Busy work day today, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio with Jesse LaGreca at 11 Eastern. Listen here.

Why we are Democrats, FDR's Second Inaugural Address:

But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens—a substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.

I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Open Thread.

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio with Jesse LaGreca at 11 Eastern. Listen here.

Open Thread.

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio with Jesse LaGreca at 11. Listen here.

Open Thread.

Bruce Bartlett:

Republicans are adamant that taxes on the ultra-wealthy must not rise to the level they were at during the Clinton administration, as President Obama favors, lest economic devastation result. But they have a problem – the 1990s were the most prosperous era in recent history. This requires Republicans to try to rewrite the economic history of that decade.

Yes, they would. But has that ever stopped a Republican? FTR: "Bruce Bartlett held senior policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul."

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio with Jesse LaGreca this morning. Listen here.

Open Thread.

Michael Phelps wins his 18th gold medal.

Happy 51st birthday to President Obama.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Finally! The track and field starts at the Olympics! 100 meter dash on Sunday. Got Tyson Gay at a nice price.

Also, too, the suspended badminton players were treated unfairly, as I explain on Daily Kos Radio.

Open Thread.

Out and about today and this evening, I hope nothing important happened.

Here's another open thread, all topics welcome.

I'll be on Daily Kos Radio this morning with Jesse LaGreca. You can listen here.

Open Thread.

The Drew Peterson trial is off to a rocky start. Prosecutorial errors may cause a mistrial. More here. This is one of those cases, like Casey Anthony, I have zero interest in and haven't followed. Nor have I figured out why anyone else is following it.

A new report on James Holmes and his psychiatrist: "Sources" (who don't sound like law enforcement) say his doctor notified members of a special assessment team at CU that he was potentially dangerous a few weeks before the Aurora shootings, but he dropped out before the team could evaluate. No one notified police. It's not clear why she was concerned -- whether it just his statements or he disclosed he might take violent action. I put no stock in the "threat assessment expert's" generic opinion.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Your turn. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.