A preview of what’s to come tomorrow, courtesy of The NY Times, which just posted this editorial.

(NY Times) — There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists. It will hurt programs for the middle class and poor, and hinder an economic recovery.

It is not yet set in stone, and there may still be time to make it better. But in the end, most Democrats will have no choice but to swallow their fury, accept the deal, and, we hope, fight harder the next time.

For weeks, ever since House Republicans said they would not raise the nation’s debt ceiling without huge spending cuts, Democrats have held out for a few basic principles. There must be new tax revenues in the mix so that the wealthy bear a share of the burden and Medicare cannot be affected.

Keep reading…

Keith should be asking himself, if more Americans knew what was in the Koran would it help Islam’s image?

(VOA News) — Most Muslims around the world will start the fasting month of Ramadan on Monday, August 1. In America, Muslims have been conducting a series of events to welcome the holy month of Ramadan. But, according to a U.S. Congressman, Islam still is mostly misunderstood in the United States.

Keith Ellison, a member of the House of Representatives from the midwestern state of Minnesota delivered greetings on the fasting month.

Keith Ellison is one of the many faces of Muslims in America. As a pioneer in his profession, many people ask how his fellow members of Congress on Capitol Hill treat him. In a recent panel discussion “Muslims in America” held by the Faith and Politics Institute at the Newseum in Washington, Ellison answered that question:

“I want to assure you that I have been well treated, well received. Well respected by my colleagues,” he said.

Islam, Ellison acknowledged, is still much misunderstood. But, he asserts, Islam in America is not something new. Islam has been in America for 14 generations. He regrets though, that throughout the world, people treated religion as their identity and are willing to kill or die over the identity associated with religion, not the faith, but religious identity.

“If you use your religion as an identity as opposed to a path to divine, inspirations and guidance, then you are no different than Crips and Bloods [gangs],” he said. “And I want to say that I mean that.”

Surveys show that about 60 percent of Americans do not understand Islam. To further introduce Islam, Ellison argued, the Muslim community in America should be much more vocal about who they really are, then take actions in their chosen field.

READ IT HERE

Update: Here are the details:

NO TAX HIKES
Same as House-passed bill, the framework includes no tax hikes.

Requires baseline to be current law, effectively making it impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes.

CUTS THAT EXCEED THE DEBT HIKE
Same as House-passed bill, framework includes spending cuts that exceed the amount of the increased debt authority granted to POTUS.

Would cut & cap discretionary spending immediately, saving $917B over 10 years (certified by CBO) & raise the debt ceiling by less — $900B — to approximately February.

Before debt ceiling can be raised, Congress and the president must enact spending cuts of a larger amount first.

BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT
Same as House-passed bill, framework requires both House & Senate to vote on a BBA after Oct. 1, 2011 but before the end of year.

Similar to House-passed bill, framework authorizes POTUS to request second tranche of debt limit increase of $1.5T if:

Joint Committee cuts spending by greater amount than the requested debt limit hike, OR A Balanced Budget Amendment is sent to the states.

Creates incentive for previous opponents of a BBA to now support it.

CUTS THAT EXCEED THE DEBT HIKE
Same as House-passed bill, framework includes spending cuts that exceed the amount of the increased debt authority granted to POTUS.

Would cut & cap discretionary spending immediately, saving $917B over 10 years (certified by CBO) & raise the debt ceiling by less — $900B — to approximately February.

Before debt ceiling can be raised, Congress and the president must enact spending cuts of a larger amount first.

CAPS TO CONTROL FUTURE SPENDING
As in House-passed bill, framework imposes spending caps that would set clear limits on future spending & serve as barrier against gov’t expansion while economy grows.

Failure to remain below these caps triggers automatic across-the-board cuts (“sequestration”). Same mechanism used in 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement.

ENTITLEMENT REFORMS & SAVINGS
Same as House-passed bill, framework creates a 12-member Joint Committee required to report legislation by November 23, 2011 that would produce a proposal to reduce the deficit by at least $1.5T over 10 years.

Each chamber would consider Joint Committee proposal on an up-or-down basis without any amendments by December 23, 2011.

If Joint Committee’s proposal is enacted OR if a Balanced Budget Amendment is sent to the states, POTUS would be authorized to request a debt limit increase of $1.5T.

