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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.”

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

Egyptians Turn Against Liberal Protesters  —  CAIRO—Mobs of ordinary Egyptians joined with soldiers to drive pro-democracy protesters from their encampment in Tahrir Square here Monday, showing how far the uprising's early heroes have fallen in the eyes of the public.

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 …

DEMS PLAN PIVOT TO JOBS: Transportation, infrastructure, tax breaks on fall agenda - New Michael Meehan firm - NYT creates Political Desk - Alison Starling, NBC's Peter Alexander engaged  —Arizona Republic A1, “Giffords stuns D.C., casts vote,” by Dan Nowicki: “Giffords' decision to come …

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

Boehner: I got 98 percent of what I wanted  —  CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley sat down with Speaker of the House John Boehner in his office at the Capitol on Monday.  —  With a brutal partisan fight over the debt ceiling drawing to an apparent close, Boehner said he understands …

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.

Obama's Top Four Power Grabs  —  The president stretches executive power to expand the warfare state and the regulatory state.  —  Candidates never keep their promises once in office.  But even by the unlovely standards of his political peers, President Obama has pulled a rather impressive switcheroo from the anti-Bush to Bush-plus.

Three-Way Race: Romney 34%, Bachmann 27%, Perry 26%  —  Candidates will fall by the wayside as the primary battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination gets under way.  If the race were already down to just the three top candidates, Mitt Romney would still be just slightly ahead.

Bill Gross: This Deal Does Nothing, And We Still Have An “Unfathomable” $66 Trillion In Liabilities To Deal With  —  Bill Gross's big bet against US Treasuries didn't work out well (latest yield on the 10-year is 2.70%), but nevertheless, as a gigantic bond investor his opinion …

Expiring gas tax may be next battle on the Hill  —  In normal times, renewing the federal excise tax on gasoline would be another routine vote in Congress.  —  But as the past month of rancorous and intensely partisan debate about raising the debt ceiling has shown, the times are anything but normal.