Obama Advisor David Plouffe: Budget Cuts Both ‘Draconian’ and ‘Historic’  —  Plouffe Lauds Bipartisanship and Slams Trump  —  Senior Advisor to the President David Plouffe conceded this morning that some of the cuts the White House agreed to in order to avoid a government shutdown were draconian.

Comments follow statements by Donald Trump questioning legitimacy of president's birth record  —  Below:  —  The Hawaiian state health official who personally reviewed Barack Obama's original birth certificate has affirmed again that the document is “real” and denounced “conspiracy theorists” …

Spending cuts, not policy riders, held up a deal, GOP aides say  —  House and Senate negotiators had reached a deal on controversial policy riders late Thursday night, according to a GOP leadership source close to the intense talks that resulted in an eleventh-hour deal to avert government shutdown …

Keynes' Ghost  —  I'm blogging from Bretton Woods, NH, site of the 1944 conference that reconstructed the rules for the global financial, monetary and trading system and the postwar recovery.  This weekend, the world's leading critics of the current economic mess have gathered here to discuss measures …

Blowin' in the Idiot Wind  —  Bob Dylan may have done the impossible: broken creative new ground in selling out.  —  The idea that the raspy troubadour of '60s freedom anthems would go to a dictatorship and not sing those anthems is a whole new kind of sellout — even worse than Beyoncé …

Mubarak Denies Corruption and Defends His Legacy  —  CAIRO — Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian autocrat forced from power by the throngs in Tahrir Square two months ago, spoke for the first time since then in an audiotape broadcast on Sunday, denying that he and his family had amassed wealth overseas and defending his honor and legacy.

Banks Are Off the Hook Again  —  Americans know that banks have mistreated borrowers in many ways in foreclosure cases.  Among other things, they habitually filed false court documents.  There were investigations.  We've been waiting for federal and state regulators to crack down.

Anatomy of an Afghan war tragedy  —  U.S. Predator teams and a special operations unit on the ground studying a suspicious convoy make a series of fateful missteps as they try to distinguish friend from foe.  —  Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan …

Schumer: Holding down debt ceiling plays with fire  —  N.Y. Sen. warns failing to raise debt ceiling could cause recession; GOP's Sessions says Obama will have to make concessions  —  New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D) warned on Sunday that a congressional stalemate on raising the debt ceiling would be …

Third day of ‘sleep-in’ at Washington state capitol  —  OLYMPIA, Wash. - Thousands of union members from all over Washington poured into the state Capitol Friday, calling on lawmakers to “put people first” by ending corporate tax breaks and painful cuts to public programs.

Republican Rep.: Congress deserves to be ‘tarred and feathered’  —  Washington (CNN) - Fresh off the debate to avoid a government shutdown, Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin expressed cautious optimism following the resolution, while gearing up politically for the debt ceiling drama.

Challenging the Leftist Domination of the Jewish Community  —  Change is in the air.  From the toppling of Middle East potentates to the Tea Party's dramatic rise to the recent historic public employee union legislation enacted across the Midwest, things suddenly seem to be turned on their heads.