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 …

Mark Halperin apologizes for Obama gaffe  —  Mark Halperin, editor-at-large for Time, called President Obama “a dick” on Wednesday on a popular MSNBC morning show and then quickly apologized.  —  “I thought he was a dick yesterday,” Halperin, who also is a senior political analyst for MSNBC …

U.S. Drops Deportation Proceedings Against Immigrant in Same-Sex Marriage  —  In a decision that could have far-reaching effects on immigration cases involving same-sex couples, federal officials have canceled the deportation of a Venezuelan man in New Jersey who is married to an American man, the couple's lawyer said Wednesday.

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.

Clinton: U.S. pursuing ‘limited contacts’ with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood  —  BUDAPEST, Hungary — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that the Obama administration was pursuing an approach of “limited contacts” with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood — a policy, she said …

Real Men Get Their Facts Straight  —  “It's between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today,” Ashton Kutcher told CNN's Piers Morgan on April 18.  That, says Kutcher, is how many kids are lost to prostitution in America every single year.

Obama, Romney to go head-to-head in Pennsylvania Thursday  —  Both President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) are set to do battle Thursday when both visit the southeast Pennsylvania area.  —  Romney will hold a press conference this afternoon at a factory in Allentown …

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 …

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 …

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.

U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with al-Qaeda, official says  —  A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.

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.

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.

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 …

Obama says his 12-year-old is 13  —  Malia Obama has a few days to go before her 13th birthday on July 4.  —  AP Photo  —  President Obama, who has expressed his fears about his daughter Malia becoming a teenager next month, is apparently dreading her birthday so much that for a brief moment on Wednesday …

U.S. Monthly Combat Deaths in Iraq at 3-Year High  —  BAGHDAD — The American military announced on Thursday that three more American soldiers had been killed this week, as the combat-related deaths for United States forces in Iraq reached a monthly toll not seen since 2008.

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 …

Serwotka and Maude clash over strikes  —  Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) union Mark Serwotka have clashed over strikes taking place across the country.  —  Speaking to Evan Davis, Mr Serwotka said that the strikes …

With its oil treasure, Israel gets a shield from tyranny  —  OTTAWA— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail  —  The London-based World Energy Council says Israel's Shfela Basin, a half-hour drive south of Jerusalem, holds 250 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, possibly making the energy-vulnerable country …