Get ready for a battle royal in the Republican Party. More than ever. On a day when Texas Gov. Rick Perry shook up the Republican 2012 nomination race landscape by the announcement that he’s in and he’ll run on the need to create more jobs, Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Ames straw poll in Iowa — solidifying her position as a major player in a race where the big three are now Bachmann, Perry...

In the continuing back and forth rulings on the Affordable Care Act, the 11th Circuit Court Of Appeals has struck down the portion requiring everyone to purchase health care coverage. However the Atlanta based court also ruled that the remaining provisions of the law could remain in effect. The health care madate is the most controversial part of the law as it requires people to purchase something or face penalties....

There were six Senators facing recall tonight in Wisconsin, all of them Republicans. For the Democrats to take back the chamber they needed to win 3 and it appears they fell one short. State Senator Dan Kapanke lost as expected (his district is strongly Democratic). Margin looks to be 56-44. Senate Senator Randy Hopper also lost and this was also expected due to the Democratic lean of the district and a bit...

The Dow Jones Average is down about 635 points at closing, finishing at right around 10,810. This of course is hardly news as the market has been on a steady downslope for about a week now. Just to give perspective, on July 21st the market closed at 12,724 so the DJIA has lost almost 2,000 points in about two weeks or 15% down. However just to look at things in full perspective, one year ago the market closed...

The shooting down of an American helicopter carrying the elite Navy SEALs in Afghanistan has been described as the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. See here… A Pakistani newspaper says that the Abbottabad raid by US Navy Seals was not the first venture into Pakistan. The team had surreptitiously entered the country on ten to twelve previous occasions, the influential...

The event: massive riots in London. Those who did the damage: thugs. The reason: some think its the increasingly bleak financial outlook. Reuters reports: London picked itself up on Sunday from some of the worst violence seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over rising financial hardship. Rioters throwing...

Just what many feared happen has now happened: Standard & Poors has just downgraded the United States once-stellar debt credit rating: Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday downgraded the credit rating of the United States, stripping the world’s largest economy of its prized AAA status. In July, S&P placed the United States’ rating on “CreditWatch with negative...

Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, victim of a shooting by a deranged gunman in Tucson, has returned to the House floor to cast a crucial vote in favor of the debt ceiling compromise. Aside from the pleasure of seeing Rep. Giffords return to her duties at all, it is a a pleasure to see her choose this opportunity to do so.  A better symbol for the moderate Democrat could hardly be conceived of. The entire...

THIS JUST IN from investigative reporter Andrew Borowitz: Debt Ceiling is Raised Before Tea Party Understands What It Is GOP Begins Hard Work of Creating Next Crisis WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In an historic eleventh-hour bipartisan accord, the United States’ debt ceiling was raised Sunday night before the Tea Party understood what it was. In an effort to gain as many Tea Party votes as possible,...

Lowest level of spending since Eisenhower, says the President, just now breaking into regular programming on tv to make this announcement: The Congress and President are seeking balanced books. Have to ask wealthiest americans and corporations to pay more. Have to cut entitlements. Most important to get out your yellow highlighter: second part of agreement: By Nov, bipartisan committes formed right now will...

The US House has just passed the Boehner bill by a 218-210 margin. The odds of it going any further are about the same as my odds of playing power forward in the NBA.

UPDATED BELOW We begin at the periphery of the chain-reaction: Dave Blount / Moonbattery: NASA Data Confirm Global Warming Is a Hoax The atoms keep smashing — as with all chain-reactions, eventually damping down to zero, dependent on confinement and density as to the when but not the what. But when we trace the reaction back to its source, we find that the headline bears very little resemblance to...

UPDATE: Politico reports: In the battle of budget scores, the Senate Democrats’ deficit reduction bill is the clear leader thus far over an alternative by Speaker John Boehner, which had to be pulled back from the floor Tuesday night for retooling. The Congressional Budget Office released a report Wednesday morning that credits the Senate bill with reducing budget deficits by about $2.2 trillion through 2021,...

