Republicans have learned to play hostage taker...while sitting by the pool on vacation. The FAA partial-shutdown is now in its 12th day - leaving 4000 FAA workers furloughed - another several thousand FAA safety inspectors working without paid overtime or expenses - and over 70000 construction workers without a job as $2.5 billion worth of airport infrastructure projects are on hold without funding - all because Republicans wanted to turn a routine FAA funding bill into a weapon for their war against unions. And it looks like once again - they'll get everything they want - for now. Today - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a deal has been reached to restore funding to the FAA at least through the middle of September - but then the debate will continue. In a statement - Reid said, "This agreement does not resolve the important differences that still remain. But I believe we should keep Americans working while Congress settles its differences, and this agreement will do exactly that." Those differences Reid mentioned centers on provision to eliminate subsidies to rural airports in Democratic districts - something that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood assured Democrats he can waive moving forward. But the real hold up in the FAA funding bill is about unions. Republicans slipped a provision into the bill that makes it harder for federal air and rail workers to unionize - knowing that the Senate would have a difficult time passing it. This new deal reached today ...

Thom sits down with Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards to discuss the Democrats recent loss in the debt deal debate. Then Thom takes on two conservatives in the Lone Liberal Rumble. Discussions include the economy, job creation, the manufacturing industry, the GOP shutdown of the FAA and the Koch brothers election tampering in Wisconsin. Also in tonight's show author, Sam Pizzigati, joins Thom to talk about inequality in America and which former president Barack Obama should turn to for political advice. And freelance journalist and author, Sanjiv Bhattacharya, talks about how the polygamy trial of Warren Jeffs could potentially affect two Republican Presidential candidates. Plus Thom's daily take focuses on what Progressives need to do now to influence the Democratic party.

With Sanjiv Bhattacharya, writer/journalist/editor / US correspondent for Esquire UK. Two of the Republican Party's presidential candidates are Mormons, and a new lawsuit in Utah seeks to decriminalize polygamy for Mormons, whose sacred texts some interpret as recommending multiple wives for a man to get into heaven. Mitt Romney's great-grandfather had four wives, and his great-great grandfather apparently had 30 wives. And speaking of polygamous Mormons, today is day eight of the Warren Jeffs trial in Texas. Jeffs is the leader of the Mormon polygamist sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - and he is charged with sexually assaulting two underage girls by raping - he called it marrying - a 12-year-old and impregnating a 15-year-old. Today - Prosecutors played for jurors a 21-minute sex tape Jeffs had recorded - allegedly featuring Jeffs and the 12-year-old girl. Toward the end of the tape - after what sounds like heavy panting - Jeffs is heard saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen," To which the 12-year-old - echoed, "Amen." The prosecution then rested its case - and the attention now turns to Jeffs to mount a defense...all on his own - because he fired his entire legal team on Friday - when he decided to defend himself by sermonizing to the jury - and justifying the religious tenets of his church. So what is it exactly that motivates Jeffs and other polygamist Mormons - and what could this trial mean for their community? With ...

Nancy Pelosi, Gretchen Carlson and Herman Cain.