Michele Bachmann officially leaves her church  —  Washington (CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has long been a darling of conservative evangelicals, but shortly before announcing her White House bid, she officially quit a church she'd belonged to for years.

Fox And Friends Defends News Corp's Hacking Scandal: ‘We Should Move On’  —  Fox News finally addressed their parent company's hacking scandal head on this morning, with Fox and Friends launching a comically sycophantic and pathetically inaccurate defense of News Corp. Host Steve Doocy …

Jackson Lee: Congress complicating debt ceiling because Obama is black  —  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Friday strongly suggested that members of Congress are making it difficult for President Obama to raise the debt ceiling because of his race.  —  “I do not understand …

Of Obama's $86 million, 40% from bundlers  —  About 40 percent of President Barack Obama's record-breaking $86 million second-quarter fundraising haul came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama's campaign web site.

Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County  —  “Why aren't you seeing Harry Potter?” an usher said to the reporter sitting alone in the audience  —  When the clock struck 12:01 am today, AMC theaters in select cities were permitted to start showing “The Undefeated,” a feature length documentary about Sarah Palin.

McConnell proposal would force major review of entitlements  —  Larry Kudlow, who's plugged in with Congressional Republicans, scoops a key new detail about the emerging Mitch McConnell proposal to transfer control of the debt ceiling to the president:

Obama makes his case to the left  —  President Obama recently took a beating from some on the left for suggesting that immediate deficit reduction is necessary to take the issue off the table and make it possible to spend more on liberal priorities later.  And Obama of course has regularly …

Erick Erickson's Bad Advice  —  The RedState editor tweets that this post of his is being passed around the House GOP's caucus meeting.  Hey, lots of things are passed around at meetings.  Let's just hope no one takes this seriously, because it's totally incoherent. … Who actually thinks this?

Perry's Briefing  —  Word in Austin is that Rick Perry is doing everything necessary to prepare for a presidential run, including brushing up on foreign policy.  —  We hear that he recently met with top national-security experts Doug Feith and William Luti.

Obama Publicly Backs Means-Testing Medicare (UPDATE) … WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama formally acknowledged on Friday that he would support a plan to means-test Medicare as a part of a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling.  —  “I have said that means-testing on Medicare …

Osama Hit List: President Obama, Petraeus, Major U.S. Sporting Event  —  President Barack Obama boards Air Force One after arriving at Andrews Air Force Base Md., June 28, 2011.  Officials say that Osama bin Laden, still obsessed with attacking airplanes, was trying to hatch a plan to kill Obama …

Getting to Crazy  —  There aren't many positive aspects to the looming possibility of a U.S. debt default.  But there has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.

Court OKs Airport Body Scanners, Rejects Constitutional Challenge  —  A federal appeals court on Friday unanimously declined to block the government from using intrusive body scanners across airports nationwide, saying it is “not persuaded by any of the statutory or constitutional arguments” against them.

Will coming debt ceiling deal save America's AAA credit rating?  —  Keeping America's gold-plated credit rating may take both a deal to raise the debt ceiling (which will happen) and a meaningful deficit reduction plan of around $4 trillion (which is not happening).