Hello, everybody, and welcome back! Hopefully everybody got through the work week in one piece and are ready do dive into the news!

Debt Ceiling  Today, after much publicity, John Boehner’s bill passed the house, and then failed in the Senate (as everyone knew it would). So, now what? There are only a few days left until the deadline to get something done, and average Americans are fearfully watching this debacle. It really does seem that Republicans are truly willing to run this country into the ground for ideology and to oust President Obama. This whole thing is embarrassing, scary, and disgusting.

5 Arrested Protesting Eviction In Illinois, a mother and her three sons were going to be evicted from their house, and it drew protesters; it also drew the police, who arrested the protestors for “Criminal Trespass and Obstruction of Justice.” The mortgagor was attempting to work on a loan modification with the bank, which didn’t work out, and now doesn’t have anywhere else to go. This story is far too common, and people like this are the people who are being forgotten by our country. People get evicted every day, and as long as they are sight, they are out of mind. Also, how sad that people protesting a woman and her children being thrown out of their house were arrested. Of course we don’t know all of the details behind this story, but it appears to be a highly unfortunate situation, made more unfortunate by the fact that people who were trying to defend the defenseless were punished for doing so. Sad.

Religious Fanatics and the Debt Ceiling  This is a really great article about religion and how it influences those who would push our government to default. Definitely a great read!

 Murdochgate!  Well, it’s been a few days since we’ve heard much about Mr. Murdoch and his corrupt empire, but employees of the New York Post were told to keep any documents that might relate to the phone hacking scandal. The plot thickens, and authorities are still trying to find out what, if anything, illegal was done in the United States.

Scientist Suspended  Charles Monnet, the scientist that first “rang the alarm” about climate change, has been suspended, among other stories. Read on for this past week in science.

War On Whistleblowers ”Despite being largely vindicated, Thomas Drake’s life was all but destroyed, while Jim Risen spent years facing the prospect that he’d have to go to prison in order not to reveal his source.  That climate of fear aimed at those who expose government wrongdoing is the prime outcome, if not the prime goal, of the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers.”

Thousands Unfollow Obama Barack Obama has a twitter account (@barackobama) that I, too, follow. On Friday, his account basically spammed everyone by sending out a ridiculous amount of tweets with House members’ twitter addresses. I saw these tweets and elected to ignore them, but I guess some people were annoyed enough to cut the President’s account off. Though this isn’t front page news, I think it illustrates how politicians need to learn how to use social media better – it is surprising that out of all of them, Obama’s account was the one to commit this faux pas.  He was a pioneer online during the last presidential election, but now, not as much. Obama uses his account for spam, Sarah Palin uses her as the equivalent of an interview…. c’mon, politicians, get it together, or get off of twitter.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend, and stop by later for some more news!

Sources: CNN, The Chicago Tribune, Pandagon.net, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Salon, The Washington Post