Yesterday marked Women's Equality Day, the commemoration of women's suffrage achieved in 1920. What better time to take stock of what's left to do? We need a national conversation led by the White House to explore how women decision-makers can help achieve better economic performance and a more prosperous future for all. The administration of Barack Obama has already taken the first step by appointing talented women -- including Mary Schapiro, who holds the top job at the Securities and Exchange Commission; Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel; and Sheila Bair, who heads the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -- to help dig us out of the financial mess. Having a few females at the top is wonderful, but until we have at least 30 percent of senior women in leadership, we will be ignoring a strong dynamic that is working well elsewhere. Today, a growing body of research that shows positive outcomes from having balanced leadership has been ignored. Other countries are addressing the fundamental issue of leadership in ways that have yet to gain much traction in the U.S. We can certainly do better. Tapping the full range of talent that includes the skills, experience and leadership of women as well as men is hardly a radical idea. As the Economist magazine famously wrote in 2006, "Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic growth is driven by women." An increasing number of reports show that having at least 30 percent of women in corporate and governmental leadership roles improves decision-making, opens up institutions and removes barriers to full participation. Performance Driver The U.S. has much to gain from a new leadership model. Economic growth and stock prices can only benefit. New York-based consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has released a series of reports since 2007 making the case that gender diversity at the top is a corporate performance driver. Yet, they note that three-quarters of 1,500 biggest companies have no women on their management boards. Further, there are only 28 female chief executive officers in 1,000 largest companies. Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm on Wall Street, recommends investing in countries where the gender gap is closing and where the "laws and social norms that have discriminated against women are shifting." Its studies show gross-domestic-product growth accelerates when women hold positions of power. Goldman has created the 10,000 Women Initiative, a $100 million, five-year program to provide an advanced business education for women. Costly Failures Failing to address challenges that keep women out of leadership is costly. New York-based research group Catalyst Inc. has shown that firms with three or more women on management boards boosted their return on equity by 112 percent, compared with those with fewer women. Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined a fast- moving trend in Europe to achieve 30 percent to 40 percent women on corporate boards. The French are following the lead of Norway, Spain and the Netherlands, which have already moved to accomplish these goals. The World Bank and the United Nations' Global Compact policy initiative have also recognized women's advancement as essential to economic growth. Michel Ferrary, a professor of management at the Skema Business School in Sophia Antipolis, France, studied the effects of balanced leadership in France during the financial crisis of 2007-08. "The more women there were in a company's management, the less the share price fell in 2008," he said. Investment Concept Similar results have been published by Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and in the U.K., India and Australia. Gender equality, as an investment concept, has been taken up by mutual funds such as Pax World Investments, which recently started a Global Women's Equality Fund betting that companies with more diverse leadership will perform better than others. A recent study by the National Council for Research on Women, based on data from Hedge Fund Research Inc., showed women hedge-fund managers outperformed their male counterparts. Our country has nothing to lose and much to gain by addressing the lack of women in top leadership. But it won't just happen. The U.S., a country that aspires to be a world leader, ranks a pathetic 31st out of 134 countries in eliminating the disparities between women and men in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report. On the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage, President Obama should consider convening a White House Roundtable to find ways to increase the number of women decision-makers in the economy. Then we can celebrate women's equality in America. This piece was originally

Politico - Crist said Friday he would have voted for the health care reform bill, but moved swiftly to clarify his opposition.

Sewell Chan, NYTJACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Friday that the central bank was determined to prevent the economy from slipping into a cycle of falling prices, even as he emphasized that he believed growth would continue in the second half of the year, “albeit at a relatively modest pace.” Will ending the recession depend on selling more homes? To help sustain the economy, Mr. Bernanke gave his strongest indication yet that the Fed was ready to resume its large purchases of longer-term debt if the economy worsened, a move that would...

Dana Milbank, Washington PostThere is a telling anecdote in Glenn Beck's 2003 memoir about how the cable news host was influenced by the great fantasist Orson Welles. To travel between performances in Manhattan, Beck recounts, Welles hired an ambulance, sirens blaring, to ferry him around town -- not because Welles was ill but because he wanted to avoid traffic. Most of us would regard this as dishonest, a ploy by the self-confessed charlatan that Welles was. Beck saw it as a model to be emulated. "Welles," he writes, "inspired me to believe that I can create anything that I can see or...

Ed Morrissey, Hot AirUntil now, Barack Obama has sent Joe Biden out to do all his talking on the economy, attempting to sell “Recovery Summer” while his boss vacations at Martha’s Vineyard, or hangs out with sports heroes, or, er, eats his shrimp.  Unfortunately for the White House, the economic indicators over the past two months defy any spin whatsoever, especially this month, with home sales cratering and the second quarter GDP getting revised to stagnation levels.   ABC News’ Jake Tapper hears that the White House figures that maybe the President of the United States...

Michael Moynihan, ReasonMedia Inquiries and Reprint...