ENTITLEMENT REFORMS & SAVINGS
Sets up a new sequestration process to cut spending across-the-board — and ensure that any debt limit increase is met with greater spending cuts — IF Joint Committee fails to achieve at least $1.2T in deficit reduction.

If this happens, POTUS may request up to $1.2T for a debt limit increase, and if granted, then across-the- board spending cuts would result that would equal the difference between $1.2T and the deficit reduction enacted as a result of Joint Committee.

Across-the-board spending cuts would apply to FYs 2013-2021, and apply to both mandatory & discretionary programs.

Total reductions would be equally split between defense and non-defense programs. Across-the-board cuts would also apply to Medicare. Other programs, including Social Security, Medicaid, veterans, and civil & military pay, would be exempt.

Sequestration process is designed to guarantee that Congress acts on the Joint Committee’s legislation to cut spending.

Update II:

Update III: For what it’s worth.

I’ll live blog it, starts in less than five minutes.

• Cut $1 trillion spending/10 years.
• Reference to new revenue?
• Balanced approach X 3
• Balanced X 4
• “your Tweets compelled Congress to act”

Over and out.

Also known as the “white devil.”

(Roll Call) — President Barack Obama’s rightward lurch to reach a $3 trillion deficit reduction deal with no guarantee of additional revenues had liberals fuming and Republicans all but declaring victory Sunday afternoon.

With time running out to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling before Tuesday’s default deadline, Obama moved dramatically in the direction of the GOP, according to Senators and aides in both parties.

As details trickled out Sunday, the deal framework appeared to give Republicans most of what they were seeking — with about $3 trillion in guaranteed spending cuts but no tax increases, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday.

In return, Obama, whose poll numbers are at all-time lows, gets to avoid another debt ceiling battle before voters head to polls in November 2012, and he will be able to argue that he was willing to compromise to help save the country from a default crisis.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also signed off on the deal late Sunday afternoon, “pending caucus approval,” said his spokesman, Adam Jentleson.

But first, the president and Democratic leaders could face a backlash from liberals angry that they appear to have agreed to a revenue-free debt ceiling bill that includes a “trigger” only for automatic cuts in defense, Medicare and other programs if a second deficit reduction package isn’t enacted by the end of this year.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said early reports of the new deal appeared to be “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” The Missouri Democrat said the CBC hadn’t yet made a formal declaration that the group would oppose it, “but this is a shady bill.”

“This deal trades people’s livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it,” ripped Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, before House Democrats had even been briefed. “The lesson today is that Republicans can hold their breath long enough to get what they want.”

More fear mongering.

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday during an unannounced visit to Afghanistan that he doesn’t know whether soldiers will continue to receive paychecks if an agreement over the U.S. debt ceiling cannot be reached.

“I certainly hope it gets solved,” Mullen told reporters.

America’s highest-ranking military officer said soldiers had recently asked him about the crisis, saying “here we are, halfway around the world, fighting our country’s wars, and I’ve got to worry about a paycheck.”

Mullen said August 15 would be the first payday jeopardized if the United States defaults. Soldiers normally get paid in two-week increments, making the last assured payday on August 1, he said.

Senate leaders said Sunday that progress had occurred in the talks on a deficit reduction deal that would raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. However, the deadline for the United States to face possible default on its obligations is midnight Tuesday, and political wrangling in Congress has held up an agreement so far.

Reid and Pelosi have agreed to pitch the deal to their caucuses but no word out of McConnell or Boehner.

GOP conference call at 8:30.

(The Hill) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has signed off on a bipartisan deal between President Obama and GOP leaders to raise the debt limit.

After meeting with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) for over an hour and a half on Sunday, Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders must now sell the deal to their caucus.

“Senator Reid has signed off on the debt-ceiling agreement pending caucus approval,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid.

Sources familiar with the outlines of the deal say it would raise the debt limit by about $2.7 trillion and reduce the deficit by the same amount in two steps. It would cut about $1 trillion in spending up front and set up a select bicameral committee to put together a future deficit-reduction package worth $1.7 trillion to $1.8 trillion.

Keep reading. . .

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Poor Raul tastes asphalt because the proposed deal doesn’t punish Americans enough.

