Boehner Set To Call Obama's Bluff In Push For Short-Term Debt Ceiling Deal … Harry Reid , Debt Ceiling , Boehner Bluff , Boehner Obama , Boehner Savings , Boehner Short Term Deal , Debt Ceiling August , John Boener , Obama Bluff , Obama Savings , Obama Short Term Deal , Reid Short Term Deal , Short Term Deal , Politics News

Cornel West Flunks the President  —  What's with the black suit, white shirt, black tie outfit you always wear?  Do you have anything else in your closet?  —  I've got four black suits that I circulate, and they are my cemetery clothes — my uniform that keeps me ready for battle.

A Rock-Solid Conservative Who's Willing to Bend  —  WASHINGTON — Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was a Tea Partier long before the movement even had a name, the family physician who came to Washington to hammer on Democrats and Republicans alike.  His years of bill blocking earned him the nickname Dr. No.

Amy Winehouse, British Soul Singer With a Troubled Life, Dies at 27  —  Amy Winehouse, the British singer who found worldwide fame with a smoky, hip-hop-inflected take on retro soul, yet became a tabloid fixture as her problems with drugs and alcohol brought about a strikingly public career collapse …

Troubled David Wu reaches out to Nancy Pelosi  —  Rep. David Wu spoke to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats on Saturday about his political future in the wake of allegations of a sexual encounter with a teenager, but it is not clear whether the Oregon Democrat will step down from office.

Anders Behring Breivik: profile of a mass murderer  —  A right-wing fundamentalist with a hatred for Norway's left, multiculturalism and Muslims  —  Not far from of Elverum, 80 miles north of Oslo, a cluster of clapboard buildings, white and red, sits under a low mountain ridge at the end of a dirt track.

Republicans, Zealots and Our Security  —  IF China or Iran threatened our national credit rating and tried to drive up our interest rates, or if they sought to damage our education system, we would erupt in outrage.  —  Well, wake up to the national security threat.

Bad Food?  Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables  —  Mark Bittman writes about food for the opinion section.  —  WHAT will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits?  The need is indisputable, since heart disease, diabetes and cancer are all in large part caused by the Standard American Diet.

What Obama Was Willing to Give Away  —  Jonathan Cohn summarizes what seems to have been in the deal that Boehner walked away from; it's horrifying.  Above all, the proposed rise in the age of Medicare eligibility was a real betrayal of both Democratic principles and good government.

The official straw poll ballot is now final, but write-ins will be counted  —  The official ballot for the Iowa straw poll will list nine names, including three declared candidates who have decided to not compete in the Aug. 13 event: Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich.