How you know the negotiations have truly failed  —  (SHAWN THEW VIA BLOOMBERG) The best advice I've gotten for assessing the debt-ceiling negotiations was to “watch for the day when the White House goes public.”  As long as the Obama administration was refusing to attack Republicans publicly …

Round 1 in Appeals of Health Care Overhaul Goes to Obama  —  The Obama administration prevailed Wednesday in the first appellate review of the 2010 health care law as a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that it was constitutional for Congress …

Obama Breaks Silence About Boeing v. NLRB Labor Dispute  —  ABC News' Amy Bingham reports:  —  President Obama broke his silence today about the dispute between Boeing and the National Labor Relations Board over a proposed plant in South Carolina.  —  The move by the NLRB to block Boeing's plan …

Rhode Island Lawmakers Approve Civil Unions  —  PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Less than a week after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York, the Rhode Island State Senate on Wednesday evening approved a bill allowing not marriage, but civil unions for gay couples, despite fierce opposition …

Bachmann's Husband Calls Homosexuals ‘Barbarians’ Who ‘Need To Be Educated’ And ‘Disciplined’  —  When trying to figure out where presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) gets her stringent, anti-gay views, you only have to look as far as her husband.

WOMAN SEATED NEAR BECK AT MOVIE CLAIMS INNOCENCE...BUT WHAT DOES TWITTER TELL US...  (WITH UPDATES!)  —  On Tuesday, Glenn Beck told his radio and TV audiences how he and his family were harassed during an outing to an outdoor movie in New York City's Bryant Park.  —  You can listen to Glenn describe what happened here.

Has Bachmann Met Her Waterloo? … Like This Story  —  Follow Slate's Fighting Words … - Do Gay Bars Make a Lot of Money?  - Extremely Witty Poems by a Poet Who Was Sure He Was Going to Hell- Shafer: Why Patch and Other Hyperlocal Journalism Is a Complete Waste …

Sarah Palin Blasts Hollywood Stars as ‘Full of Hate’ at Movie Premiere (Exclusive Audio) … PELLA, Iowa — Sarah Palin stared a bit uncomfortably at a movie screen Tuesday night watching a montage of Matt Damon, David Letterman, Madonna, Howard Stern, Bill Maher, Louis C.K. and other celebrities malign her …

Birthers Sue Esquire Over Parody, Seeking More than $200 Million  —  Joseph Farah and Jerome Corsi have some pretty interesting beliefs.  They believe there's no proof Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.  * They also believe Hearst Corp. and a writer it employs ought to pay them hundreds …

Lennon was a closet Republican: Assistant  —  John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death - according to the tragic Beatles star's last personal assistant.  —  Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 …

Obama press conference - false choices and demagoguery  —  I watched Obama's press conference today, and he is a wonder to behold.  He is a relentless demagogue who plays Americans against Americans and sets up false choices as part of a class warfare agenda.

Republicans reject president's call to include tax revenues in debt deal  —  (CNN)-Republican congressional leaders Wednesday rejected President Barack Obama's call to include tax revenues as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling.  —  Obama said at a White House press conference Wednesday …

U.S. Designates Israel as Country That Tends ‘To Promote, Produce, or Protect’ Terrorists; Also Calls Israel Anti-Terror Partner  —  (CNSNews.com) - In an implicit admission that Israel is so threatened by terrorism that it is not only surrounded by countries and territories that produce terrorists …

To Catch a Predator host who traps sex perverts in TV stings ‘caught cheating on his wife’... by hidden cameras  —  He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings.  —  But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end …

Obama Blasts Private Jet Tax Breaks Created by His Own Stimulus  —  The chief economic culprit of President Obama's Wednesday press conference was undoubtedly “corporate jets.”  He mentioned them on at least six occasions, each time offering their owners as an example of a group that should be paying more in taxes.

Durbin: Maybe Illegal Alien Will Become President Someday  —  (CNSNews.com) - Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said in a congressional hearing Tuesday that a young person who is an illegal alien in the United States today may someday become president.

Townhall Columnists Jeff Jacoby  —  Marriage Cannot Be Redefined  —  SAME-SEX WEDLOCK became lawful in New York last week after the state legislature passed a bill recognizing “otherwise-valid marriages without regard to whether the parties are of the same or different sex.”

Nerves Show on Team Obama  —  Recent scrambling by the president's political advisers indicates they're very worried about his reelection chances.  —  Fretful: President on defense.  —  It's been a rough June for the White House.  Instead of being able to run a campaign taking credit …

California redistricting redraft pleases Hispanics  —  Redistricting prospects seemed bleak for California Hispanics as recently as two weeks ago — but things are beginning to look up.  —  The state's bipartisan redistricting commission released its first draft earlier this month …

Bush v. Gore  —  Is it worse for a child to see pornography or graphic violence?  —  The Supreme Court struck down a California law regulating the sale of violent video games to children on Monday.  Writing for the majority, Justice Scalia noted that, unlike sexual content, which can be regulated …

North Korea assumes presidency of U.N. arms control conference  —  In the latest 'you've got to be kidding' news from the United Nations, North Korea assumed the presidency of the U.N.'s Conference on Disarmament Tuesday.  —  “Bare months after the U.N. finally suspended Libya's …

What Does Newt Gingrich Know?  —  Let's consult the literature — all 21 books by the self-proclaimed ideas man of politics.  (Gingrich cites 23 books on his Web site.  We are not counting the Contract With America or the coffee-table book “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny.")  —  Multimedia

Prescriptions to Revive Recovery  —  The U.S. economy resembles a patient who survived a heart attack, and tells his doctor: “I took your advice, swallowed the pills and I still don't feel well.”  —  We were warned the post-recession recovery, now marking its second anniversary, would be painfully slow.