erected a structure, which inevitably meant the New York Police Department was going to tell them immediately this morning they had five minutes to take all tarps down. The protesters opted to hold an emergency assembly to discuss whether to cede to police orders or not. They democratically in the quickest way possible tried to arrive at a consensus. But, there was no consensus before police marched in and began to take control of the situation.

The biggest problem with the White House’s definitional strategy on the American Jobs Act was that Democrats didn’t really give it the full-throated support it needed to draw that contrast. By the end of last week, the White House was circling the wagons on that, and Democratic leaders stepped out to say that the jobs plan would have the support of the caucus. But those initial grumblings really hurt the unified message.

Are we on the way toward the same problem with the deficit reduction plan delivered today, similarly designed to draw contrast between taxes on millionaires or cuts to vital programs? So far, this looks a bit better.

• Yes, rich people and corporations should pay more taxes.
• Texas Teabaggers no likey the Secessionist.
• As if drones weren’t disturbing enough.
• Please, Dick — just go away.
• How can a Republican survive on only $400K/year?