Top Items:

The President Surrenders — A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong. — For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Guardian, Washington Post, neo-neocon, Hit & Run, Pajamas Media, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Simply Left BehindThe …, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Questions and Observations, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, Wake up America, The Daily Caller, The Atlantic Online, Real Time Economics, Mediaite, Big Government, Democracy in America, No More Mister Nice Blog, The New Republic, ThinkProgress, DownWithTyranny!, Colorlines, The Gateway Pundit, Jack & Jill Politics, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAblog News, Weasel Zippers, Power Line, Connecting.the.Dots, Salon, p m carpenter's commentary, Indecision Forever, Sky Dancing, Daily Kos, The Other McCain, The POH Diaries, TPMDC, Via Meadia, Truthdig, Balloon Juice, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The TrogloPundit and Washington Wire
RELATED:

Mitt Romney opposes compromise deal on the debt ceiling — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) broke his silence on the congressional debt-ceiling fight on Monday, emerging to say he couldn't back the final deal announced Sunday. — Romney, who had refused to weigh in during recent weeks …
Discussion:
CNN, The Note, ThinkProgress, Weasel Zippers, Maggie's Farm and Ben Smith's Blog


The Fine Print on the Debt Deal — If Democrats read the fine print on the debt deal struck by President Obama and Congressional leaders, they'll find that it's a little better than it appears at first glance. — That's not to say that the deal is a good one for them.
Discussion:
Washington Times, nation.foxnews.com, Weasel Zippers and New York Times

To Escape Chaos, a Terrible Deal — There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012.

Krugman Quibble — I agree with most of what Paul Krugman has to say about the debt deal-with one crucial exception. He's right that Obama should have included raising the debt ceiling in last December's tax deal...but he's wrong, I think, about the President using what we'll call …
Discussion:
Guardian

Did Obama Get Rolled? — The debt ceiling agreement is a horrible piece of legislation. It ratchets down already too-low domestic discretionary spending caps and imposes painful sacrifice on the middle class with little asked of the rich. Obviously, though, you can't assess any deal without asking “compared to what?”

A Tea Party Triumph — The debt deal is a rare bipartisan victory for the forces of smaller government. — If a good political compromise is one that has something for everyone to hate, then last night's bipartisan debt-ceiling deal is a triumph. The bargain is nonetheless better …

How the Tea Party ‘hobbits’ won the debt fight — The Tea Party came under fire from all sides Friday after House conservatives nearly brought down Speaker John Boehner's debt-limit bill. John McCain went to the Senate floor to mock Tea Partyers as “hobbits,” and Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, The Moderate Voice, Big Journalism, Taylor Marsh, National Review, msnbc.com, sisu, The Politico, JustOneMinute and DISSENTING JUSTICE

The myth of Obama's “blunders” and “weakness” — With the details of the pending debt deal now emerging (and for a very good explanation of the key terms, see this post by former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein), a consensus is solidifying that (1) this is a virtually full-scale victory …

Five Things for Liberals to Like in the Debt Ceiling Deal
Discussion:
Newshoggers.com, Booman Tribune and Suburban Guerrilla

This Is Not Leadership — Late Saturday night, media outlets …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Jared Bernstein, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Washington Monthly and Daily Kos


Why the Debt Ceiling Deal Sucks — Marian and I have now been married for 20 years (yay us!), so we went up to LA yesterday to see a show and then stayed over today to have lunch with Mark Kleiman and then watch world #84 Ernests Gulbis beat Mardy Fish in the finals of the Farmers Classic at UCLA.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Newshoggers.com and Washington Post
RELATED:

Debt Ceiling Deal—Less Than Meets the Eye — My stated preference has long been for a clean debt ceiling hike. Failing that, I wanted to see a debt ceiling deal that contained as little policy as possible, or at least very little bad policy. This deal meets those criteria, and I am satisfied.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Guardian, The New Republic, Hit & Run, FiveThirtyEight and Washington Post

CBO ANALYSIS OF AUGUST 1 BUDGET CONTROL ACT — Letter to the Honorable John Boehner and the Honorable Harry Reid — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the impact on the deficit of the Budget Control Act of 2011, as posted on the Web site of the House Committee on Rules on August 1, 2011.
Discussion:
Director's Blog, USA Today, Club for Growth, Speaker and The Daily Caller

