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Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3 — President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.
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Michelle Malkin, Washington Wire, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Caucus, The Enterprise Blog, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Swampland, Weasel Zippers, AmSpecBlog, Say Anything, The Impolitic, Don Surber, JammieWearingFool, New York Magazine, National Review, TPMDC and Politics
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Senate GOP mulls new debt strategy — Trying to get out of the political box which they have helped to create, Senate Republicans are actively discussing a new plan under which the debt ceiling would grow in three increments over the remainder of this Congress unless lawmakers approve a veto proof resolution of disapproval.
Discussion:
The Note, Firedoglake, CNN, Daily Kos and Politics


Boehner Says The Debt Limit Increase Is Obama's Problem — Speaker of the House John Boehner introduced a new argument to the debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks Tuesday, saying raising the borrowing limit is Republicans' concession in the negotiations. — “This debt limit increase is [Obama's] problem,” he said.
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The Moderate Voice, Little Green Footballs, msnbc.com and Sky Dancing


The Big Blink? McConnell Proposes Giving Obama Authority To Raise Debt Limit Alone — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed creating an escape hatch for Congressional Republicans, who have put themselves in a box by threatening not to raise the national debt limit …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The New Republic and Daily Kos

Cantor outlines $353B in Medicare, Medicaid savings during debt talks — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Monday proposed changes to Medicare and Medicaid he said would save $353 billion over the next decade. — Cantor made the proposal in talks at the White House.
Discussion:
The Politico, The Note and ThinkProgress


470 Business Leaders Urge Congress, White House to Act on Debt
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Washington Monthly, Politics and MyFox Philadelphia

Angry John Boehner rallies GOP troops on debt limit
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USA Today, Firedoglake, The Note, Washington Post and Gawker

Mitch McConnell Just Proposed the “Pontius Pilate Pass the Buck Act of 2011″
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Washington Post, National Review, Hot Air, Daily Pundit, Say Anything and PolitickerNY

McConnell Says ‘Real Deal’ Not Possible With Obama
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Pajamas Media, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Wizbang and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

More Contingency Plan — The initial legislation would authorize …
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ThinkProgress, Hullabaloo and Pew Research Center …

Another mortifying McConnell head-banging-against-the-wall moment
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Reuters and Riehl World View

EXCLUSIVE: McConnell to Obama: Eat your own darn peas
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Pajamas Media, The Maddow Blog and REPUBLICAN REDEFINED

Boehner: 'This Debt Limit Increase Is Obama's Problem'
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Booman Tribune

Boehner: avoidable economic crash isn't my problem
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Daily Kos

Obama warns Social Security checks might not be sent Aug. 3
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CNN

Boehner's previous pledge to hike debt ceiling goes straight down the memory hole
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AMERICAblog News

Balanced budget gets leadership stamp
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The Hill and The Daily Caller

Wonkbook: Why liberals should thank Eric Cantor — (KAREN BLEIER - AFP/GETTY IMAGES) I knew the White House wanted a compromise on the debt ceiling. I just didn't expect them to do quite so much, well, compromising. — Here's what appears to have been in the $4 trillion deal they offered …
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The Magic Lever — The world economy is a complex, unknowable organism. Most of us try to diversify our investments and balance risk and security to protect against the unexpected. — But a few years ago a group of bankers thought they had the magic tool to help them master financial trends and predict the future.


Boehner Assures Republicans He Won't Cave on Tax Hikes
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White House Dossier

Cantor in a Box — House Speaker John Boehner assigned his No. 2 …
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Outside the Beltway, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Hullabaloo, New York Magazine and Washington Post

Ron Paul won't seek congressional term in 2012 — LAKE JACKSON — After serving almost 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul told The Facts this morning he will not be seeking another term for the District 14 seat. — Paul, 75, will instead focus on his quest for the presidency in 2012.
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The Moderate Voice, The Politico, Washington Wire, Top of the Ticket, The Atlantic Online, The Note, Mediaite, CNN, Wonkette, REPUBLICAN REDEFINED, New York Magazine, Gawker, Real Time Economics, The American Independent, Outside the Beltway, Greg's Opinion, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, GOP 12, The Raw Story, Hit & Run, TPMDC, Hotline On Call, Politics and AmSpecBlog
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Rep. Ron Paul won't seek reelection
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The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Weasel Zippers, Ben Smith's Blog and MarketBeat

