“Arab Banking Corporation (B.S.C.)” on The Daily Caller

A three-day-long stand-off at the Wisconsin state capitol between union supporters and those backing the Republican governor’s budget cuts just went to another level Thursday as Democratic senators apparently fled the area to prevent a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill, which would cut public employee union collective bargaining rights and require them to contribute to pensions and health care. (more)

1.) FCIC dissenters defend bailing out Wall Street — Two reports will come out of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission today. The one written by the panel’s liberal majority will blame lax regulation and the banking industry for the collapse of the housing industry. The other, written by commissioners Bill Thomas, a former Republican congressman from California, Keith Hennessey, former chairman of the White House National Economic Council under President George W. Bush, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, spreads the blame more broadly among “investors, creditors, regulators, homebuyers, and politicians,” all of whom must take “personal responsibility.” The dissenters also defended bailing out Wall Street: “For a policymaker, the calculus is simple: if you bail out AIG and you’re wrong, you will have wasted taxpayer money and provoked public outrage,” the paper reads. “If you don’t bail out AIG and you’re wrong, the global financial system collapses. It should be easy to see why policymakers favored action–there was a chance of being wrong either way, and the costs of being wrong without action were far greater than the costs of being wrong with action.” Thank goodness we didn’t destabilize the global financial system, which might have led to really scary stuff, like high unemployment. (more)

1.) Remember: The five worst reactions to the Loughner shooting — Washington never fails to disappoint. While normal people cry in response to tragedy, the buttinskys on Capitol Hill are attempting to legislate away the pain. The Daily Caller’s Chris Moody rounds up the dumbest of the dumb, from a plan to “encase the entire House and Senate floor with Plexiglass so the tourists can’t throw things at members of Congress,” to a Republican-proposed law that would make it illegal to carry a firearm within 1/5 of a mile “of any ‘high-profile’ public official.” In a lapse of judgment that will go unpublished by his base, Democratic Rep. James Clyburn argued that the FCC–on which his daughter is a commissioner–should bring back the Fairness Doctrine. “You cannot yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater and call it free speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that.” And people say Congress doesn’t listen… (more)

Every year, it seems a new, high-profile Federal Communications Commission case ends up in court. (more)

1.) Unethical Google alumnus leaves White House one day after FCC passes net neutrality — Andrew McLaughlin should have left the White House in March, when he was found to be using his personal gmail account while at work, or even in May, when internal memos revealed McLaughlin was coordinating PR with Google’s U.S. public policy director. Instead, the nation’s deputy CTO waited until the FCC passed its net neutrality bill to bid adieu to government life. According to WaPo, “McLaughlin, who previously worked as a Google executive, oversaw many of the White House’s Internet policy initiatives including Internet access regulations, the expansion of broadband connections and global cybersecurity.” Not mentioned in WaPo’s writeup is Google’s ardent support for net neutrality regulations. McLaughlin will dive back into the startup world, creating products for state and local governments. He “also said he will return to teaching law, which he did at Harvard University’s Berkman Center seven years ago.” Interesting factoid: The Berkman center is the far-left think thank that the FCC commissioned to produce objective reports on the apparent need for net neutrality regulations. (more)

Tea Party leaders in both the House and Senate have come out strong after Mitch McConnell’s call to ban all earmarks with Sen. Jim DeMint calling it the beginning a cultural change in Washington. (more)

LOS ANGELES — Late last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was still coming to terms with that most deeply confounding of European filmmakers, Jean-Luc Godard. (more)

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez said Sunday that Democrats are open to temporarily extending the Bush-era tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year, which are set to expire at the end of this year. (more)

In an environment in which Democrats all over the country are fighting for their political survival, approval ratings are low and the party is at risk of losing its grip on Congress, two high-profile Democrats are thriving – Bill and Hillary Clinton. (more)

Democrats need to produce evidence of their accusations that conservative groups are using foreign funds for election purposes or “shut up” about the issue, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said. (more)

LOS ANGELES – Courteney Cox and David Arquette announced Monday they have been separated for some time but said they remain committed parents and “best friends.” (more)

Funny lady Margaret Cho wasn’t laughing after learning last night she’d done her last performance on Dancing With the Stars. (more)

A candid former British Prime Minister Tony Blair stands by his and the Bush administration’s decision to pursue the Iraq war, even as he expresses regret for the lives lost in the conflict. (more)

The coming season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” will feature another eclectic mix of competitors representing an expansive definition of the word star, including vintage sitcom actors, familiar faces from MTV reality shows and the oldest daughter of the 2008 Republican nominee for Vice President, ABC said on Monday night. (more)

Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee spokesmen were on ABC’s “Top Line” Wednesday with dueling messages coming out of last night’s primary. (more)

Jennifer Aniston is returning to the small screen with some help from a friend. (more)

Monica Lewinsky had her eyes on another man in the White House before she serviced President Clinton — Clinton’s communications director George Stephanopoulos. (more)

The new host of ABC’s Sunday morning news program, renamed “This Week With Christiane Amanpour,” tried to get a rise out of Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. (more)

WikiLeaks put its own interests above those on the front lines in Afghanistan, the Secretary of Defense said on Sunday. (more)

Thursday morning, Barack Obama decided to face the hard hitting, hyper critical, no-spin firing squad that is The View. (more)