Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE)

“Disgusted” with the debt ceiling negotiations, Hagel called it “an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican party, and I say that as a Republican.” “Does anyone not believe what’s happened here the last couple weeks in the market was not a complete, direct result of the lack of confidence that came out of that folly, that embarrassment?” he asked. Watch it:

Asked about Tea Party influence, Hagel said the Republican party is too captive to a movement that is “very ideological” and “very narrow.” “I’ve never seen so much intolerance as I’ve seen today,” he said. Later surveying the GOP 2012 field, Hagel said the party may need to rebuild, agreeing that Republicans are now “too far to the right.”

Our guest blogger, Daniel Tutt, is the Outreach Director of Unity Productions Foundation and a Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Follow “My Fellow American” on Twitter.

One of the more unfortunate repercussions of the Islamophobia echo chamber is their ability to mainstream bigoted discourse towards American Muslims. As the Center for America Progress’ “Fear, Inc.” report documents, “some well-established conservative media outlets are a key part of this echo chamber, mixing coverage of alarmist threats posed by the mere existence of Muslims in America.”

This mainstreaming of hateful rhetoric gives fodder to respected community, political, and civic leaders; radio talk show hosts; and Christian right preachers. Talking points that Obama is a Muslim, or that American mosques are places of stealth jihad, and other routine demonizing statements towards American Muslims have become the norm in our post 9/11 discourse on Islam in America.

But this relationship between mainstream media and the Islamophobia network is not surprising. What is more alarming is that voices of civility and sanity have not taken action to counter this reality. In an effort to push against the mainstreaming of hateful speech towards Muslims, Unity Productions Foundation has launched a new online project called “My Fellow American.” Centered on a short emotional video that juxtaposes voices of anti-Muslim hate with everyday American Muslims, it serves as a call to conscience to everyday Americans:

Watch the video:

With an echo chamber of Islamophobia pseudo experts driving our conversation on Islam more and more into dark tunnels of absurdity, we need the light of a citizen’s movement to counter this trend of hatred and bigotry.

As the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to say, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only the light can do that.” Americans of all religious, ethnic, political and ideological stripes are needed to shed some light on this growing problem that is impacting our democracy and distracting our political leaders during a time of more pressing and real problems. American Muslims are indeed a part of the national fabric that makes our country great, and they don’t deserve the treatment they receive in the media. Take a stand with them and share your story today.

Our guest blogger is Rebecca Lefton, a policy analyst with the energy policy team at the Center for American Progress.

JCPenney is advertising a girl’s t-shirt that says, “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me.” The merchandise description reads: “Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is.”

That’s right, girls starting at the age of 7 are being told that their looks, not brains, are all that matter. And that boys are smarter than girls.

JCPenney should immediately stop selling such sexist products and donate any sales revenue to a girl’s empowerment organization. And for a moment, let’s take a deeper look into the seemingly harmless attention that is given to girls’ appearance. Sexism is still pervasive and limiting women’s achievement.

The stats don’t lie: a recent Commerce Department report on the gender breakdown and compensation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields found that women still only represent 25 percent of jobs in these fields — the same number as over a decade ago — and are paid less than their male counterparts, earning only 83 cents to a man’s dollar. Sadly, that’s better than the overall wage gap of 77 cents (and the gap for women of color is even larger). Why are we telling girls that their academic and professional achievements don’t matter as much?

Every two minutes, a woman is sexually assaulted in the US (note: 60% of sexual assaults are not reported). Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, notes that “the pressure has grown much more intense to define themselves and gain all their self-worth from the way that they look, and the way that they look is supposed to be, increasingly and increasingly younger, sexy. And femininity becomes defined for them by sexiness (you know, at the age of four), narcissism, and consumerism—all three of which are problematic for me.” Is this really the message JC Penney wants to send young girls?

Women comprise only 20 percent of representatives in Congress. Out of the Fortune 500 companies only 12 women are CEOs. Without women leaders, women are left out of decision-making. There is only one woman to represent more than half of the population on the Super Committee that is charged with making critical decisions about ways to reduce our deficit. We clearly still have a long way to go.

Award-winning actress Geena Davis, who noticed the over-sexualized depiction and huge lack of female characters in cartoons, said, “The aspirations of female characters are limited almost exclusively to finding romance; male characters almost never have ‘finding romance’ as their ultimate goal.” Davis has since formed the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media that seeks to improve gender representations in children’s entertainment.

Instead of focusing on women’s passion, intellect, and achievement, gender stereotypes, and images of girls that are increasingly sexualized in the media, advertising, and now JC Penney t-shirts, continuously reinforce the primacy of female appearance. As Orenstein said, the emphasis on girls’ appearances and femininity does not give girls more room to express their identity and realize self-fulfillment; rather, it puts them in a box.

Ascribed ideals of femininity that are restrictive and manifested through objectification of females have serious implications for our economy and society. They should not be glamorized.

Treading biparistan backlash against his callous position on hurricane aid, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has pointed to his principled consistency on requiring all federal disaster aid be offset with cuts to other programs.

This claim of consistency, however, lacks consistency. As the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports, Cantor actually voted against an amendment to an emergency supplemental bill for disaster aid in 2004 that would have “fully offset” the cost of that bill:

[A] bemused Democratic source notes that in October 2004, Cantor voted against an amendment to an emergency supplemental bill for disaster aid that would have “fully offset” the cost of that supplemental with “a proportional reduction of FY05 discretionary funding” elsewhere. Funding for defense, homeland security, and veterans was exempted from the proposed cuts. But the amendment, introduced by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), would do precisely what Republican leadership is proposing to do now. [...]

The 2004 emergency supplemental was proposed after five hurricanes hit the United States, including Tropical Storm Gaston, which did damage to Cantor’s home district of Richmond. But Irene and this summer’s east-coast earthquake also hit Virginia, meaning that provincial interests aren’t necessarily what changed Cantor’s tune.

Indeed, Cantor was among the first to request “immediate action” and millions in federal assistance to address “the magnitude of the damage” from Gaston. Cantor’s spokesman Brad Dayspring insists Cantor’s change of heart is justified by the increase in deficit. “We are living in different times,” he said.

Freshman Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) faced another testy town hall this week from upset constituents. At an event in Yorkville, Illinois, Hultgren was asked about his position on the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, and if he agreed with the legal doctrine that equates corporations with private individuals. Hultgren dodged the question mostly, and inaccurately claimed that there is “full disclosure” for donors to corporate-financed political spending groups:

CONSTITUENT: With Citizens United, where corporations give unlimited, undisclosed campaign contributions for political causes, political candidates and the Supreme Court ruled that Citizens United more or less said that corporations are considered an individual. And I’m just really concerned that special interest groups and lobbyists are running Washington and have the power to buy people. Its really a bad ruling, I’m really upset with it. [...] Do you consider a corporation an individual?

HULTGREN: Uh, that’s a good question. Again with the Supreme Court decision I think, could be wrong, that there’s still full disclosure of who is giving the money–

AUDIENCE: No! [...]

HULTGREN: I think the company still has to disclosure, we’ll take a look at it. [...] What I have supported is full disclosure.

Watch it:

Hultgren says he supports full disclosure, but he remained quiet when an avalanche of secret corporate money elected him to Congress last year. Two powerful secret money groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Future Fund, ran ad campaigns against his opponent, incumbent Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL). Both the Chamber and AFF have refused to reveal their sources of money. The Chamber has acknowledged, following a ThinkProgress investigation, that it solicits foreign money into the same legal entity used to run partisan attack ads. (HT: Progressive Fox)