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 …

Debt ceiling bill passes Senate 74-26  —  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 …

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.”

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 …

Rep. West to screen controversial film on ‘Ground Zero mosque’  —  Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is planning to screen a controversial film on Capitol Hill about attempts to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero in Manhattan.  —  The film, “Sacrificed Survivors: The Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mosque …

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.

Lamborn apologizes to Obama over reference to ‘tar baby’  —  U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn sent an apology to the White House Monday concerning a comment he made Friday during an interview with a Denver radio station.  —  He said during the interview about Obama's budget policies that being linked …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.