(The Washington Times) — Even without a debt-limit deal completed, liberal lawmakers and activist groups are already lining up against the outlines of the agreement, saying President Obama and congressional Democrats are risking Social Security while squandering a chance to force tax increases.

“Today we, and everyone we have worked to speak for and fight for, were thrown under the bus,” Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who is co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Sunday as top senators began to describe the deal they are trying to strike with Mr. Obama.

Attention throughout the debt debate has been showered on tea party-powered Republicans, while liberal lawmakers think they’ve been ill-represented in the negotiations.

And this weekend that frustration boiled over.

In the House, a handful of liberal members voted against Democrats’ plan, as did Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats and who had harsh words for the trajectory of discussions over the last few months.

Mr. Sanders, a self-identified socialist, complained that in that bill, “not one penny of revenue” would be raised.

Though Mr. Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner flirted with possible tax increases in earlier talks, those have not been part of the bills on the House and Senate floors during the last two weeks, and senators said they are not part of the outlines of the final deal taking shape.

Keep reading. . .

Aafia Siddiqui — “Lady al Qaeda” — sentenced to 86 years

Not gonna happen.

(LWJ) — On Thursday, South Waziristan Taliban leader Waliur Rehman Mehsud said he ordered the kidnapping of two Swiss citizens in Baluchistan province, and said he would release the Swiss couple if the US freed Aafia Siddiqui. From The Associated Press:

He said his group ordered the kidnapping in order to gain freedom for Aafia Siddiqui, a US-educated mother of three who is serving 86 years in an American jail for trying to kill US officials in Afghanistan.

Rehman said the Swiss have not been tortured.

But he said that if Siddiqui is not freed, a Taliban court will decide the fate of the pair.

Siddiqui, who is known as “Lady al Qaeda,” was one of the most wanted women in the world prior to her capture in 2008. She was involved in planning al Qaeda attacks in the US. For more on Siddiqui, see LWJ report, ‘Lady al Qaeda’ sentenced to 86 years in prison.

The Pakistani Taliban is not the first group to call for Siddiqui’s release. Siddiqui has been a cause celebre in Pakistan for Islamist terror groups, Islamist and secular political parties, and the Pakistani government.

In September 2010, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain held a rally in Karachi that called for the release of Siddiqui. Hussain said the charges against Siddiqui “are false,” according to The Express Tribune. The rally drew over 300,000 people.

In December 2010, top al Qaeda ideologue Abu Yahya al Libi released a propaganda tape calling on Muslims to wage jihad to avenge Aafia Siddiqui. The tape was entitled “Aafia Siddiqui . . . Captivity & Oppression, So Where Are the Heroes?” See LWJ report, Analysis: ‘Lady al Qaeda’ in propaganda.

In February 2011, the Pakistani government attempted to work a deal with the US to exchange CIA contractor Raymond Davis for Siddiqui. Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani has referred to Siddiqui as a “daughter of the nation,” The New York Times reported. The Pakistani government ultimately freed Davis after a month of intense US diplomatic pressure.

Sure.

(The Hill) — President Obama harshly condemned the Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad for recent violence against its citizens in a Sunday statement.

Obama also promised the U.S. would stand with the Syrian people.

“I am appalled by the Syrian government’s use of violence and brutality against its own people. The reports out of Hama are horrifying and demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime,” Obama said.

Syrian security forces killed dozens in Hama the day before Ramadan after activists promised to escalate protests against Assad’s government during the holy month. As many as 100 have been reported dead.

“Once again, President Assad has shown that he is completely incapable and unwilling to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people. His use of torture, corruption and terror puts him on the wrong side of history and his people,” Obama said.

Obama vowed to support the Syrian people as they attempt to unseat the government.

“Syria will be a better place when a democratic transition goes forward,” Obama said. “In the days ahead, the United States will continue to increase our pressure on the Syrian regime, and work with others around the world to isolate the Assad government and stand with the Syrian people.”

Foreign media have been banned from Syria since the protests began in March but social media dispatches have painted a picture of a nation in a state of uprising and a regime desperate to cling to power. Obama said the latest outbreak of violence ensures Assad’s government will soon be gone.

“Through his own actions, Bashar al-Assad is ensuring that he and his regime will be left in the past, and that the courageous Syrian people who have demonstrated in the streets will determine its future,” Obama said.

