(ABC News) — After meeting with his caucus today for nearly two hours, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D-NV., declared, “the only compromise that there is — is mine” and blasted the latest Boehner bill that will be voted on in the House later today.

“It’s being jammed through that with all kinds of nontransparent dealings,” Reid said to reporters at the Ohio Clock today, “They’ve basically given the right wing even more than what they had before.”

Senator Schumer, D-NY., called the revised Boehner debt plan an “absurd proposition.”

“To get his conservatives back on the reservation at this point, he’s adding all kinds of poison pills to his plan,” Schumer said, “His new plan requiring that each house of Congress not vote on, but pass, a balanced budget amendment before any debt ceiling is raised will guarantee a default.”

Reid said that his door is still open to McConnell to sit down and negotiate this afternoon — and that he already has some Republican ideas that he wants to add in to make it more acceptable tonight when he files cloture on his offer. The Majority Leader added that he has not taken his eyes off the McConnell fall back proposal, a hint that the final product could very well includes elements of McConnell’s “last choice” option.”

But Democratic leadership, and Reid says his whole caucus, is remaining firm: “there will be no agreement if it’s a short-term extension.”

Oh the humanity!

(Politico) — A new poll shows that President Barack Obama’s approval rating has plummeted to a new low as talks to raise the debt ceiling stalled and the president stayed out of the public eye after a Monday night speech through early Friday.

The president’s average approval rating on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was 40 percent in Gallup’s daily tracking poll released on Friday. His approval rating averaged 46 percent in June, and was at about the same level for most of July.

Arab Spring!

CAIRO (AP) — Ultraconservative Muslims turned out in force Friday as tens of thousands filled Cairo’s central Tahrir Square in a rally marked by a growing rift in the protest movement.

South of the capital, gunmen fired on a car carrying Christians, killing two. While the motive was unknown, similar events have sparked religious violence in the past.

In one of the largest crowds to fill the square since the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, Salafis chanted for the implementation of strict Islamic law — spurring accusations that they violated an agreement to keep the rally free from divisive issues.

The decision by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized political force, and other Islamist groups to participate significantly boosted the turnout. These groups stayed away from recent demonstrations that sought to keep up pressure on the military council that took power after Mubarak’s fall, leading to smaller crowds.

But the Islamists’ participation also highlighted the growing rift between them and liberal activists. Some Islamist groups rallied their members to the square to oppose the adoption of a set of guidelines for drafting a new constitution after parliamentary elections later this year.

If wanting to cut the $14 trillion deficit makes me an extremist then so be it.

The $14 trillion deficit is appalling, the out-of-control spending is appalling, Nancy Pelosi is appalling.

“Of course we will reduce the deficit but it should not be connected and the idea that we could jeopardize whether they’re sending out social security checks or military checks or that our credit rating would be affected by this is appalling but I commend Senator Reid for trying to find a path.”

Where the hell is Obama’s bill?

(ABC News) — In an eleventh hour appeal for political compromise, President Obama urged Congress today to find a bipartisan solution to avoid default, saying the stalled GOP House bill “has no chance of becoming law.”

“The time for putting party first is over. The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now,” Obama said from the Diplomatic Briefing Room at the White House. “I’m confident that we will solve this problem. For all the intrigue and all the drama that’s taking place on Capitol Hill right now, I’m confident.”

The president was adamant that the Speaker’s plan has no viable future. “The House of Representatives is still trying to pass a bill that a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already said they won’t vote for. It’s a plan that would force us to relive this crisis in just a few short months, holding our economy captive to Washington politics once again. In other words, it does not solve the problem, and it has no chance of becoming law,” Obama said.

Any doubt who the elected class and leftist media elites fear?

“We the People.”

(Politico) — They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals. A strong America has always stood firm in the face of terrorism. That tradition is in jeopardy, as Congress and President Barack careen toward an uncertain outcome in the tea party-manufactured debt crisis.

As we stumble closer to Aug. 2, it has become clear that many in the tea party are willing to inflict massive harm on the American people to obtain their political objective of a severely shrunken federal government. Their persistence in rejecting compromise, even as the economic effects of the phony crisis they have created mount, has taken their radicalism beyond tough negotiating, beyond even hostage-taking.