Markos Moulitsas, Huffington PostFor the past nine years, I've been told that I want the terrorists to win.That's funny. Why would I want the radical jihadists to win? Indeed, on issue after issue, there is no daylight between the views of radical jihadists and the American radical right. Fact is, I loathe jihadists for the exact same reasons I hate the modern conservative movement -- because whether it's their violent outlook, or their views on women and gays, or their hostility to knowledge and science, or their fear of pop culture, they are essentially cut from the samecontrolling, ideological cloth.As...

California may become the first state to set up one of the major components of the health overhaul passed last March: insurance exchanges. The state Legislature has sent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger bills that establish an Internet-based exchange where consumers and small businesses can compare plans. The exchange is seen as a key element in increasing competition and keeping costs down. Republicans opposed the bills, saying that the federal government, not the state, should pay the costs of setting up the exchanges. » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Melissa Block speaks with our regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times, about the week in politics.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

AP - The State Department is telling U.S. diplomats in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey to remove their children from the area after a shoot-out in front of an American school there and growing threats of kidnapping.

Reuters - President Barack Obama, anxious to show he is still focused on the battered economy despite being on vacation, took time out of his golf game on Friday to chat about the growth situation with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg before they hit the course.

Rich Lowry, New York PostThe frustrations of minority status can drive a political party batty.The temptation is to substitute belligerence for thought, insist on a self-destructive purity, lash out at the American public, and question the wisdom and viability of the country's institutions. Indulging in these tendencies almost always makes a party's position worse rather than better. Receive news alertsThe Obama Democrats may be the first party to engage in this self-defeating behavior - borne of a frustrated desperation - while holding the presidency and both houses of Congress by substantial margins....

AP - It's not even Labor Day and negative political ads are muscling in on your TV time. Across the country, ad spending is up and attack ads lead the way.

Politico - POTUS and the mayor mix business with pleasure as Obama's vacation nears its end.

Douglas Schoen, WSJAs campaign season heats up"”for the midterms, of course, as well as for 2012"”President Obama is pursuing a strategy that is bound to fail. To secure his political future, he needs to change his approach in the way that Bill Clinton did halfway through his first term.I first met with Mr. Clinton privately in early 1995, after the Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time since 1954. I warned him that he could not be re-elected in 1996 unless he turned around his administration's reputation: from one of big-spending liberalism...

AFP - Muslims and Jews in the United States remain among the most ardent supporters of President Barack Obama, whose overall job approval ratings have been falling sharply, a Gallup poll showed Friday.

The Republicans who want to replace retiring Sen. Judd Gregg are hearing from voters that even though the state's unemployment rate is well below the national average, they're very worried about how things are going.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

CQPolitics.com - Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is confident Democrats will retain the majority in Congress on Nov. 2, despite the GOP's optimism about their party's prospects.

CQPolitics.com - There isn't a lot of consensus in Washington, D.C., but party operatives on both sides of the aisle as well as members of the media seem to be united in their distrust of polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports. But with new polling by a Democratic firm in three key states showing identical results, is it time for a re-evaluation of Rasmussen?

It is no longer a secret that crooner-turned-Providence-mayoral-candidate Chris Young is getting married. But what was less well-known to most people is how fond he was of Jesus. That was until his cringe-worthy appearance with his new fiancee on MSNBC Thursday morning. When Young was booked on MSNBC Live, producers apparently hoped he'd talk about his proposal to his girlfriend and campaign manager, Kara Russo, during a debate earlier this week. Instead, when asked by anchor Tom Roberts why he decided to propose then and there, he went off on a bizarre religious, quasi-political rant: Well, it's time for a change in the city of Providence. There's widespread corruption in Providence, and the state of Rhode Island as well is rampant with our corruption. Kara and I want to change that together. Okay, so far so good. He tied in his political ambitions to the fact that he wanted to help bring about change in Providence with his girlfriend, campaign manager, and a candidate for Congress and Lt. Governor. Russo, who supports the Tea Party movement, is also the marketing and sales director for the Ryan Center at the University of Rhode Island. Roberts tried to direct Young to answer why he chose the time and place for the proposal. Here's where the interview went off the rails. "There's an attack on religion in our society right now," Young said, clearly reading off a prepared script he held in his hand. He continued: Every people, tribe, tongue and nation gaze on our church and the Church of Peter and gloat over it. That it's been killed, they say. But Christ said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. Many people within the Church have corrupted the Church and also from outside the Church, there have been attacks on the Church. Just as Jesus Christ-- Roberts, trying to avert disaster, then tried a different tactic: asking Russo what she thought of the proposal. Despite Young's obvious attempt to hand his script over to his fiancee, Russo actually answered the question. He kept trying to go back to his script, but Roberts asked another question, this time about how likely Young will win. During the question, Young seemed frustrated, and whispered "Just like Jesus Christ" to Russo. It is important to note here that Young was kicked out of a debate in July for holding a statue of the Virgin Mary. While Wonkette realized this, MSNBC might not have. What did Young say was the likelihood that he would be elected? Well, it's very likely. We got 26 percent of the vote in the last election. We're winning all the debates. I'm on MSNBC right now talking with you, Tom. [Looks back at sheet] And obviously, just as Jesus Christ arose from the dead after three days, so will the Church arise again and so will we. We'll represent the Church as prophets for the Church and bring about real change. At this point, Roberts tried to end the interview, saying that "you need to become a minister." "No, what we need is man-and-woman marriage in Rhode Island.. and in this country. We need to stand for God in this country," Young replied, ending one of the oddest interviews in history as well as three minutes of broadcast time that MSNBC would probably like to have back.

