Another politician forced to resign after sending naked pictures to woman he had online relationship with  —  A politician who emailed a woman nude photos of himself that were posted on a GOP activist's website has resigned and said he will consider all legal options to have the pictures taken down.

Where's Your Budget, Mr. President?  —  Ever since they fudged the numbers to pass ObamaCare, Democrats have abandoned credible spending plans.  —  During the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, President Obama reportedly warned Republican leaders not to call his bluff by sending him a bill without tax increases.

Republicans Attack Obama For Having A Birthday Party  —  Apparently, you're not allowed to do anything other than create jobs, if you're Barack Obama (Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?).  The right wing is going apoplectic because there is a star-studded Chicago fund-raiser in conjunction with his 50th birthday.

'Maybe He Hasn't Noticed or Doesn't Care, But the Country is Giving Up On Him'  —  I'm not of the mind that Barack Obama doesn't care about his fortunes in the wake of the debt deal hammered out this week.  He obviously cares since he's now jetting off for his biggest fundraisers of his re-election campaign.

How Boehner escaped disaster  —  In the midst of a rebellion from his own colleagues, John Boehner faced a big decision.  —  It was 10 p.m. last Thursday, the most stressful moment of his Speakership.  —  Boehner's debt-limit bill was short on votes, and the GOP leadership was forced …

Private sector added 114,000 jobs in July  —  (Reuters) - Private employers added more jobs than expected in July, though less than in June, but planned layoffs rose to a 16-month high, according to separate surveys on Wednesday.  —  The data comes ahead of the U.S. government's key jobs report on Friday …

Palin: If we were terrorists Obama would be wanting to pal around with us  —  Sarah Palin says that she isn't just going to roll over and say to the left “hit me baby one more time, call me a terrorist again, call me a racist”, but rather she's going to call them out on their hypocrisy.

McConnell: ‘The debt ceiling will not be clean anymore’  —  (GETTY IMAGES) The most honest man in Washington did some more truth-telling on CNBC last night.  Speaking to Larry Kudlow, Mitch McConnell made perfectly clear that the hostage situation we just went through wasn't a one-shot deal.

D.B. Cooper Mystery: Alleged Niece Comes Forward  —  A woman claiming to be the niece of infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper has spoken to ABC News in an exclusive interview about her role in the recently re-ignited 40-year-old cold case that has haunted the FBI for years.

Moving forward after the debt deal  —  At last Washington has reached a deal that raises the debt limit and averts a default that would have been a national embarrassment and an economic and geopolitical catastrophe.  The forces shaping the deal are multifaceted and so are reactions.

Romney Advisor Robert Bork: Civil Rights Act Is ‘Unsurpassed Ugliness,’ But Contraception And Porn Bans Are Fine  —  Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) announced his presidential campaign's “Justice Advisory Committee,” along with its co-chair Robert Bork.

Exclusive: Operation Shady rat—Unprecedented Cyber-espionage Campaign and Intellectual-Property Bonanza  —  For at least five years, a high-level hacking campaign—dubbed Operation Shady rat—has infiltrated the computer systems of national governments, global corporations, nonprofits …

Stalemate in Senate Leaves 4,000 Out of Work at F.A.A.  —  WASHINGTON — After dealing with the debt crisis, Senate negotiators tried and failed on Tuesday to end a stalemate over temporary financing for the Federal Aviation Administration, leaving 4,000 agency employees out of work and relying …

How Clinton Foiled Debt Ceiling Extortion  —  If you haven't already read Kara Brandeisky's story about how the Clinton administration handled the debt ceiling in 1995, you should definitely do it.  As she notes, the circumstances were different in 1995.  Republicans were somewhat less fixated …

How the GOP lost on the debt deal  —  The deal reached by Congress eliminates the leverage that would have been created by another imminent default until after the next election, where it will be exercised by new and possibly differently constituted players.

Washington Chain Saw Massacre  —  Even before Emanuel Cleaver, the Democratic congressman from Missouri, called the debt deal “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich” and Nancy Pelosi tossed in a side of “Satan fries,” the whiff of sulfur was rising from the Capitol.

K Street eyes super committee  —  K Street wasted little time putting clients on notice about the next phase of the debt ceiling debate with a simple message: Nobody is safe from the super committee.  —  Lobby shops say a much-broader-than-expected range of budget cuts and tax provisions could be in play …

Russia's Post issues stamps to mark Obama's 50th birthday  —  Russia's Post Office has issued a collection of stamps and envelopes to mark the 50th jubilee of the US President Barack Obama.  —  The US leader is celebrating his birthday on the 4th of August.

Now Italy is set to join Belgium and France in banning the burkha in public  —  Italy is set to be the next European Union to introduce a burkha ban after parliament announced today it would debate legislation after the summer recess.  —  France and Belgium already have bans in place …

One shot on taxes: Don't blow it, Democrats  —  There are now two sides in the American tax debate: the Republican Party, which refuses to have a serious conversation about taxes, and the Democratic Party, which . . . refuses to have a serious conversation about taxes.

GOP Rep. Steve King: Free Birth Control Will Make America ‘A Dying Civilization’  —  Conservatives are lashing out at the Obama administration's decision to listen to the experts at the Institute of Medicine and approve their recommendation to require new health insurance plans to cover birth control with no co-pays.

Syria Sends In Tanks to Storm Center of a Rebellious City  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon — Ignoring global condemnation, Syria ordered its military to storm through the rebellious city of Hama on Wednesday after three days of shelling.  Activists and residents there said that tanks …