FAA workers are screwed. With the debt-limit deal out of the way – it’s time for Congress to resolve the FAA funding impasse right? No. Instead of figuring out a way to restore full funding to the agency in charge of making sure our airplanes don’t fall out of the sky – and also figuring out a way to get 4,000 furloughed FAA employees back to work – Republicans are going on vacation.

That’s right – they’re taking 5 weeks off – meaning the FAA will be sputtering along through Labor Day while Republicans yuck it up in their home districts. With the FAA shutdown – airline safety inspectors are working extended hours without pay – and $2.5 billion in transportation projects are on hold – meaning another 100,000 construction workers are out of a job too. Not only that – as Republicans scream about deficits – our government is losing out on $200 million a week in uncollected airline ticket taxes.

Let’s hope it never happens – but if a plane goes down this month – call Speaker Boehner.

-Thom

(What do you think will happen to the Republican Party now? Tell us here.)

The Daily Stack

Quote: "Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." -- Robert Kennedy.

Hour One: Debt deal...moving forward, "Jobs Are the Answer" Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY, 15th District)

Article: "Jobs Are The Answer " by Charles Rangel.

Article: "Text of Budget Control Act Amendment" (SEC. 402. Expedited consideration of joint committee recommendations).

Article: "Senate passes debt deal" by Gregory Korte.

Article: "National Lampoon" ("If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog").

Article: "REPORT: Debt Ceiling Deal Will Cost 1.8 Million Jobs In 2012" by Marie Diamond.

Article: "Stocks plunge as economic concerns grow" by AP.

Article: "US company profits surge, even as economy slows" by Alexander Osipovich.

Taking Our Country Back...Wisconsin Recall Elections Nancy Nusbaum, Democratic candidate for State Senate (D-WI, 2nd District)

Article: "Wisc. Dems accuse AFP of election tampering" by David Catanese.

Article: "Poll shows Rob Cowles, Nancy Nusbaum in dead heat in Wisconsin Senate recall race".

Article: "Nancy Nusbaum injects national issues into Wisconsin Senate recall race against Republican Rob Cowles" by Michael Louis Vinson.

Hour Two: Free Trade is killing American jobs Bill O'Shaughnessy, Coalition for a Prosperous America and Manufacturing

Article: "Casey Calls for China Currency Vote; Highlights Effect of Unfair Trade on Local Business" by Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr.

Site: "Revere Copper Products, Inc."

Article: "Trading Our Future: Tax Cheating and the Panama Free Trade Agreement" by Dylan Ratigan.

Site: "ALEC Exposed".

Article: "Obama: Both Parties Responsible For Economy" by Erik Hayden.

Article: "Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis?" by Jane Hamsher.

Talk Radio News Segment: Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief

Article: "Debt Deal Sails Through Senate, Heads To Obama's Desk" by TRNS.

Article: "Budget Control Act Amendment Senate roll call".

Article: "RNC Chairman Priebus Statement on the Debt Limit Deal".

Article: "Debt Deal Would End Subsidized Loans To Grad Students, Produce Savings Equal To Only Three Months In Afghanistan" by Zaid Jilani.

Article: "Patrick Murphy: The Only 2012 Candidate With Campaign Contributions From Charlie Crist" by Matthew Hendley.

Article: "Sec. Geithner on Debt Deal: Don't Know If We Will Avoid Downgrade " by George Stephanopoulos.

Article: "Top U.S. officer says U.S. troops need immunity to stay in Iraq" by Xinhua.

Article: "Italy recalls ambassador to Syria" by Alessandra Rizzo.

Article: "UN says four peacekeepers killed in Sudan's Abyei" by Reuters.

Article: "Gabrielle Giffords expected to come back to Congress "full-time," says Dem party chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz" by Corbett B. Daly.

Hour Three: Debt ceiling deal or "Ransom Paid"? Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor-Clinton Administration

Book: "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life" by Robert B. Reich.

Book: "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future" by Robert B. Reich.

Article: "Ransom Paid" by Robert Reich.

Article: "Transcript Of Obama's Press Conference On Tax Cut Deal" by Eric Lach, December 7, 2010.

Conservative alert: "Joe Lieberman Says U.S. Should Cut Social Security To Pay For Fighting ‘The Islamist Extremists’" by Zaid Jilani.

Article: "After Months of Partisan Wrangling, Wall Street & Pentagon Emerge Victorious on Debt Deal" by Democracy Now!

Article: "New U.S. panel to decide on deficit cuts" by Reuters.

The good: "Doing Away With the Debt Ceiling" by Bruce Bartlett.

The bad: "'WBBM distorted black boy's message to promote white supremacy'".

The very, very ugly: "Joe Lieberman Says U.S. Should Cut Social Security To Pay For Fighting ‘The Islamist Extremists’" by Zaid Jilani.

Article: "The Next Hostage Crises: 2012 Appropriations, Federal Gas Tax" by David Dayen.

Clip: Phone conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and Sen. Everett Dirksen (R) Illinois, November 2, 1968.

Full Monty alert: "South Carolina woman faces trial for fake testicles" by Harriet McLeod.

Article: "Boehner: I got 98 percent of what I wanted" by Scott Pelley.

Article: "Mitch McConnell Vows To Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage In The Future: ‘We’ll Be Doing It All Over’" by Alex Seitz-Wald.

Article: "Biden’s Admission on the 14th Amendment Actually a BFD" by David Dayen.

Article: "House To Recess After Debt Vote, Even Though FAA Shutdown Is Forcing Inspectors To Work Without Pay" by Travis Waldron.

Article: "TEPCO detects highest radiation level from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant" by Bi Mingxin.

Article: "Palin flick defeated at the box office" by Maggie Haberman.

Crazy alert: "92 Percent of Newt Gingrich's 1.3 Million Twitter Followers Are Fake" by IBT.

Hour Two: Debt deal is done, what's next? Thom challenges Ken Klukowski of The American Civil Rights Union...

Hour Three: "Taking Our Country Back" WI State Rep. Fred Clark, (D-WI, District 14)

And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program... your media support group for we the people.

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