Assploding irony alert: After accusing the Tea Party of not “being elected dictators” he then urged Obama to act like a dictator and raise the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th Amendment.

Via Mediaite:

CNN host Fareed Zakaria is deeply concerned for the future of America, and on last night’sAnderson Cooper 360º took the Tea Party to task for what he considered the “hijacking” of the nation by the Tea Party. Citing the strange bedfellow Charles Krauthammer as a level head on the issue, Zakaria called the Tea Party’s opposition to raising the debt ceiling “fundamentally anti-democratic” and hoped the President was “seriously exploring” the 14th Amendment escape hatch to passing a budget.

“The Tea Party has an agenda,” Zakaria told host Anderson Cooper, and argued “it cannot get it thought the political democratic process.” As a result, Zakaria argues that they have said “we’ll blow up the country if you don’t listen to us. We will hold hostage the credit of the United States, the good standing of the United States and we’ll blow it up.” He noted Krauthammer had called the strategy “counter-constitutional” and agreed. “If you control just one of the three branches of government, you can’t hijack the entire system.” He went on to argue that “they don’t understand the workings of democracy” and “they were not elected dictators of the United States.”

Keep reading…

The thousands of children starving to death each week beg to differ.

(RNW) — For Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked rebels, the drought devastating parts of the country is being exploited by external enemies, claiming that local Muslims were adequately addressing the crisis.

The Al-Shebab insurgents have expelled several foreign aid groups from regions under their control since 2009 and reiterated recently that the ban was still in force after the United Nations declared famine in two regions they rule.

Shebab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage denied there was famine in the southern Somalia regions of Bakool and Lower Shabelle as declared by the UN, but admitted that there was drought.

In a speech to the rebel radio, Rage said local traders and other residents have been the main providers of help to the drought-hit population and that “God did not make them need an outside enemy or non-Muslims, the people in the country fed them very well.”

“We need Muslim people to be aware that the external enemy especially non-Muslims have been thinking of a new strategy.

“The new strategy is to transport them abroad, especially in Christian countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, so that their faith can be destroyed and that they could be staff and soldiers for the Christians,” Rage charged.

Thousands of Somalis have fled to neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya to seek relief from the harsh drought that has affected some 12 million people across the Horn of Africa region.

When in doubt, blame da Joooos.

(JPost) — The chairman of the Iranian military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested that Israel was behind the shooting and bombing attacks in Norway last week that killed dozens of people, Iranian news agency ISNA reported on Saturday.

“Any examination [of the] causes and intentions behind the Norway attack will be useless without searching for hands of Zionists involved in the attack,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi said, according to the report.

The United States, he said, “should consider that Zionists are supporting the so-called religious hardliners, terrorists and racist measures. This is the occupier Zionist regime which merely things about its wrong and racist beliefs and exploits other people as puppets to obtain its goals.”

Press release from GOP Rep. Jim Jordan:

Washington, Jul 30 — Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan released the following statement as the House of Representatives prepared to vote down a debt limit proposal authored by Senator Harry Reid that relies on phantom spending cuts.

“As Senator Reid and the rest of Washington try to strike a backroom deal, Americans are still looking for a solution.”

“Yesterday, Moody’s Investors Services said, ‘the limited magnitude of current deficit reduction proposals suggest that even a timely increase in the debt ceiling will lead to the assignment of a negative outlook on the rating.’ In other words, Moody’s feels that neither Senator Reid’s package of phantom cuts nor what passed the House last night makes the bold changes needed to ease concerns about our massive debt.”

“An analysis released by Citigroup on Monday found that our Cut, Cap, and Balance Act is the only actual legislation that would not put America’s AAA credit rating at risk of a downgrade.”

One other thing: House Speaker John Boehner might be a candy-ass crybaby, but he’s also a vindictive SOB:

(The Hill) — Rep. Jim Jordan’s opposition to Speaker John Boehner’s short-term debt-ceiling increase could cost him his job. The Columbus Post-Dispatch reports that Boehner and his allies are so angry at Jordan that they might tear his congressional district to bits in redistricting.

Jordan (Ohio), the head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, was called to the carpet after an RSC staffer was caught emailing outside conservative groups and asking them to lobby Republican House members to vote against the bill. After Jordan apologized to Boehner (Ohio) and his fellow Republicans for the staffer’s actions, at least one House member yelled “fire him,” according to sources in the room.

