Aimee Mann:

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Jerry and the boys:

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Parade Magazine: “Can These Men Fix The Deficit?”

BOWLES: If we don’t solve the debt problem, we will be paying $1 trillion in interest in 2020. That’s money we can’t spend on Social Security, Medicare, education, infrastructure, or innovation to make sure America is competitive in a global economy. This debt is like a cancer growing within the country. To fix it, we’ve got to make decisions that are politically tough.

SIMPSON: When I was appointed, I heard, “Simpson, you’ve lost your marbles. You’re carrying water for Obama.” That’s not true. We told the President that everything has to be on the table, including his health-care plan. He said, “I’m with you to the hilt.”

How do you reconcile Democratic and Republican commissioners?

BOWLES: It’s really hard. We could end up walking away with nothing. But we are working together to come up with a commonsense solution. In ‘97, there wasn’t a soul who believed we could balance the budget, but we did.

What specifically do you think the commission will accomplish?

BOWLES: We have two charges: to reduce the deficit by $240 billion a year by 2015 and to deal with entitlements for the long-term fiscal health of the country. We’re looking at how we can reduce discretionary spending—things like education, transportation, the military, homeland security—and mandatory spending, which includes Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We also need to raise revenue.
SIMPSON: No one’s out to get the lesser in society, but there won’t be anything for them unless we get a handle on Medicare and Medicaid.

Are you willing to recommend cuts to Social Security?

SIMPSON: We’re not going to cut Social Security—we’re going to stabilize it. None of the ideas that have been presented will affect anyone over age 58. But we’re going to make the system work. As it is, it can’t sustain itself.

Does Congress have the political courage to act on your proposals?

BOWLES: If we get 14 out of 18 members of the commission to agree on any of the recommendations, Sen. (Harry) Reid has promised to bring them to the floor for an up-or-down vote. And if it passes in the Senate…

SIMPSON: …the Speaker (of the House, Nancy Pelosi) has said she’ll do the same.

BOWLES: We’re going to work our hearts out to succeed.

Yep, that’s what we’re afraid of.

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Yesterday I was downtown, driving through the historic area so many Philadelphians take for granted. As always, I was deeply moved by the sight of the visitors who come all over the world to spend Independence Day in my home town.

Think about that. They could have gone somewhere else, or stayed home for a backyard barbecue. Instead, they came to Philadelphia for July 4th because they’re drawn by the idea of liberty, and the ideals expressed in our Declaration of Independence.

It seems our elected officials forget about those ideals. But we haven’t! Sure, there are many reasons to be depressed, but don’t give up. Get mad, get organized! Remember, it’s our country. It doesn’t belong to the corporations.

It belongs to us.

Adams:
It’s a masterpiece, I say!
They will cheer every word, every letter

Jefferson:
I wish I felt that way

Franklin:
I believe I can put it better
Now then attend, as friend to friend
Our Declaration Committee
For us I see immortality

All:
In Philadelphia City

Franklin:
A farmer, a lawyer, and a sage
A bit gouty in the leg
You know it’s quite bizarre
To think that here we are
Playing midwives to an egg

All:
We’re waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
Of an eaglet being born
We’re waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Franklin:
God knows the temperature’s hot enough
To hatch a stone, let alone an egg

All:
We’re waiting for the scratch, scratch, scratch
Of that tiny little fellow
Waiting for the egg to hatch
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Adams:
God knows the temperature’s hot enough
To hatch a stone

Jefferson:
But will it hatch an egg?

Adams:
The eagle’s going to crack the shell
Of the egg that England laid

All:
Yes, so we can tell, tell, tell
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Franklin:
And as just as Tom here has written
Though the egg may belong to Great Britain,
The eagle inside belongs to us!

All:
And as just as Tom here has written
We say to hell with Great Britain!
The eagle inside belongs to us!

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I can see both sides. But I can’t see taking the gas companies’ word that they won’t pollute the water supply:

What is unfolding here is a mammoth clash between neighbors with starkly contrasting visions about the land. It is a virtual range war, waged at public meetings and on the Internet, expressed mostly in insults but occasionally through small acts of vandalism.

Last month, the Delaware River Basin Commission, a multistate agency based in Trenton, declared a moratorium on drilling any gas wells in the upper Delaware watershed – even nonproducing exploratory wells – until it can approve new drilling regulations.

The reason: These rural highlands drain into the protected waters of the upper Delaware River.

Though the DRBC maintains that it is not opposed to the “appropriate development” of natural gas, many landowners here who have signed gas leases regard the commission’s move as a stealth ban, an intrusion by unelected out-of-state officials to deprive them of their property.

“The DRBC is trying to take something away from me,” said Bob Rutledge, whose 500-acre farm has been in his family since the 1800s. “This is America. We still own mineral rights.”

But local residents who believe that gas drilling poses an imminent health threat applauded the DRBC’s action.

“We have property rights, too,” said James Barth, who owns 20 acres in Berlin Township, surrounded by neighbors who have leased their land for gas drilling.

At its root, the battle here is kind of a red state/blue state conflict – a cultural chasm dividing newcomers, old-timers, and those with opposing economic interests.

Wayne County is in New York City’s ever-expanding orbit – the population has increased 28 percent in two decades, to 51,337 – and many new homeowners were attracted to the sublime upper reaches of the Delaware, designated a national scenic and recreational river.

“We have our little islands of serenity,” said Barbara Arrindell, a stained-glass artist and executive director of the anti-drilling group Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.

Since it was founded two years ago, Damascus Citizens has developed some clout. Its urbanized, media-savvy leadership has enlisted allies in New York City and Philadelphia, portraying natural gas as Armageddon for public drinking-water supplies.

Thanks partly to the lobbying effort of Damascus Citizens, the national advocacy group American Rivers last month named the upper Delaware the nation’s “most endangered” river.

The organization’s voice was further amplified last month by the HBO premiere of Gasland , a documentary by New York filmmaker Josh Fox, who vacationed as a youth at his family’s cabin in Damascus Township. Fox dedicated the movie to Damascus Citizens.

John Hanger, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, called Gasland “fundamentally dishonest.” But the soft-spoken Arrindell, who is credited in the film as a consultant, said it was an accurate reflection of her views, as well as those of her passionate colleagues.

Pat Carullo, a Staten Island, N.Y., native who moved to Wayne County after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, goes crimson with rage at the mention of hydraulic fracturing, the extraction technique that involves huge injections of water, chemicals, and sand deep into a well. He compares it to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“Look at the gulf!” shouted Carullo, a Damascus Citizens cofounder who speaks in high-volume sound bites. “We’re fighting for our lives here! Look at my hands. They’re shaking! It’s no game here!”

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The Mates of State cover Daniel Johnston:

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Diane Birch and Daryl Hall live:

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Here in the hood…

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I am so sick of being in the air conditioning…

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Charles Pierce.

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