Like the House – the Senate is now on vacation too – but not before Republicans could latch on to a procedural gimmick to keep President Obama from making a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Over the next month – a series of “pro forma” sessions will be held that technically keep the Senate in session even though no Senators are in town and no business is being done – just so Republicans can keep up their opposition to the new consumer rights agency that would stop big banks from screwing over the rest of us.

Leave it up to Republicans to figure out a way to filibuster while they're sitting by the pool with their billionaire donors.

-Thom

(What can be done about this? Tell us here.)

"Tea Party Awareness"

The Daily Stack

Quote: "You cannot negotiate with people who say ‘what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable." -- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Article: "Everybody who wants a big leftward shift in the Dem Party, please read this link" by Waiting For Everyman.

Site: "Concord Project".

Video: "Concord Project GOTV - the importance of precinct committee members ".

Video: "Concord Project GOTV - how you become a precinct committee member".

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

Video: "Thom Hartmann & Alan Grayson: Elections haven't worked?!?!".

Because I got high alert: "Stoned wallabies blamed for crop circles in Australia" by CNN.

Article: "The Strike That Busted Unions" by Joseph A. McCartin.

Video: "Ronald Reagan: "Where Free Unions and Collective Bargaining are Forbidden, Freedom is Lost".

Article: "Iceland’s loud No" by Silla Sigurgeirsdóttir and Robert H Wade.

Article: "Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years" by Thom Hartmann.

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

Site: "Progressive Democrats of America".

Hour Two: The debt deal and the economy...what's next? Professor Richard Wolff, Economist/Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Book: "Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It" by Richard D. Wolff.

Site: "Morning Joe".

Article: "Greenspan - I was wrong about the economy. Sort of" by Andrew Clark in New York and Jill Treanor.

Talk Radio News Segment: Victoria Jones, White House Correspondent

Article: "LaHood Demands Congress Return To Washington, Reauthorize FAA" by Benny Martinez.

Article: "While on Summer Recess, Congress Blocks Recess Appointments" by Marian Wang.

Article: "Trial Begins For Egypt's Mubarak" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Next Debt Test: Panel Picking" by Meredith Shiner and Jessica Brady.

Hour Three: Meet the Right-Wing Hatemongers Who Inspired the Norway Killer Max Blumenthal, Journalist / Author

Book: "Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party" by Max Blumenthal.

Article: "Meet the Right-Wing Hatemongers Who Inspired the Norway Killer" by Max Blumenthal.

Article: "America’s Breivik Complex: How state terror electrifies the Islamophobic right" by Max Blumenthal.

Article: "James Madison's Notes On the Constitutional Convention of 1787".

Cheesy News alert: "Biden Compares Tea Party to Terrorists; Al-Qaeda Demands Apology" by Andy Borowitz.

The good: "Pelosi: My Deficit Committee Members Will Oppose All Entitlement Benefit Cuts" by Brian Beutler.

The bad: Gretchen Carlson: "SpongeBob SquarePants Makes An Enemy" by Media Matters.

The very, very ugly: "Herman Cain Defends Manufacturing Campaign T-Shirts In Honduras: ‘I Don’t See A Reason’ To Change" by Scott Keyes.

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

Article: "Olsen vs. Clark: A look at the issues in State Senate District 14...Political direction in the district is uncertain" by Mike Lowe.

Article: "Election activists putting out some wrong numbers " by Tim Damos.

Article: "Expiring gas tax may be next battle on the Hill" by Byron Tau & Ben Smith.

Article: "Moody's confirms U.S. rating at Aaa, outlook negative" by Walter Brandimarte and Daniel Bases.

Article: "BREAKING: 142,000 Signatures In Favor of Initiative 25" by Colorado Pols.

Article: "Myriad can patent breast cancer genes: court" by Julie Steenhuysen.

Latest on ALEC Lee Fang, Reporter / Blogger - Think Progress

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