• Charlie Pierce, author of “Idiot America,” calls in at 7:30am Pacific to riff on the news of the day.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• MSNBC’s David Shuster calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about the big news of the day, including health care reform and Balloon Boy.

• White House advisers have stepped up their attacks on Fox News, claiming the cable television network is a GOP mouthpiece whose programming “is geared toward making money.” Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, said on Sunday, “It is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective.”

• The White House is waiting for Congress to settle on a final health care bill, even though President Obama has a clear preference in favor of at least once specific – the much-debated public option. Obama, however, will not demand that legislation include a government option.

• The stock market stepped to new highs for the year yesterday after a handful of earnings reports bolstered hopes that the economy is coming back sooner than analysts had thought.

• Filmmaker Michael Moore calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about his new film, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform and other news of the day.

• The U.S. and five other world powers began high-stakes talks today with Iran to demand a freeze of its nuclear activities, with a senior U.S. official saying Washington is open to rare one-on-one talks with Iranian diplomats.

• A White House-backed overhaul of the nation’s health care system survived a long day of GOP challenges over abortion, illegal immigration, and other issues yesterday, and the bill’s architect claimed enough votes for passage by the Senate Finance Committee, possibly by the end of the week.

• Samoans dug through the wreckage of homes and told of the terror of being trapped underwater or flung inland by the tsunami that ravaged towns and killed at least 149 people in the South Pacific. Officials expect the death toll to rise as more areas are searched.

• First lady Michelle Obama arrived in Copenhagen yesterday to lend her support to Chicago’s effort to win the 2016 Summer Olympics. President Obama arrives in Denmark tomorrow.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• At his first remarks to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama yesterday called on world leaders to work together to effect needed change, and left no doubt that he believes the danger posed by global warming is a real one. Obama was followed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who gave a rambling, 96-minute address.

• Leaders representing 85% of the world’s economic output are gathering in Pittsburgh, PA today and tomorrow. The G-20 will meet for two days to focus on the worldwide financial crisis, and plot how to avoid a repeat in the future.

• Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) will announce an interim replacement today at 11am Eastern for the U.S. Senate seat left open by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

• A vaccine to prevent HIV infection has shown modest results for the first time, leading researchers to believe for the first time that a vaccine for HIV is possible.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Jennifer Palmieri, Senior Vice President for Communications at the Center for American Progress, calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform, the economy, and today’s “Beer Summit” at the White House.

• Two of the three Senate GOPers negotiating a bipartisan deal on health care reform said late yesterday they consider an agreement out of reach before the Senate goes on its August recess. In the House, an agreement between 4 Blue Dog Dems and the House leadership allowed committee debate to resume, but put off a vote by the full House until after the August recess.

• In a new NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent now say the president’s health care plan is a bad idea, a 10 point increase since last month. The poll also finds that Obama’s overall job-approval rating has dropped to 53 percent.

• President Obama will have to set aside health care reform to revisit the racially charged issue that stole the spotlight from his health care push last week – the arrest of his Harvard professor friend. Obama will meet with Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the White House today, each one chugging his favorite beer, in a public attempt to move past the emotional event.

• Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) calls in at 6:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• House Dem leaders conceded yesterday that concerns raised by fiscally Conservative Blue Dog Democrats will prevent the chamber from voting on a health care reform bill before the August recess begins at the end of the week.

• A senior administration official said Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, MA Police Department will be visiting the White House on Thursday. The meeting among the three men will take place at 6pm.

• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced yesterday that he will not vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. The committee is expected to vote today on Sotomayor’s confirmation.

• Michael Jackson’s personal doctor administered the powerful anesthetic Propofol to help him sleep, and authorities believe the drug is what killed the pop singer, a law enforcement official told the AP yesterday. On June 25, the day Jackson died, Dr. Conrad Murray gave him the drug sometime after midnight, the official said.

• Warren Eckstein, pet expert and national radio host, calls in at 7:06am Pacific to talk about house training Steph’s puppy Oliver.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Karl Frisch, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about the growing tide of hate that the Right Wing Media is spreading against Obama.

• Thousands of Iranians planned to protest for a fifth day today against an election they claimed had been manipulated – even as the government stepped up its crackdown, hauling dozens to jail, banning international journalists from filming rallies and blocking access to social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.

• President Obama will sign a memorandum today granting health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees.

• Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) admitted yesterday to an extramarital affair last year with a woman who had worked for him. Ensign has made it clear he does not plan to resign. Ensign had previously suggested that Former Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) resign after Craig was arrested in an airport bathroom sex sting.

• David Shuster, MSNBC’s dayside anchor, calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about the swine flu epidemic, and about President Obama’s news conference last night.

• Jennifer Palmieri, Senior Vice President of Communications for the Center for American Progress, calls in at 8:06am Pacific to talk about Obama’s news conference last night.

• President Obama used a prime-time news conference last night to reassure Americans that the country was on the right track. “We’re off to a good start, but it is just a start,” Obama said. “I am proud of what we have achieved, but I am not content. I am pleased with our progress, but I am not satisfied.”

• President Obama said yesterday that he’s under no illusions that he’ll have a “rubber-stamp Senate” now that Sen. Arlen Specter has switched parties to join the Dems. As if to prove the presidents point, Specter voted against Obama’s budget plan shortly after his news conference with the president.

• The World Health Organization has raised the swine flu pandemic level to 5, its second highest level. Switzerland and Peru confirmed two new cases overnight and in the U.S. a small cluster appears to be emerging in Washington State.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about Obama’s joint session of Congress tonight.

• President Obama pledged yesterday to cut the nation’s $1.3 trillion deficit in half by the end of his first term. Meeting with congressional leadership of both parties, as well as a range of business, academic, financial, and labor leaders, Obama warned that the country cannot continue its current rate of deficit spending without facing dire economic consequences.

• The Dow and S&P 500 tumbled to levels not seen in nearly 12 years yesterday, as investors continue to worry that the government’s efforts to slow the recession won’t be sufficient.

• Barreling ahead on a mammoth agenda, President Obama is ready to offer a detailed sketch of the first year of his presidency, casting the nation’s bleeding economy as a tangle of tough, neglected problems. In a prime-time speech from the House of Representatives tonight, Obama will make his case that much more needs to be done to turn around the economy – a message he knows he must explain.

• President Obama’s third choice for commerce secretary is likely to be former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, the country’s first Chinese-American governor. He would be Obama’s third choice after Bill Richardson and Judd Gregg withdrew.