The saddest part of Jane Hamsher’s interview on Ed’s show last night was listening to Ed groan in the background as Ms. Hamsher calmly explained that it was his supposedly Democratic President who was insisting on putting Social Security and Medicare at risk as a condition for avoiding a default on the national debt. How could this be?

Jane talked to Congressman Barney Frank, a crusader for cost-of-living increase, who said he will NOT vote for The Gang of Six deal (which includes a calculation that would decrease cost-of-living adjustments). She reported on the 2000 people saying no to cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits… who visited over 40 Congressional offices to let them know if they vote for cuts they won’t get support in the next election. Now, she’ll talk to us about what comes next.

MSNBC’s “senior political analyst” Mark Halperin was suspended indefinitely on Thursday after calling President Obama “Kind of a dick” on Morning Joe. The president is not a dick—but, that said, the president did make a dick move. No, not the one that got Halperin to put in for a few extra weeks of summer vacation—the dick move was cutting the legs out from under congressional Democrats in an effort to prove his worth to whomever it is Obama looks to for approval, and improve his standing for his 2012 run.

So apparently, while sitting on record amounts of cash, industry is willing to invest in technology but not people.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech yesterday to the International Monetary Conference in Atlanta, GA. Only one speech. Yet looking around the Toobz at the various headlines at news sites on this speech, it must have been an all things to all people speech as I’ve found at least four different perspectives presented, some of them directly contradictory.

Back in January of 2009, I wrote a diary titled I Am Unemployed but Not a Statistic. I was thinking about that diary this morning. With all the discussion of statistics, unemployment rates, jobs created or unemployment claims filed, there is a human being somewhere who is affected. I started Just A Small Town Country Boy as an attempt to put a human face on just one of those people (myself) who sits behind the statistic. But as we all know, I am just one voice among the millions.

Good times.

Rather than dwelling on those who have given their lives in wars in the US (I am fortunate that for all the members of my family who have served in the military over the years, I think only my Great Uncle Will died while serving during war time and his death during the Spanish-American War was from disease), I want to discuss the folks who always seem to get lost, the veterans who return from war breathing but damaged in soul.

Which came first? Are the higher engineering salaries due to the preponderance of men in the field or are the lower salaries for fields such as Social Work and Education due to the preponderance of women in the field? Contrary to the beliefs of some people, jobs in Social Work fields and Education are not easy nor are they stress free.

Notice how all but one of those tax credits are geared towards and most affect your average working people? Nothing about all the corporate tax credits. I’m a bit too lazy to go do all the research for this but I’d make a WAG that the reason the corporate tax credits aren’t showing is because they are all broken down to the lowest level possible, most likely by industry. Far easier to keep things looking smaller to say “Oil Industry Tax Credits” or “Technology Tax Credits” rather than just to say “Corporate Tax Credits” – makes them look far smaller than the dastardly Earned Income Tax Credit or Mortgage Interest deduction.