Dan, Bill and I are continuing our Powershift panel, “What Do You Do When the President is Just Not Into You.” (Felipe Matos, who took Bill’s place when we recreated the panel at Netroots Nation, scored quite the victory in the same vein with Roberto Lovato and everyone else at Presente this week.)

Dan Choi says we’re “flaming firebaggers.”

I’ll livestream as I can, and live tweet at @JaneHamsher

At a town hall meeting in Illinois, President Obama reaffirmed that he will personally push for Congress to make Medicare and Social Security cuts part of any talk about deficit reduction or job creation. From the White House Transcripts: When folks tell you that we’ve got a choice between jobs now or dealing with our [...]

The City of Los Angeles will no long hire Standard and Poor’s to rate the city’s investment portfolio. From the LA Times: “We have really lost faith in S&P’s judgment,” Interim Treasurer Steve Ongele said. After its downgrade of U.S. debt last week, S&P cut its rating of L.A.’s general investment pool to AA from [...]

The United States’ Department of Justice is now investigating the rating agency Standard & Poor’s according to the NYT

If only Paul Krugman would STFU, I’m sure things would be just fine.

/s

While American’s economic optimism is roughly as bad as it was at the height of the 2008 crash, the difference now is that significantly more Americans feel angry about the latest economic news. From Pew: Nearly six-in-ten Americans (58%) say reports about the economy make them feel angry, higher than the 49% that said this [...]

Paul Krugman is a Nobel prize winning New York Times columnist who consistently sits at the top of every poll of “most influential liberals.”

What exactly does OFA think they stand to gain by ridiculing Krugman as a “political rookie,” a hysterical “fanatic” and an “idealogue”? Do they think they hold so much sway with liberals that they can discredit Krugman and thus neutralize his criticism?

That smacks more of narcissism and megalomania than any sound political “strategy.”

Some in the California state legislature are looking to create a new Basic Health Plan as part of implementing the Affordable Care Act. The law give states the option of automatically putting people making less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level in a state run Basic Health Plan instead of forcing them to buy [...]

Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker with licensed betting offices in Ireland and the UK, is giving Damon 100:1 odds to win the 2012 Presidential election.  That gives him the same odds as Newt Gingrich, and a better chance than either John McCain or Michael Bloomberg. They put Rick Perry at the top of the Republican heap at 7:2, with Mitt Romney at 5:1. Barack Obama still has the best shot, at 4:6.

They may not, however, be the most astute judges of the American political system.

Dan and his attorney, Yetta Kurland, will be joining us for a community conference call on August 17 to talk about the upcoming trial. Please sign up and join us on the call, and let Dan know that you are watching what’s happening to him and that you’ll be there to support him throughout.