The attempt to meet looming deadlines and avoid shutdowns of part (or all) of the government resembles the aftermath of a car wreck right now. It’s unclear whether the Senate can move the broken-down vehicles off the road in time to let the traffic move through.

The separation of church and state — here’s exactly what happens when religious zealots are elected into public office and don’t see a problem with conflating the two:

Lawmaker Pushes Bill To Allow Bullying Of Gay Students And Concealed Guns

Weekly unemployment claims spiked up again today, and the NY Fed’s survey of regional manufacturing, a key indicator of the economy, was down sharply relative to expectations. This is a crisis time in the economy, and big solutions are needed to arrest the slide.

Both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal report that President Obama’s proposal for deficit reduction, due out Monday, will not include any changes to Social Security. The reports are less certain about increasing the Medicare eligibility age, giving a definite “maybe” about that measure.

The Wall Street Journal article about how the Obama administration decided to shelve an ozone regulation provides a great example for why we need to eliminate the absurd electoral college and switch to a national popular vote system for president.

• Winning the GOP primary — losing the general.
• Another successful Greek rescue?
• No one could’ve predicted….
• Previewing Warren vs. Brown.
• The GOP health plan: let ‘em die.

That’s quite a cult they’ve got there.

Joe Bonamassa — Stop, live from Royal Albert Hall, London, May 4, 2009.

Both of the provisions quoted will most likely be removed long before the Jobs bill gets anywhere near a vote, thanks to the captive legislators from both parties which makes the whining about it that much more irritating and ludicrous.

The drop in approval for Obama came mostly from Democrats as well as those who don’t identify with the two major parties, mainly because Obama’s job approval ratings among Republicans were all ready so low there wasn’t much room for it to fdrop lower. In the past few months Obama’s job approval number among Democrats dropped by 10 points from 79 percent in June to 69 percent now. The erosion in support among “non-partisans/others” was even greater, dropping 13 points, from 58 percent in June to only 45 percent now.