Schumer drops objection to Obama tax plan  —  Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) — who had pushed hard for letting tax cuts lapse for millionaires at year's end - has agreed to back President Barack Obama's plan to impose hikes on families earning more than $250,000, quashing what might have been an election-year Democratic food fight.

Should Liberals Be Mad at Kagan and Breyer?  —  While the Supreme Court's decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act in NFIB v. Sebelius was generally good news, the decision did have one unfortunate side effect.  The Court limited the use of federal spending power with respect to Medicaid …

Obama's Administration Killed a 16-Year-Old American and Didn't Say Anything About It.  This Is Justice?  —  Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was 16 on the day he was killed.  “I tried every legal means to stop the targeted killing of my son,” says his grandfather Nasser al-Awlaki, the father of Anwar al-Awlaki.

White Trash Reception Hits the Hill  —  Yeah, you read that headline right.  The lobbying and policy shop Strategic Health Care is hosting a “White Trash Reception on the Hill” next week.  We get forwarded a lot of reception invites here at the Alley and we've never seen one quite like this before.

Hill Poll: Majority feel Obama has changed country for worse  —  Two-thirds of likely voters say President Obama has kept his 2008 campaign promise to change America — but it's changed for the worse, according to a sizable majority.  —  A new poll for The Hill found 56 percent …

Romney Set to Counterattack on Bain  —  The L word.  —  Image by JASON REED / Reuters  —  The Romney campaign will begin to aggressively push back against President Obama's accusations that the Republican was an “outsourcing pioneer” today, a source privy to the the campaign's strategy told BuzzFeed.

Wireless Firms Are Flooded by Requests to Aid Surveillance  —  WASHINGTON — In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a daunting 1.3 million demands for subscriber data last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages …

Democratic trackers gone wild?  —  Politicians recognize they give up a degree of privacy when they run for office.  —  But Democrats are testing the outer limits of that understanding with a practice that raises questions about when campaign tracking becomes something more like stalking.

America Already Is Europe  —  In spending, debt and progressivity of taxes, the U.S. is as much a social-welfare state as Spain.  —  I'm often asked if I think America is trending toward becoming a European-style social democracy.  My answer is: “No, because we already are a European-style social democracy.”

Obama campaign raises $71 million in June  —  In an email to donors, the Obama campaign announces that it has raised $71 million in June.  —  From Chief Operating Officer Ann Marie Habershaw: … To recap, that's a $35 million gap between Mitt Romney and Obama in June …

Pizza Rat Publicist Simply Does Not Care For Your Class War  —  Amongst the Masters Of The Universe, who are THE ENGINE OF THIS ECONOMY that Nobama is trying to dronekill with his socialist taxes, were the lovely Zambrellis on New York; a couple who once raised money and voted for Obama until …

Obama's misleading tweet on Romney's taxes  —  “FACT: In 2010 and 2011, Romney paid less than 15% in taxes on $42.5 million in income—much less than what many middle-class families pay.”  —  We are avid readers of tweets by @BarackObama, though of course it is not the president himself but his campaign team that posts them.

Socialite Denise Rich dumps U.S. passport  —  (Reuters) - Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich, has given up her U.S. citizenship - and, with it, much of her U.S. tax bill.  —  Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and glossy figure …

Mick Jagger's affair with David Bowie revealed in new book: They ‘were really sexually obsessed with each other’  —  Bowie's wife found them in bed, backup singer and Playboy model claimed to share their bed  —  David Bowie's “Ziggy Stardust” era had Jagger wondering if this was the future.

Water torture  —  IDF confiscates water containers from Palestinians and Bedouins in Jordan Valley.  —  Avi is an inspection coordinator for the “Civil Administration” - the occupation regime, to speak without euphemisms.  Presumably Avi likes his job.  Maybe he's even proud of it.

The Newsroom's Third Episode Is Something ‘Every American Should See and Ponder’  —  Dan Rather is reviewing HBO's The Newsroom for Gawker throughout the show's first season.  —  Episode 3 of HBO's “The Newsroom” is deeper, broader and better than the two previous installments.

New Data on Obama's Massive Demographic Advantage  —  It's widely acknowledged by political observers that the country's demographic change in the last four years—particularly the increase in minority voters and decline of white non-college voters—favors President Obama's re-election bid.

Justice unseals indictment charging 5 in Brian Terry's death, offers $1M reward for leads on fugitives  —  The Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment charging five individuals allegedly involved in Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's death, and announced a reward of up to $1 million …

GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act … The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the “Repeal of Obamacare Act.”  And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president's Affordable Care Act.  A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday.

Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret  —  State rushes closure of its only TB hospital in Lantana  —  Lilla Charline Burkhalter, 60, comes to the Clara White center for breakfast most mornings.  It was here, in the soup kitchen, that a man with active, coughing TB was recently identified …