Stone Cold Sober: An Interview With Mike Lofgren, Author of "The Party Is Over" Leslie Thatcher, Truthout: "Mike Lofgren spent twenty-eight years working in Congress, the last sixteen as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget committees ... Lofgren has expanded on [his] insights in his just-issued book, 'The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.'" Read the Article Immigrant Rights Freedom Riders Head to Democratic National Convention Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "Rolling through Denver, the 'No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice' bus full of undocumented and out activists is seeking to bring the forgotten immigration struggles like those in Denver back into the public eye before the November election ... The undocumented immigrants on the bus will be driving from Arizona to the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina." Read the Article Did the US Cause Fallujah's Birth Defects? Shihab Rattansi, Al Jazeera English: "In November 2004, the US led an assault on Fallujah ... Iraqi physicians have also long reported a spike in cases involving severe birth defects in Fallujah since 2004. They have reported children born with multiple heads, serious brain damage, missing limbs and with extra fingers and toes." Watch the Video and Read the Article Victory! Political Files Go Online Molly Buckley, Free Press: "Today's the day we get our first glimpse into the deep, dark pockets of major network TV broadcasters all across the nation. The FCC's online political files database launches today - and not a minute too soon." Read the Article Economy Generates 163,000 Jobs in July; Unemployment Edges Up to 8.3 Percent Dean Baker, Center for Economic Policy and Research: "The economy added 163,000 jobs in July, its fastest rate of job growth since February. While this number was somewhat higher than consensus predictions, it is consistent with the decline in weekly unemployment claims in recent weeks to levels that are near the low-point for the recovery." Read the Article Is Citi Engaging in Criminal Abuses of Servicemen Student Loans? Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism: "Despite the clear provisions of the law, mortgage services were found to be violating on a widespread basis, both by failing to reduce interest charges to 6% and on foreclosing on military personnel who were deployed." Read the Article The Emerging "Drone" Culture Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group: "The idea of robots acting as guardians of public order has become a staple of dystopian fantasy - 'Terminator,' 'Minority Report,' 'The Matrix.' It is our duty to keep that stuff in the movies where it belongs." Read the Article What a Single-Payer Health Insurance Plan Looks Like (Part 2) Paul Jay, The Real News Network: "A recent study looking at a potential single-payer or government-run health insurance plan for Maryland comes to the conclusion there'd be enormous savings over the existing plan. Now joining us to talk about all of this is Gerald Friedman." Watch the Video and Read the Transcript Gore Vidal and His Reading List for America Michael Winship, Moyers & Company: "Ironic in 2012, as Tea Partiers embrace the Founding Fathers and their document in a death hug and Michele Bachmann claims it was one of Gore Vidal's novels about the early history of the United States that repulsed her so deeply she became a Republican." Read the Article Does Mitt Romney Think He Is a Son of Abraham and That the Land of Zion Will Be His Inheritance? Valerie Tarico, AlterNet: "While in Jerusalem Mitt Romney made an appearance at the Wailing Wall in a yarmulke. Was he just trying to pay tribute to Orthodox tradition or does he think he's a Jew? Perhaps both." Read the Article | 
