memeorandum: I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right (Charles Moore/Telegraph)

10:40 AM ET, July 24, 2011

Top Items:

Boehner's Market Signals? Did August 2nd Just Become Tomorrow? — Unbelievable. The scripting of this high stakes drama between House Speaker John Boehner balancing the White House on one side and the never compromise, never surrender Tea Party on the other keeps getting better and better.

Discussion: TPMDC, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Prairie Weather and Booman Tribune

Manu Raju / The Politico:

Congress ditches Obama on debt talks — First came the Biden talks. When those blew up, the Obama-Boehner talks took center stage. And when that failed, the McConnell-Reid talks looked promising. And after they faltered, the Obama-Boehner talks tried to find a new life.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — GOP readies new debt ceiling plan; bill set for Sunday — House Republicans are finishing work on a new proposal to resolve the standoff over the debt ceiling. The proposal, set to be finished and crafted into the form of a bill by Sunday, will be in two parts.

Discussion: Power Line, A plain blog about politics and The Lonely Conservative

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Reaction, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, TPMDC, The Gateway Pundit, AMERICAblog News, The Mahablog, New York Times, Political Punch and Washington Post

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

Boehner tells GOP he will unveil new debt strategy — House Speaker John A. Boehner told his troops Saturday that he hopes to roll out a two-step strategy within the next 24 hours for raising the federal debt ceiling to avoid roiling Asian financial markets when they open Sunday …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Pirate's Cove, Reuters, State of the Union, Wall Street Journal, Angry Bear, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, Speaker and New York Magazine

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

‘Super Congress’: Debt Ceiling Negotiators Aim To Create New Legislative Body … WASHINGTON — Debt ceiling negotiators think they've hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public's unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, naked capitalism and Hullabaloo

The Note:

Obama and Boehner Back at the Altar? — ABC's Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) reports: With the opening of Asian markets now hours away and talks between Congressional leaders at a stand-still, ABC News has learned of a new high-stakes turn in the debt ceiling drama.

Discussion: Politics and blogs.abcnews.com

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Pelosi sees entitlement and tax reform delayed

Discussion: National Review

The Hill:
Responsibility for debt talks shifts to Congress, away from Obama

Discussion: Roll Call, Doug Ross, Michelle Malkin, Los Angeles Times and The Right Scoop

Bloomberg:
Boehner Said to Tell Republicans Positive Signal Needed for Asian Markets

Discussion: Sky Dancing and New York Times

Jamie Klatell / The Hill: Reid: ‘I hope GOP leaders will reconsider their intransigence’ in negotiations

Andrew Goldman / New York Times:

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.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Weasel Zippers

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:

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.

Discussion: PoliPundit.com, Daily Kos and NewsBusters.org

Oregonian:

Oregon Rep. David Wu hears calls to resign after revelations of unwanted sexual encounter — BY CHARLES POPE, BETH SLOVIC and HARRY ESTEVE — Pressure on Democratic Rep. David Wu to resign intensified Saturday as leaders in his own party began confronting the embattled Oregon lawmaker …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys and Gawker

John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Troubled David Wu reaches out to Nancy Pelosi

Discussion: Red Dog Report

Mark Bittman / New York Times:

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.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, LewRockwell.com Blog and naked capitalism

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

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.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Verum Serum

Daily Mail:

The shuttle as you've never seen it before: Space Station astronauts capture Atlantis re-entering the atmosphere from above ...hours before it is wheeled into hangar for the last time — Now Atlantis is home, 3,200 of the shuttle program's 5,500 contract workers will lose their jobs tomorrow

Peter Beaumont / Guardian:

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.

Discussion: Althouse, AlterNet, RADAMISTO, Sky Dancing, Verum Serum and Truthdig

Guardian:
Utøya gunman boasted of links to UK far right

Discussion: Reuters, Atlas Shrugs, FP Passport, The Other McCain, BBC, Little Green Footballs, Clayton Cramer's Blog and The Confluence

Ali Gharib / ThinkProgress:

Right-Wing Pundits Jumped To Blame Muslims And ‘Jihadists’ For Norway Attacks — When news began to unfold on Friday of the terror attacks in Norway that has left more than 90 dead, many blogs and Twitter accounts immediately lit up with speculation about who was behind the massive bombings …

Discussion: American Power, Erick's blog, Wall Street Journal, EcoLocalizer and The Atlantic Online