Lousy Negotiating Skills Are Not the Problem
Discussion:
Robert Reich, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress and DISSENTING JUSTICE

Winners and losers: policy edition
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and The Washington Current


The Hostages Next Time — I remember last December sitting …
Discussion:
Firedoglake

WHIP COUNT: House leaders in both parties seek votes to pass debt-limit deal — The debt-limit deal announced on Sunday night is expected to attract more than 60 votes in the Senate, but its outlook in the House is much more cloudy. — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will need Democratic votes …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Right Scoop, Guardian, Politics and Daily Kos
RELATED:


No Guarantee Debt Limit Deal Gets Through the House
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Associated Press, Congressman Raul Grijalva, The Hill and Eschaton

When a cut is not a cut — One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around …
Discussion:
nation.foxnews.com
RELATED:

Katie Pavlich Some Details of the Budget Control Act 2011
Discussion:
Hot Air, Questions and Observations, Political Punch and The Note

Doing Away With the Debt Ceiling
Discussion:
Bankrupting America, FrumForum and American Power


Romney Breaks Debt Ceiling Silence: ‘Cannot Support This Deal’ — After a week of attacks from left and right alike over his failure to take a position on the latest round of Republican debt ceiling proposals, Mitt Romney has made up his mind on the final deal: he's against it.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Fox News, Weasel Zippers and Daily Kos
RELATED:

Mitt Romney Opposes Debt Compromise
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Indecision Forever, ThinkProgress and Crooks and Liars

Romney's cravenness — As House Republicans fought amongst themselves …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and Swampland


GETTING BIN LADEN … - POLITICS - PROFILES - THE TALK OF THE TOWN - COMMENT - THIS WEEK'S ISSUE - THE FINANCIAL PAGE - NEWS DESK - THE POLITICAL SCENE
Discussion:
Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Politics, Ben Smith's Blog and SWJ Blog

AFP Wisconsin ballots have late return date — Americans for Prosperity is sending absentee ballots to Democrats in at least two Wisconsin state Senate recall districts with instructions to return the paperwork after the election date. — The fliers, obtained by POLITICO …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, TPMDC and Daily Kos

U.S. Political Ideology Stable With Conservatives Leading — Most Republicans are conservative, but one in five is “very conservative” — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' political ideology at the midyear point of 2011 looks similar to 2009 and 2010, with 41% self-identifying as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, No More Mister Nice Blog and Via Meadia


Pam Geller Justifies Breivik's Terror: Youth Camp Had More ‘Middle Eastern or Mixed’ Races Than ‘Pure Norwegian’ — Pam Geller with House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) — Popular hate blogger Pam Geller has received scrutiny in recent days as the public became aware …

Sen. McCain credits the Tea Party for deficit agreement — Days after comparing its members to hobbits, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday credited the Tea Party for its role in pushing for a deficit deal. — “I don't think without the Tea Party we would have had an agreement,” McCain said.
Discussion:
The Note, The Politico, The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Memo to Congress: With deficit deal done, time for that pivot to jobs — I'll forgive you in advance for being skeptical of what I'm about to tell you. But there's finally a glimmer of evidence that officials are beginning to talk about that long-promised pivot to jobs that seemed …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Angry Bear

House to take up debt deal first; vote possible Monday night — The House will vote before the Senate on the debt-ceiling agreement, a GOP leadership aide said Monday. — The vote is expected Monday evening or night, but a time has not been set. The GOP aide cautioned that the schedule in the House is …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, The Caucus and Taegan Goddard's …

Did Obama capitulate — or is this a cagey move? — It was President Obama's bottom line, a position he repeated in every recent public utterance on his debt-ceiling talks with Congress: Any deal must be “balanced” with spending cuts and tax increases. — But in his eleventh-hour stare …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, No More Mister Nice Blog, FrumForum and The Daily Dish

Why Rick Santorum's Argument About Same-Sex Marriage Leading To Polygamy Is So Wrong — Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) touted his long-standing opposition to marriage equality during a speech in Denver Colorado on Friday, and claimed that the media and gay rights activists had misrepresented …
Discussion:
Equality Matters

The Texas Congressman and the Israeli Fascist — I was reading David Wilder's report in The Jerusalem Post about his time at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) convention in Washington (Wilder is the spokesman for the Hebron Jewish community) and I was struck by this photo he posted …
Discussion:
Hendrik Hertzberg, Harry's Place and Ben Smith's Blog