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 …

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.

To Hell With You People  —  Look, I am past exhausted talking about liberal media bias.  It's real, we all know it, and people who deny it aren't even fooling themselves.  But some things just have to be pointed out.  This morning I watched the first 15 minutes of the Today Show.

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 …

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.”

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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

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 …

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.

Following Newt  —  I don't doubt that a former Gingrich staffer — they are legion — told Gawker's John Cook this:  —  About 80 percent of [Gingrich's Twitter followers] are inactive or are dummy accounts created by various “follow agencies,” another 10 percent are real people who are part …

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 …

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 …

Dysfunction obscures the more meaningful problem  —  It's awfully difficult to defend the American political system right now.  I suspect if a pollster asked a representative sample, “Do you believe the political process in the United States is effective or badly broken?” the results would be entirely one-sided.

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.

Let's Look on the Brighter Side!  More on Chess Master v. Pawn  —  Over the past 24 hours I have put up a number of non-supportive items about the debt-ceiling “compromise,” the least upbeat being this and this.  A number of readers have written in to sound the note that over the years …

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 …

Debt-ceiling bill passes the House  —  By a margin 269 to 161, with 66 Republicans voting no and 95 Democrats voting yes, the House passed the debt-ceiling increase with the accompanying package of cuts.  It is remarkable that, after all of the controversy and huffing and puffing …

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.