LBN: DEFICIT RISING

Bailouts for financial firms and billions in tax revenue lost because of the recession drove the deficit to a record $1.3 trillion in July, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Ourfuture.org: FIGHTING BACK ON HEALTH CARE– Progressive Grassroots Steps Up

W. Post looks at grassroots battle in Blue Dog Dem Rep. Baron Hill’s Indiana district: “Allison Luthe, the Indiana coordinator for Health Care for America Now, which supports the Obama plan, said pro-reform labor unions have assigned 22 organizers to the state …; LA Times on Organizing For America’s difficulties in energizing 13 million members on specific policy: “The network is powered by local volunteers who often have left-leaning goals. But the president, now that he is in office, has in many cases adopted a centrist approach that accommodates Republicans and business groups. That means some activists are being asked to devote evenings and weekends to build support for policies they may feel only lukewarm about …

But [officials] say Organizing for America, which was known as Obama for America during the presidential campaign, is quietly and deliberately building a system of professional field organizers and trained volunteers that has already inspired thousands of community events and reached millions of people.”; Politico on latest OFA effort: “Organizing for America, President Obama’s political organization, is urging supporters to visit the district offices of their local member of Congress to urge support for healthcare reform — another move by Democrats to counter the loud opposition being voiced by conservatives at town halls …

Organizing for America has created a sign-up where supporters pledge to visit their House member. Democrats have compiled the address, phone number and office hours for the members and tailored it to each email depending on where their supporter lives.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE TO BURST

Higher Education will be Next So say Joseph Marr Cronin, secretary of education in Massachusetts, and Howard E. Horton, president of Boston’s New England College of Business and Finance.

And there is a fear of mergers, closures. . . even bankruptcies of colleges that took on too much debt, based on a unbalanced system of student loans paying for rising tuitions.

And we agree. The next bubble to burst will be higher education.

No doubt about it.

You see, higher education is big money for institutions and lenders alike. . . and they’re in big trouble.

What most people who are not involved directly in higher education fail to understand is that these institutions and lenders are in the same sinking boat that banks and other financial companies are in. Assets are drowning. And debt and costs are rising.
Under-capitalized colleges are staring down threats to solvency, too (just as banks are), as penny-pinching students and parents go for cheaper alternatives (community college, online colleges, etc.) and sources of funds dry up.

Mike Whitney: This is No Recession It’s a Planned Demolition

ICH: Those days are over. The world is changing and the US role is getting smaller. As US markets become less attractive to foreign exporters, the dollar will lose its position as the world’s reserve currency. As goes the dollar, so goes the empire. Want some advice: Learn Mandarin.

Bob Kendall: How Corrupt is the Economic System of the U.S.A. Today?

ICH: The 30 nation survey of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2008 placed the poverty rate of the U.S.A. only above Mexico and Turkey.

JOKE OF THE DAY: Imus is coming back on a new channel and in a new incarnation—On the Fox Business Channel

All yourTV.com: Imus Near Deal to Join Fox Business Network

Don Imus, whose radio show has been syndicated by ABC Radio and simulcast on the rural-oriented RFD-TV since December 2007, is said to be near a deal to jump to the Fox Business Network. The move could boost the visibility of the “nappy-headed hos” host.

MOVIE TIME

Went to see an amazing movie, see—THE HURT LOCKER, a story set Iraq focused on the US soldiers who disarm bombs in Iraq. The movie—a drama, not a documentary—shows their bravery but also the idiocy of the war and occupation in a country that wants the US gone. It is incredibly well done. Don’t miss it. Sorry Mr. Colbert: This is what the war is really like and why we have lost it.

THIS JUST IN FROM THE NYT: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Founder of Special Olympics, Is Dead at 88

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a member of one of the most prominent families in American politics and a trailblazer in the effort to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities died Tuesday morning. She was 88.

A sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy and the mother-in-law of Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Mrs. Shriver never heldelective office. Yet she was no stranger to Capitol Hill, and some view her work on behalf of the mentally retarded, including the founding of the Special Olympics, as the most lasting of the Kennedy family’s contributions.

Keith Olbernann on MSNBC: Special Comment: ‘Death Panel’ Palin dangerously irresponsible

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