Fresh doubt cast on Obama's health care story — During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama often discussed his mother's struggle with cancer. Ann Dunham spent the months before her death in 1995, Obama said, fighting with insurance companies that sought to deny her the coverage she needed to pay for treatment.
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Sebelius: Obamacare's Penalty on Small Businesses a ‘Great Incentive’ for Growth — (CNSNews.com) - Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius told CNSNews.com on Monday that a provision in President Barack Obama's health-care law that requires small businesses …
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative and Say Anything

Half Brother of Afghan President Is Killed in Kandahar — By ALISSA J. RUBIN, CARLOTTA GALL and RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK — KABUL, Afghanistan — The powerful half brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was shot dead on Tuesday by a close family associate, according to Karzai family friends who were nearby.
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BBC, The Atlantic Online, REPUBLICAN REDEFINED, Scared Monkeys, Swampland, Gawker, Taylor Marsh and New York Magazine
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Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan president, killed by trusted confidant
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Guardian, FP Passport, Global Public Square, Newshoggers.com, JustOneMinute, Atlas Shrugs and Truthdig

Afghan president's half brother killed in south
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Aljazeera, The Politico, BLACKFIVE, msnbc.com, The Long War Journal and National Review


Blow against O in Weiner race — In “a shot across President Obama's bow,” Democratic former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday urged voters in Queens and Brooklyn to make “history” by voting for the Republican candidate to replace randy ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner in the Sept. 13 special election …
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Nice Deb, The Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool and Israel Matzav
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Ed Koch hopes GOP will capture Weiner's seat
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Capital Tonight and PolitickerNY


Police reports show different side of Michele Bachmann — From complaining about her house being egged to filing a report that she was being held “against my will” in a public restroom, Michele Bachmann has left a trail of police reports showing a seldom-seen side of a presidential candidate.
Discussion:
Mediaite, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Blotter, The Raw Story, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Politics

Bachmann: I'm ‘Very Proud’ Of Husband's Ex-Gay Therapy Clinics — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) refused to comment on her husband's Christian counseling clinics, dodging a question from a local ABC News reporter in Iowa about new video evidence showing one counselor telling a gay patient …


“Right to Life” robocalls from D.C. tell Wisconsin recall voters to stay home — If you get a robocall informing you that you should not vote in a recall election in Wisconsin today, please double check. You need to go to the polls between the hours of 7AM and 8PM in 6 recall districts and vote in person as usual.
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Jezebel, Wonkette, The Raw Story and Daily Kos
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Pair tried to steal historical documents worth millions, police say — Presidential historian and collector held without bond — Barry H. Landau has rubbed elbows with presidents, helped plan inaugurations, and claims one of the largest collections of Oval Office memorabilia outside museums and presidential libraries.
Discussion:
iOwnTheWorld.com and MyFox Philadelphia
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Presidential historian accused of stealing Maryland museum documents
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Taegan Goddard's … and Runnin' Scared

The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia — Nestled in a back corner of Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport is a sprawling walled compound run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Set on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the facility looks like a small gated community, with more than a dozen …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Weasel Zippers, Information Dissemination and Emptywheel


Education Omaha Schools Spend $130,000 in Stimulus Money to Buy 8,000 ‘Social Justice’ Diversity Manuals — If I told you that your tax dollars (130,000 of them) went to buying a “diversity” manual that asserts the government and other institutions create advantages that …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Omaha World-Herald, Moonbattery, Weasel Zippers, Doug Ross and Moe Lane


The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Thinks We're Still in the Bush Era — Another day, another chart from the “non-partisan” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on what “accounts” for the public debt. At some level, these exercises are silly: all prior legislation could be equally said to …
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog

Proud Of Being Ignorant — This is the dumbest story ever written in all of human history. … Note that this was under “Politics and Policy.” It's as if the purveyors of Beltway-ism and fen-fen joined forces and hatched a diabolical plot. — Adam expounds: … The worst part is there no actual hypocrisy.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Adam Serwer, Wonkette and Balloon Juice