Boehner has been intimately involved in Ohio’s redistricting process. The state is losing two congressional seats because of weak population growth. While Republicans control the whole process, demographic realities mean they must ax one Democratic and one Republican district.

Jordan’s transgression against party leaders might cost him his seat. Post-Dispatch sources close to the redistricting process said it was the “final straw” and that he is not a “team player.”

While this hurts Jordan, three other Republicans might be rooting for this outcome. GOP Reps. Jean Schmidt and Bill Johnson were the two most expected to lose their districts, and with Jordan gone, Republican portions of his district could go to swing-district freshman Rep. Steve Stivers.

There are certain things that must be left up to parents, this being one of them.

(The Blaze) — Seven suicides within two years at one suburban school district outside Minneapolis has enflamed a culture war between teachers, parents, and national interest groups in regards to the district’s policy of leaving the discussion on homosexuality outside of the classroom.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a federal lawsuit against Anoka-Hennepin Public Schools last week in regards to the district’s “curricular neutrality” about LGBT issues, and the U.S. departments of justice and education have announced formal investigations into the policy.

CNN reports that parents and friends say that four of the seven dead students in Anoka were either gay, perceived to be gay or questioning their sexuality, and they say at least two of them were bullied over their sexuality.

Keep reading…

If bullying is the problem then go after that, teaching kids about homosexuality isn’t going to stop children from being picked on.

You just cannot have an intelligent conversation with these lefties, especially in the MSM. Love how Rand Paul ended the interview.

That’s odd, I don’t remember the CBC asking George W. Bush to turn the presidency into a dictatorship.

(The Hill) — The Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) urged President Obama on Saturday to sidestep Congress and hike the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit on his own.

In a letter to the president, the lawmakers argue that he has “both the authority and a moral obligation” to invoke the Constitution’s 14th Amendment “to avoid an economic catastrophe of historic proportions.”

“We must not allow a political deadlock to cause the United States to default for the first time in our history,” the CBC members wrote. “Now that Congress has borrowed money and incurred debt, we cannot — as a nation and under our Constitution — walk away.”

The lawmakers join a growing chorus of Democrats — including Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) — who have called on Obama to invoke the Constitution as a last resort to prevent a government default.

Supporters argue that the 14th Amendment — which says “the validity of the public debt . . . shall not be questioned” — empowers the president to act unilaterally.

Whether true or not, there’s no happy ending here.

Tehran, Iran (CNN) — A man convicted of blinding a woman in an acid attack was spared an eye-for-an-eye punishment Sunday, minutes before the sentence was to be carried out, Iranian state media reported.

The Fars News Agency reported that the victim had a sudden change of heart and decided to stop the punishment.

A physician was to drop acid — under legal supervision — into the eyes of Majid Movahedi on Sunday, according to Fars News Agency, to punish him for throwing acid in the face of Ameneh Bahrami seven years ago. The act disfigured her face and blinded her.

Bahrami had previously insisted on the vengeful punishment after her attacker’s conviction in 2008.

“However in the last minute, Ameneh changed her mind and asked the proceeding to be halted,” the Islamic republic’s Fars state news agency reported.

Keep reading. . .

Pic below the fold:

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As Senator Marco Rubio said yesterday, “if we had $1 billion for every time I heard the words ‘tea party extremist,’ we could solve this debt problem.”

Bring Back Poppy — Thomas Friedman, NYT

WATCHING today’s Republicans being led around by an extremist Tea Party faction, with no adult supervision, I find my mind drifting back to the late 1980s when I was assigned to cover the administration of George H.W. Bush, who I believe is one of our most underrated presidents. I have long admired the elder Bush for the deftness with which he dealt with the collapse of the Soviet empire. But, in later years, I came to admire him even more for the fact that he believed that math and science were not matters of opinion — a view increasingly rare in today’s G.O.P.

Despite having run on the promise of “Read my lips: No new taxes,” when the deficit started spiraling to dangerous levels under his presidency, Bush agreed to a compromise with Democrats to raise several taxes, along with spending cuts, as part of a 1990 budget deal that helped to pave the way for the prosperity of that decade. It definitely hurt his re-election, but he did it anyway.