'C'mon, Man!'  Exclaims VP in Deficit Meeting.  'Let's Get Real!'  —  Officials familiar with the negotiations say today's meeting began with President Obama asking House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to lay out what was agreed upon in the deficit reduction talks led by Vice President Biden.

Michelle Obama orders 1,556-calorie meal at Shake Shack  —  First lady Michelle Obama ordered a whopper of a meal at the newly opened Washington diner Shake Shack during lunch on Monday.  —  A Washington Post journalist on the scene confirmed the first lady, who's made a cause out of child nutrition …

EXCLUSIVE: Mila Kunis Says She'll Accompany U.S. Marine to Corps Ball  —  Most men will spend their lives dreaming about going on a date with Mila Kunis - but for one U.S. Marine, that fantasy may very well turn into a reality.  —  Sgt. Scott Moore, of the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines in Musa Qala …

Lawmaker points loaded gun at reporter in the Senate  —  A state lawmaker known for championing the rights of gun-owners pointed a loaded firearm at the chest of a reporter during a recent interview at the Capitol.  —  Republican Sen. Lori Klein was showing off her raspberry-pink handgun …

Alan Grayson To Run For Office Again  —  ORLANDO, Fla. — WFTV learned on Monday that former U.S. Congressman Alan Grayson is running for office again.  —  On Monday, Grayson said he doesn't plan to do anything different.  He said he's running again because of all the people who have reached out and asked him to.

Why we're in the budgetary soup  —  Just in case you hadn't noticed, no one has elected Grover Norquist to anything.  Still, he looms as a major obstacle to Congress reaching a deficit-reduction agreement needed to raise the federal debt ceiling.  Norquist heads Americans for Tax Reform …

British Tabloid Sought Phone Data of Investigators  —  LONDON — Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own cellphone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to.

CIA organised fake vaccination drive to get Osama bin Laden's family DNA  —  Senior Pakistani doctor who organised vaccine programme in Abbottabad arrested by ISI for working with US agents  —  The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden …

Bachmann Responds To Slavery Controversy With Another Slavery Analogy  —  In their apparent effort to ban pornography, GOP presidential frontrunner Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and competitor Rick Santorum simultaneously signed a pledge declaring that African-American children …

Michele Bachmann Clinic: Where You Can Pray Away the Gay?  —  A former patient who sought help from the Christian counseling clinic owned by GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, told ABC News he was advised that prayer could rid him of his homosexual urges and he could eventually be “re-oriented.”

Snowe: No Medicare Or Social Security Cuts In Debt Deal  —  Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) said she will not support any debt deal that includes cuts to the two social safety net programs, citing “strong bipartisan support.”  “There are solvency problems with both programs.

Public Now Divided on Debt Limit Debate  —  Default Concerns Rise among Independents  —  As the debate over the nation's debt and deficit continues, the public has grown more concerned that failing to raise the debt limit would force the government into default and hurt the economy.

Pro-Voucher Tea Party Group Admits It Wants To ‘Shut Down Public Schools And Have Private Schools Only’  —  As ThinkProgress has documented, a tightly-knit group of right-wing Political Action Committees (PACs) and corporate foundations have unleashed an assault on public education …

Polygamist, Under Scrutiny in Utah, Plans Suit to Challenge Law  —  Kody Brown is a proud polygamist, and a relatively famous one.  Now Mr. Brown, his four wives and 16 children and stepchildren are going to court to keep from being punished for it.  —  The family is the focus of a reality TV show …

Obama: Job Losses Prove Stimulus Worked  —  (CNSNews.com) - Three days after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the national unemployment rate had ticked up from 9.1 percent in May to 9.2 percent in June, President Barack Obama said that the loss of jobs in the public sector is …

Chicagoans Overwhelmingly Vote to Ban Palin, Beck & Coulter Books at Book Fair in Obama's Home Town  —  In June we attended the Printer's Row Literature Festival in Chicago.  City blocks were closed off for tents and booths full of all types of literature.  We presented a board with a selection …

The Great Fiction  —  Catherine Rampell, Bruce Bartlett, and Matt Yglesias are all pushing the chart below from a paper by Suzanne Mettler.  According to this gang, people who use, for example, the mortgage interest deduction or who have a 529 college savings program are willfully ignorant …

The ‘randy’ rabbi  —  A prominent Long Island Jewish leader was caught with his dreidel out in a string of sordid sex tapes, according to sensational Manhattan court records.  —  Rabbi Avraham Rabinowich — who leads the wealthy, Conservative Bellmore Jewish Center and is vice president …

Restoring Courage - Jerusalem 2011  —  Restoring Courage  —  Donate Now  —  For donations to “Restoring Courage” event, you must either donate to “Restoring Courage - Israel” or the “Leader & Clergy Scholarship Fund-Israel”.  —  Now is the time to Stand and Restore Courage.

Court Date for Strauss-Kahn Is Postponed  —  The Manhattan district attorney's office and the lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn have agreed to postpone the next hearing in the sexual assault case against him for two weeks, a court official said on Monday.  —  The move — which pushes …

BREAKING: It Turns Out Obama Gave ACORN $541K This Year, Not $80K  —  Remember that story from a few days ago, the one about the Obama administration giving ACORN a $79,819 grant in March despite a federal law that prohibits the government from giving money to ACORN?  —  It turns out that sum is a lowball figure.

Huntsman goes on offense against Romney  —  Greer, South Carolina (CNN) - Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman signaled Monday that he intends to sharpen his campaign message against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race and the candidate Huntsman's team views …