As markets fall in anticipation that there may not be a timely resolution; as credit agencies issue dire warnings that the U.S. political system has become so dysfunctional that a credit downgrade may be inevitable, and as America looks weakened in the eyes of the world, the tea party’s hostage-taking has evolved into the intentional infliction of harm on innocent Americans to achieve a political objective — terrorism.

Terrorism is a tough term, but, unfortunately, it describes tea party tactics precisely. Their first step was to vow not to vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Here, as in many radical factions, there was a split between the purists and the pragmatists. Pragmatists vowed not to raise the ceiling unless draconian cuts were made in the federal government.

Purists didn’t bother with an “unless.” They, including presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachman (R-Minn.), were willing to let the entire edifice come crashing down — hiding behind magical thinking that allowed them to deny that anything horrible would happen if the ceiling were not raised.

Out of this vow grew the phony linkage between raising the debt ceiling and addressing the deficit. Raising the debt ceiling, of course, has nothing to do with addressing the deficit. It simply allows the federal government to pay debts that have already been incurred, based on expenditures that Congress has already authorized.

It lets the federal government pay its bills — an act of basic responsibility that every American — conservative and liberal — should embrace.

Continue…

No low is too low for these people.

By Joe Klein

Let us not put too fine a point on it: Thursday’s House vote on Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal is a joke. If it passes the House, Harry Reid has said it is dead on arrival in the Senate. If it somehow passes the Senate, which it won’t, President Obama will veto it. It is, therefore, a symbolic act that is wasting precious time. It follows last week’s Republican theatrics, the passage of the Cut and Demolish Act (or whatever they called it), which also was a waste of time. These are the actions of a party that has completely lost track of reality — and of a leader, John Boehner, who has lost the support of his party.

And so I have a proposal: the Cut the Crap Act. It will have to be passed by Monday, to avoid default. And it will require an act of statesmanship from Boehner: he will have to modify his proposal and cut loose the Tea Party robots who are opposed to a deal of any kind. He will have to find common cause with Harry Reid and, yes, Nancy Pelosi, who are now willing to propose bills that should make any Teasie happy — bills without “revenue increases,” bills with a trillion dollars in budget cuts, more or less. He will have to find 160 sane members of his caucus and Pelosi will have to find 60 extremely tolerant members of hers to get us past this ridiculous moment.

The Cut the Crap Act isn’t actually my invention. It is the White House’s best case scenario for the next five days. This has been an exhausting process — one that might have resulted in an exhilarating triumph, if the Republican party were not led by nihilists like Rush Limbaugh and Grover Norquist.

The Republicans have been willing to concede nothing. Their stand means higher interest rates, fewer jobs created and more destroyed, a general weakening of this country’s standing in the world. Osama bin Laden, if he were still alive, could not have come up with a more clever strategy for strangling our nation.

Obama is destroying this country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy expanded at meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the spring after scarcely growing at all in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The combined growth for the first six months of the year was the weakest since the recession ended two years ago. The government revised the January-March figures to show just 0.4 percent growth — down sharply from its previous estimate of 1.9 percent.

“These numbers are extremely bad,” said Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight. “The momentum in the economy is clearly very weak.”

The sharp slowdown means the economy will likely grow this year at a weaker pace than last year. Economists don’t expect growth to pick up enough in the second half of the year to lower the unemployment rate, which rose to 9.2 percent last month.

Huh?

Via CNN:

BLITZER: You say the president has put forward a plan.

DALEY: Um-hmm.

BLITZER: But the Congressional Budget Office says there is no plan that they can score because it’s just a framework, it’s just a speech. They haven’t seen a document. . .

DALEY: Well, Speaker Boehner knows — and Congressman Cantor knows the plan that they both worked on try to bring the debt down and get past this debt ceiling. He does not have a legislative fix right now to this, because there’s a bill in the House and there’s a bill in the Senate and they will deal with those two bills. He’s endorsed Senator Reid’s bill. He feels very strongly that the bill that the House may pass tonight does not help the economy.

BLITZER: So what you’re saying is the president did present a plan to the speaker, John Boehner.

DALEY: Yes.

BLITZER: But — but he didn’t. . .

DALEY: Right.

BLITZER: — make it public.