Congressman David Wu (D-OR) has announced his resignation from Congress. Wu’s announcement came moments after both of the states Democratic US Senators called for him to step down. Wu has been a controversial figure for some time now, during the 2010 election season his conduct was so odd that his staff kept him from the campaign trail to avoid possible outbursts. This means there will be a special election,...

In a rebuttal to the President tonight the Speaker of the House, John Boehner at one point said a “serious bipartisan committee of Congress would begin the hard work necessary of dealing with the tough challenges our country faces.” He went on to say “The individuals doing this work will not be outsiders, but elected representatives of the people.” Boehner also continued to tell us he spoke for the...

The scariest reaction to economic despondency and fear of immigrants is starting to happen in Europe. It has struck with ruthless shock and awe in a country that is among the continent’s most homogeneous. The killings by an over six-foot blond Norwegian using the automatic weapons and fertilizer bombs favored by self-motivated terrorists have sent a message that rigid beliefs are not the province only...

House Speaker John Boehner has walked away from negotiations with President Obama over a deal to raise the debt limit. “In the end, we couldn’t connect. Not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country,” Boehner said in a letter to colleagues. He said Mr. Obama ” is emphatic that taxes have to be raised” and “adamant that we cannot make...

First Rep. Eric Cantor walked out of talks with Vice President Joe Biden on raising the debt ceiling limit — and now Majority Leader John Boehner has walked out on talks with President Barack Obama. Consider this crisis now extra grave — although there have been predictions it would reach this stage and eventually be settled in the Senate. And it’s likely some of the crisis status could...

Oslo, Norway, courtesy CIA FactbookIn 1975, I spent the summer in Oslo, at the International Summer School hosted at the University of Oslo. It was my first trip abroad (although I’d been across the Texas border into Mexico). The school was top of mind after I saw the headline: Oslo hit by bomb explosion and youths shot at camp. I was tipped to the story by a tweet which had been retweeted by someone...

UPDATE: The New York Times: After the shooting the police seized a 32-year-old Norwegian man on the island, according to the police and Justice Minister Knut Storberget. He was later identified as Anders Behring Breivik and was characterized by officials as a right-wing extremist. The man was arrested in connection with both attacks. CNN: [Update: 10:20 p.m. ET, 4:20 a.m. Oslo] At least 80 people are dead as...

After 30 years and 135 missions the Space Shuttle program is at an end. The shuttle Atlantis made a picture perfect landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:56am (EST) ending its final mission and the final mission of the shuttle program. For the time being the United States will step out of the manned space launch program, though we will continue to send people to the International Space Station aboard Russian...

Actually, State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) pelted the Republican David VanderLeest. According to news sources tonight Hansen is projected to win 66 percent of the rather conservative Green Bay voters. John Nichols of the Nation magazine tells Ed Schultz, Republicans spent a significant amount of money and time to “target” Hansen. Update on the Fake Candidates The real motive for Republicans being...

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Friday, July 15, 2011 — 4:28 PM EDT —– Les Hinton, Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Says He Is Resigning Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones, announced his resignation on Friday, joining Rebekah Brooks, the embattled chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations, in the exodus of top officials from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Mr....

A state government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation may be coming to a state near you. If you like your laws drafted and passed by corporate politicians for the corporations which own them, apparently you can call ALEC to arrange it. A secret group, until now, whose sole purpose is to diminish your rights in favor of corporations has been exposed here. If you like tobacco, oil,...

UPDATE (BBC): Twenty-one people were killed and 113 injured, said Maharashtra state’s Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan. ================================== Blasts in Mumbai have left 17 dead. Three improvised explosive devices were used. The blasts occured in three crowded locations so getting a body count was clearly the motive. CNN on the blast when they were still not formally saying it was terrorism. A...