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 …

The Note: The Making Of A ‘Satan Sandwich’  —  By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone) and AMY WALTER (@amyewalter)  —  It was messy, it was complicated and, in the end, it was simply unpalatable to some lawmakers.  —  But the budget plan that one liberal Democrat now famously called a …

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 …

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.”

Most of Newt Gingrich's Twitter Followers Are Fake  —  Yesterday Newt Gingrich laid out a new argument for why he should be the GOP presidential nominee: He's got the most Twitter followers.  But according to a former Gingrich staffer, he bought them.  —  Gingrich complained yesterday …

Pols all ‘look like idiots’ during debt crisis, but President Obama takes biggest hit of them all  —  WASHINGTON - There are no real winners in the debt-crisis debacle, and in such moments the leader of the country absorbs a larger hit than most.  —  The tawdry spectacle of governmental paralysis …

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.

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.

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 …

Consumer Spending in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell in June  —  Consumer spending in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped in June for the first time in almost two years as a slump in hiring caused households to retrench.  —  Purchases decreased 0.2 percent, after a 0.1 percent gain the prior month …

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 …

Small City, Big Debt Problems  —  Even as officials in Washington pledged to cut domestic spending, the city of Central Falls, R.I., landed in bankruptcy court on Monday, a stark reminder that some American cities have debts so overwhelming that no amount of belt tightening can set things right.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

TSA to put Hub fliers on the spot  —  Some skeptical of new security program  —  Boston's TSA screeners — part of a security force whose competency has come under fire nationwide — soon will be carrying out sophisticated behavioral inspections under a first-in-the-nation program that's …

Fears of far-right rise in crisis-hit Greece … ATHENS, Greece — They descended by the hundreds — black-shirted, bat-wielding youths chasing down dark-skinned immigrants through the streets of Athens and beating them senseless in an unprecedented show of force by Greece's far-right extremists.

Developers of Islamic Center Try a New Strategy  —  A year after controversy engulfed plans to build a Muslim community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan, the project's developers are quietly moving ahead: In recent months they have hired a paid staff, started fund-raising drives …

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.