To Hell with You People  —  Look, I am past exhausted talking about liberal media bias.  It's real, we all know it, and people who deny it aren't even fooling themselves.  But some things just have to be pointed out.  This morning I watched the first 15 minutes of the Today Show.

The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism  —  The Tea Party movement takes its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest British imperial power.  But while New England was the center of resistance to the British empire …

Pelosi: My Deficit Committee Members Will Oppose All Entitlement Benefit Cuts  —  The debt limit fight is over, but the fight over entitlement programs will continue for months.  In the weeks ahead, the leaders of both parties in both the House and Senate will name three members each …

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 …

Moody's, Fitch Affirm U.S. Ratings While Warning of Downgrades  —  Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings affirmed their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. while warning that the ratings could be downgraded if lawmakers fail to enact debt reduction measures and the economy weakens.

Beware of dangerous politicians  —  Are some political parties more dangerous than others?  —  James Gilligan makes it clear where he comes down on the issue.  Gilligan, a psychiatrist and professor at New York University, presents his new book, “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others …

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 Hidden History of the Debt Limit Hijack: Democrats Started It  —  I have a piece in the American Prospect today on five turning points in the debt limit fight.  I think they're actually in descending order of importance, and the biggest one is right at the top - this deal is the function …

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.

Moderate Senate Dems prepare a balanced budget amendment  —  One of the big victories by tea-party Republicans in the debt-ceiling measure signed into law Tuesday was securing a requirement that Congress vote later this year on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

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 …

Debt deal could cut defense $900B over next decade  —  WASHINGTON — Cuts to defense spending in the debt reduction bill could total nearly $1 trillion over 10 years — more than double what President Obama had proposed earlier this year — and sap American military might worldwide, say analysts and members of Congress.

‘That Evil Hour ...’ … Don't know about anyone else, but I can totally relate to that, and not merely because of Thompson's gonzo sarcasm about O'Brien promising him a gig in American Samoa.  (The actual 1964 correspondence between Thompson and O'Brien is included, pp.

Dow Plunges 265 Points  —  Stocks plunged amid worries over the state of the economy, pushing the market to its longest losing streak in nearly three years and sending the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to a 2011 closing low.  —  The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 265.87 points, or 2.2%, to 11866.62.

Virginia Republican Numbers  —In another sign of his strength as he prepares to enter the Presidential race Rick Perry leads the Republican field in Virginia, pointing to the possibility for him to be a very strong candidate particularly in the South.  He gets 20% to 16% for Mitt Romney …

Bush lawyers advising Romney  —  Mitt Romney is mining the George W. Bush White House for legal talent to advise his presidential campaign — including a key person behind the controversial Justice Department memos authorizing waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

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.

Spain and Italy rush to quell fresh crisis  —  By Richard Milne in London and Victor Mallet in Madrid  —  Spanish and Italian politicians rushed to formulate a fresh response to the debt crisis engulfing their two countries as their borrowing costs hit new euro-era highs on Tuesday.

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.

What Obama Forgot About Change in Washington  —  So after all that, what did we get, really?  — $91 billion a year in promised cuts for 10 years.  That's about 6% of last year's federal budget, and it is subject to approval by future Congresses.  This is evocative of what happened in 1981 …

‘Two And A Half Men’ Premiere To Feature Charlie Harper's Funeral, His Girlfriends Back & His House For Sale  —  UPDATE MONDAY: I've got more information on the shrouded-in-secrecy ninth-season premiere of CBS' comedy Two and a Half Men, which will feature the debut of new star Ashton Kutcher and which I now hear will be a two-parter.

Iran Nuclear Program  —  Related articles, background features and opinions about this topic.  —  Sabotaging Iran's Nuclear Program  —  Mossad Behind Tehran Assassinations, Says Source  —  The funeral of Darioush Rezaei on July 24.  Mossad has been blamed for the killing.

Putting Americans Back to Work: President Obama Speaks on the Debt Compromise  —  Click here to see the video.  —  This afternoon, Congress approved a compromise to reduce the deficit and avert a default that would have devastated the economy.  Speaking from the Rose Garden …