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House Leaders Float New Plan After Dissent Stalls Progress — WASHINGTON — Negotiations to reopen the government and avert a possible default just two days away were temporarily suspended Tuesday, and Senate Republicans emerged from a closed-door lunch saying they had to wait …
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Boehner Searches for Votes — After a relatively calm conference meeting this morning, Speaker John Boehner is moving forward with his new fiscal strategy, which slightly revises the bipartisan framework being discussed in the Senate. But he's treading carefully.
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The Plum Line, The Dish, Hot Air, Daily Kos and American Spectator

House Conservatives Revolt — Later this morning, House Republicans will meet in the Capitol's basement. The chief topic of conversation: the emerging Senate deal. But before the meeting even begins, House conservatives are bashing it behind the scenes, and they're pushing the leadership to reject the compromise.


Fitch puts US AAA rating on rating watch negative — Fitch puts US credit rating on negative watch — Fitch has put the U.S. credit rating on negative watch, reports CNBC's Dominic Chu. — Fitch Ratings put the US government's “AAA” credit rating on ‘rating watch negative’ Tuesday …
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The Hinterland Gazette and Taegan Goddard's …


Budget battle escalates — House Republican leaders scrambled Tuesday afternoon to rewrite their bill to lift the debt ceiling and reopen government in a bid to attract enough conservative support to ensure passage. — In a closed-party meeting Tuesday morning, the House GOP leadership announced …
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CNN, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, A plain blog about politics, The Week, Hit & Run, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite


John Boehner makes his final move — A massive GOP retreat — but a greedy one — This is probably the penultimate twist in the debt limit saga, both because there isn't much time left, and because this is John Boehner's last real move. — House Republican leaders, not content with back-seat status …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Liberaland, The American Conservative and PoliticusUSA


House GOPer: We're Gonna Make Them An Offer They Can't Refuse — Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) told reporters Tuesday that part of the House Republican calculus in its plan to re-open the government and raise the debt limit was trying to leverage the Thursday default deadline to their advantage in their back-and-forth with the Senate.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, ThinkProgress and Little Green Footballs

Dems to House GOP: The answer is No
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National Review, Salon, Washington Post, The Fix, Daily Kos, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly and ThinkProgress

The New House Plan — changes the Senate plan in several ways …
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Washington Monthly, Hot Air and PoliticusUSA

Despite GOP disarray, House to vote on shutdown plan
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ABC News, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Reuters, KTLA 5 and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

House hopes to move own debt plan, but may not have the votes
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Politico, Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times and American Spectator


Exclusive: Glenn Greenwald Will Leave Guardian To Create New News Organization — The reporter who broke the NSA story promises “a momentous new venture.” A “very substantial new media outlet” with serious backing, he says. Updated — Greenwald in Rio de Janeiro in July. — Sergio Moraes / Reuters
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Talking Points Memo, Gawker, Mediaite, The Verge, Business Insider, Little Green Footballs and The Tell, more at Mediagazer »

I, Rielle Hunter, Apologize — I behaved badly. That may seem obvious to you but it's taken me a long time to admit that, even to myself. For years I was so viciously attacked by the media and the world that I felt like a victim. I now realize that the attacks are actually beside the point.
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The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Yahoo! News, She The People and Liberaland


13 THINGS THAT DEFINE THE NEW AMERICAN CENTER — It is bigger than you think... An exclusive Esquire-NBC News survey shows us that everything we are told about politics in America today—that there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us and them—is wrong.
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NBCNews, NewsBusters, The Federalist, Taylor Marsh and Real Clear Politics
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The New American Center: Why our nation isn't as divided as we think
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The Week, Yahoo! News, Hercules and the umpire, Independent Journal Review and Hot Air

The default has already begun — The big question in Washington this week is whether, in the words of the NYT, we're going to see “a legislative failure and an economic catastrophe that could ripple through financial markets, foreign capitals, corporate boardrooms, state budget offices and the bank accounts of everyday investors”.
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Firedoglake, The Dish, AMERICAblog News and Campaign for America's Future
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Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Guilty Plea by Former San Diego Mayor — SAN DIEGO - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has plead guilty to one count of felony false imprisonment and two counts of misdemeanor battery.
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Politico, Business Insider and The Raw Story
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Hillary who? Bloody-minded London traffic warden defies five furious secret service agents to give Hillary Clinton a ticket — This is the extraordinary moment that Hillary Clinton's security staff got into an argument with a traffic warden after he issued her car with a parking ticket.
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The Hill, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and National Review


What This Cruel War Was Over — It is not so much the behavior of the lone idiot that matters, but the tenor of the crowd around him. — On Sunday, a group of conservative radicals held a protest in Washington. Eventually they walked to the White House.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Brad DeLong, PostPartisan, The Hinterland Gazette and Mediaite


'The Kelly File's' surge is legit, Nielsen says — MSNBC had questioned Fox News show's 100% ratings increase — Megyn Kelly hosts the Fox News Channel's new show “The Kelly File.” — Nielsen has conducted an investigation into the ratings for Megyn Kelly's new Fox News Channel show …
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Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, BizPac Review, TVNewser, Mediaite, Business Insider, TheBlaze.com, Independent Journal Review, National Review and The PJ Tatler

The Top Ten Reasons The Government Shutdown Isn't All Bad — 10. Approximately 15,000 EPA employees are furloughed, making it less likely fake CIA agents at EPA will be ripping off the taxpayer — Last month, John C. Beale, a former EPA senior official in the Office of Air & Radiation …
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ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, E2-Wire and The World's Greatest …


As Debt Limit Deadline Nears, Concern Ticks Up But Skepticism Persists — Despite Image Problems, GOP Holds Ground on Key Issues — With just two days to go before an Oct. 17 deadline to raise the nation's debt limit, 51% of the public views a rise in the nation's debt limit as …
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Firedoglake, Politico, The Fix, Wonkblog, Post Politics and Taegan Goddard's …

Four new Senate polls - Citizens United PAC endorses Simpson challenger - Low interest in MA-05 primary - Debates in New York, New Jersey - Booker, Lonegan in home stretch — By Elizabeth Titus (etitus@politico.com; Twitter: @emtitus) — EXCLUSIVE: GOP POLLS FOR ALASKA, ARKANSAS, LOUISIANA …
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Los Angeles Times, Weekly Standard, eagletonpollblog, National Review, The Huffington Post and Ballot Box
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Dewhurst Calls for Obama's Impeachment … During an appearance at a Tarrant County Tea Party candidate forum, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called for President Obama to be impeached, a spokesman for his campaign confirmed Monday night. — Dewhurst's comments were first reported on Twitter …
Discussion:
National Review, PoliticusUSA, Liberaland and ThinkProgress


FAST FOOD, POVERTY WAGES: THE PUBLIC COST OF LOW-WAGE JOBS IN THE FAST-FOOD INDUSTRY — Executive Summary — Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of enrollments in America's major public benefits programs are — from working families. But many of them work in jobs that pay wages so low that their paychecks do
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Little Green Footballs, Gawker, Business Insider, ThinkProgress, NBCNews and Balloon Juice


Former Army Capt. William Swenson receives Medal of Honor at White House — Video: The Battle of Ganjgal remains one of the deadliest in the Afghan war. Yet William Swenson, a former captain in the U.S. Army, managed to help fend off an onslaught of insurgents, saved lives, coordinated a rescue …
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Videos contradict Medal of Honor recipient's account of Taliban attack
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The Raw Story