Tea Party's War on America  —  You know what they say: Never negotiate with terrorists.  It only encourages them.  —  These last few months, much of the country has watched in horror as the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people.  Their intransigent demands …

Obama signs debt bill into law  —  Treasury won an immediate reprieve of $400 billion in new borrowing authority Tuesday, as the Senate gave final approval to a hotly contested debt and deficit-reduction agreement hammered out with the White House Sunday night.

Fiscal Conservatives Barred from Supercommittee  —  Will Senate Republicans be able to prevent tax hikes?  —  The debt ceiling deal will pass the Senate early this afternoon.  No suspense there.  But the vote will be worth watching for another reason: Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS …

Woodpecker-Saving Daughter Costs Mom $500, Possible Jail Time  —  “I've just always loved animals,” said Skylar Capo.  “I couldn't stand to watch it be eaten.”  —  Skylar couldn't find the woodpecker's mother, so she brought it to her own mother, Alison Capo, who agreed to take it home.

Who gains from debt deal?  The Pentagon, for one  —  WASHINGTON — The last-minute deal that Congress is considering to raise the federal debt limit probably will mean trillions of dollars in government spending reductions for most agencies.  But one department stands to gain: the Pentagon.

CNN/ORC Poll: Most Americans dislike debt deal, think lawmakers acted like ‘spoiled children’  —  (CNN) - A majority of Americans disapprove of the deal struck Sunday by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders that will raise the country's legal borrowing limit …

Saving Matt Damon  —  Many conservatives think of Matt Damon as another stuck-on-himself multi-millionaire liberal in Hollywood who says one thing but lives otherwise.  —  But I think of him as a friend of Ben Affleck, who is married to Jennifer Garner, who grew up in Charleston, West Virginia …

GOP winning the larger argument over government  —  In recent days, the debt ceiling deal — which just passed the Senate and is about to be signed by the President — has sparked a fair amount of handwringing among liberals who worry that the fight shows the left has lost the larger argument …

What's missing from the debt ceiling debate?  Jobs  —  The unemployment rate, currently above 9 percent, is projected to remain high for a long time.  For example, the current Blue Chip Economic Indicators consensus forecast puts the average unemployment rate for 2012 at 8.3 percent.

U.S. representative apologizes for ‘tar baby’ comment  —  Washington (CNN) — A member of Congress has apologized after saying that being associated with President Barack Obama would be similar to touching a “tar baby.”  —  Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, sent a letter to Obama …

The collapse of America's middle class  —  People seem to act irrationally when they have nothing to lose.  Often we observe in wars that the losing side expends more blood and treasure after its position becomes hopeless.  —  The American South sustained most of its casualties in the Civil War …

Rachel Maddow Extends MSNBC Contract (Exclusive) … MSNBC has extended Rachel Maddow's contract in a new multi-year deal that will keep the primetime host at the cable news network well beyond the 2012 presidential election.  —  The announcement is expected to come Tuesday at the network's portion …

The Obama Downgrade, Alphabetically  —  H is for Hillary, who would have made a better president.  —  Snapshots from President Obama's efforts to improve America's standing in the world, 923 days into his administration:  —  A is for the Arab world, and our standing in it: This year …

Reaping Millions in Nonprofit Care for Disabled  —  Medicaid money created quite a nice life for the Levy brothers from Flatbush, Brooklyn.  —  The brothers, Philip and Joel, earned close to $1 million a year each as the two top executives running a Medicaid-financed nonprofit organization serving the developmentally disabled.

Joe Lieberman Says U.S. Should Cut Social Security To Pay For Fighting ‘The Islamist Extremists’  —  This past April, right-wing war hawk John Bolton suggested during an interview on Fox News that the United States should cut Social Security and Medicare to finance the defense budget.

Debt Bill Becomes Law, Averting Default  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama signed into law on Tuesday legislation raising the government's debt ceiling and cutting trillions of dollars in spending, finally ending a fractious partisan battle just hours before the government's borrowing authority was set to run out.

Debt ceiling cost to taxpayers: $1.7 billion  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The debt ceiling debacle has just cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1.7 billion.  —  That's the amount of additional interest the government had to pay investors Monday to sell Treasury bills that finance its operations.

Gingrich slams Obama's “Paul Krugman presidency”  —  Newt Gingrich invokes the liberal economist and New York Times columnist.

Will Interest Groups Ride To The Rescue?  —  Back in 2008, my understanding of the thinking around health reform was that health insurers would so fear the prospect of liberals imposing a public option that they would induce Republicans to come to the table and strike a bargain to remove it.

Al Gore: ‘Our system of government itself, is in real trouble’  —  On his Monday program, Keith Olbermann offered his Current TV platform to his network's chairman, former Vice President Al Gore.  According to Gore, both sides of the aisle finally hammering out a debt ceiling agreement …

Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive  —  So the debt deal has finally been reached.  As expected, the agreement arrives in a form that right-thinking people everywhere can feel terrible about with great confidence.  —  The general consensus is that for the second time in three years …

Stocks Slump More Than 2% Despite Debt Vote  —  A Senate vote to pass the debt ceiling plan on Tuesday may have averted the potential for the United States to default on its obligations, but it failed to lift investors' spirits.  The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 266 points by the close of trading …

Huntsman: GOP foes showed ‘little leadership’ in debt fight  —  Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) criticized his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday for showing “very little leadership” in the debt-ceiling fight.  —  Huntsman, in a thinly-veiled barb directed …

Fitch warns US would endanger AAA rating with even ‘technical’ default  —  The United States would endanger its coveted AAA credit rating if Congress allows even a short-term “technical default” to occur, according to the Fitch credit rating agency.  —  Fitch said Wednesday it would put …

We The Stupid  —  I stand here in abject stupefaction.  The so-called “right” or “Tea Party” in this republic is being so thoroughly rolled and defeated that I am struggling to come up with an adequate violent submission metaphor that does not involve prison rape . . . and they honesty think that they're “winning.”

Obama, Pelosi et al failed at job creation  —  Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) just hopped on television to claim that Republicans have been in charge of Washington for 210 days and still haven't created jobs.  In case there are one or two Americans who still don't understand …

Mitt Romney to pick up pace in new phase of 2012 campaign  —  After a relatively low-key start to his second presidential campaign, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney plans to pick up his pace this month as the 2012 sweepstakes intensifies, with a blitz of appearances in early voting states and a list of policy proposals.