Weekly Mulch: Fighting the Joe Millers of the Worldby Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger Joe Miller, Sarah Palin's choice candidate for one of Alaska's Senate seats, does not believe in climate change. That didn't bother Alaska voters: this week, Miller bested Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the state's Republican primary. If that weren't worrisome enough, it also emerged that the fossil fuel industry spent eight times more than environmental groups on lobbying in 2009, the year the House passed the climate change bill. It's been a bad year already for environmental causes, and as the November election edges closer, progressives might want to start working overtime to regain momentum on climate and energy issues. Murkowski was solidly against the idea of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulating carbon. But she was willing to talk about cap-and-trade programs, and at the very least, she was willing to admit climate change was happening. Depending on how November's election shakes out, the shift towards climate-denial in Congress may only worsen. A slew of Republican candidates are convinced that, as one put it, "only God knows where our climate is going," as Care2 reports. A tougher tomorrow Current political trends bode badly for the planet. If Congress couldn't pass climate legislation while are in Democrats control of the House and Senate, there's little hope that lawmakers will step up when facing opponents who don't believe in climate change. Carla Perez has a few ideas about how progressives and environmentalists can fight back -- and they begin with accepting that, yes, giving up fossil fuels would mean sacrifice, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. Perez, a program coordinator at social justice group Movement Generation, appeared recently on National Radio Project's Making Contact and imagined how life would look without fossil fuels: No iPods. No iPads. No plasma TVs. No motorized individual vehicles. No plastic bags. No pleather boots for $9.99 from Payless.... Then again, no island of plastic twice the size of Texas. No plumes of sulfuric acid over Richmond, California. No skyrocketing rates of cancer and diabetes concentrated in native and people of color communities all over the world. No spontaneous combustion of flames off of contaminated rivers. "How bad would it be?" she asked. Target practice To move from iPods to environmental justice, though, people like Perez will have to keep politicians like Joe Miller out of Washington. In an interview with Yes! Magazine, Riki Ott, a marine biologist and Exxon Valdez survivor, makes a good point about the challenges that environmental advocates face. "This BP disaster, like the Exxon-Valdez, is more than an environmental crisis--it's a democracy crisis," Ott says. "Right now we're playing the game: Going through regulatory arenas, tightening some laws. But that's not good enough. The real question is, how do we get control of these big corporations?" Electing politicians that don't take corporate money or listen to industry lobbyists will help. Another way to move away from the dominance of fossil fuel companies is offering real alternatives to using their products. Brave new NOLA In New Orleans, in the five years since Katrina hit, the people rebuilding the city have worked to create greener alternatives, as Campus Progress reports. Here's just one example: Go Green NOLA encourages homebuilders to think small, since smaller homes use less energy. The group also makes suggestions such as installing windows and insulation systems with special attention to local weather and climate -- think: humidity, and lots of it--and using shade trees and other landscaping to help beat back the southern sun. Change can happen without devastation preceding it. In Massachusetts, the Green Justice Coalition worked to ensure that environmental justice provisions made it into the state's $1.4 billion energy efficiency plan, The Nation reports. What's more, the coalition made certain that Massachusetts citizens would feel the impact of the new plan directly: There will be a financing plan to make energy-saving home improvements more affordable. Many of the 23,300 jobs to be generated by the plan will go to contractors who pay decent wages and meet "high road" employment standards. Finally, four pilot programs across the state will test a radically new outreach model by going door to door and mobilizing low- and moderate-income families in building greener neighborhoods. Women lead the way Progress doesn't happen on its own, of course. At RH Reality Check, Kathleen Rogers suggests that female leaders make all the difference. "Women get the connections between climate change, public health and economic growth, because climate change is disproportionately affecting women," she writes. "A new generation of women entrepreneurs, leaders and civil society, have demonstrated the potential for being the solution to the climate crisis. But they must be mobilized and given an opportunity to influence government and business." Rogers is right. Leaders are out there. Just listen to the whole of Carla Perez' comments on Making Contact. The Green Justice Coalition's Phyllis Evans also gets it. And even Sen. Murkowski was willing to work on climate change compromises, on some level. Of course, it's not just women who can lead the country and the planet away from current environmental and democratic crises. Paths forward are emerging; anyone can follow them. This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

David Corn, Politics Daily

AP - Passengers on a British Airways flight from London to Hong Kong were mistakenly told to prepare for a crash landing, causing panic onboard.

Christine Flowers, Philly Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers Philadelphia Daily NewsBy Christine M. Flowers...