DALEY: No, because there’s. . . both the speaker and — and the president had agreed and — that these sort of negotiations do not happen in public. There’s not a plan out there in the public realm, whether it’s the fiscal commission, whether it’s the Gang of Six, whether it’s Congressman Ryan’s plan — Congressman Ryan’s plan lost in the Senate overwhelmingly.

So there’s no plan that’s out there, by any of these people who are saying this, that has any sort of chance of passing both houses and getting signed by the president.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner hastily reworked his stalled emergency debt-limit bill Friday as Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid signaled he’s pushing ahead with his own version. President Barack Obama declared “we’re almost out of time” in a wrenching political standoff that has heightened fears of a market-rattling government default.

“The power to solve this is in our hands on a day when we’ve been reminded how fragile the economy already is,” the president said from the White House as U.S. fell in response to a sour report on economic growth and widespread uncertainty over the Washington debt stalemate. “This is one burden we can lift ourselves. We can end it with a simple vote.”

A simple vote was hard to come by, just a few days before Tuesday’s debt-limit deadline.

On Capitol Hill, Reid pressed forward with his legislation, setting up a showdown vote for Sunday. And Boehner moved to revise his measure in hopes of winning over reluctant rank-and-file conservatives who argue that the deficit cuts it contains are insufficient. House Republican leaders met behind closed doors with their members in a last-ditch appeal after abruptly postponing a vote that had been expected on Thursday.

Rep. David Dreier of California said the revised measure would still raise the nation’s debt limit by $900 billion — essential to allow the government to keep paying its bills — and cut spending by $917 billion. But a later increase in borrowing authority wouldn’t take effect unless Congress sent a constitutional balanced budget amendment to the states for ratification.

That was a key demand of rebellious conservatives who withheld their votes from the legislation on Thursday night.

Reality: The Fed could fund the Treasury with over half a trillion if needed.

Have no fear, Dingy’s here to save the day!

(CNS News) — As House Republican leaders try again on Friday to find enough votes to pass an admittedly imperfect debt-ceiling bill, Sen. Harry Reid said time has run out, and it’s up to Democrats to act.

Reid, speaking from the Senate floor Friday morning, said he will introduce his own debt-limit bill.

“This is likely our last chance to save our nation from a default,” he said.

Reid’s plan does not include tax hikes, and Reid says it would cut $2.5 trillion from the deficit over a decade. Republicans say the Democrat spending cuts are gimmicks.

But according to Reid, the Republican bill “is not a solution” because it would raise the debt limit in two stages.

“As experts say, all too soon we would be back in the midst of partisan wrangling with our economy once again held prisoner by extremists,” Reid said — a reference to tea party conservatives who are blocking a vote on Boehner’s bill. The conservatives are calling for fundamental change in government spending.

Reid has said the Boehner bill is dead on arrival in the Senate — if it ever gets to the Senate.

Boehner has better things to do than waste his time with these two nitwits.

WASHINGTON (Huff Po) — With House Republican leadership scrambling for votes to save a now stalled debt-ceiling bill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has not yet reached out to his Democratic colleagues, either to ask for votes or, more significantly, to revise the bill.

Two Democratic leadership aides confirmed that neither House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) nor House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) had been contacted by Boehner’s office since formal debate started on the speaker’s debt-ceiling bill Thursday afternoon. Boehner’s office, which pulled the bill after the necessary votes didn’t materialize Thursday evening, did not dispute that communication with Democratic leadership has been non-existent.

That lack of outreach on the current Boehner bill doesn’t mean much. Democratic leadership has insisted that not a single member of their caucus will vote for the legislation as it stands. But with the bill falling anywhere between five and 12 votes short of passage, and with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) non-committal about bringing it up again, pressure is mounting for Boehner to tinker with the legislation and win Democratic support.

“Since it’s obvious Speaker Boehner can’t get the votes from his own members, you’d think he would reach out to Democrats to see what changes can be made so that something can pass in a bipartisan way,” said a Democratic leadership aide. “Just goes to show how completely partisan they’re being right now.

Keep reading…

Can you imagine the meltdown Jackson Lee would have if Bush even hinted at invoking the 14th Amendment?

(Examiner) — On Thursday, Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee urged the President to act like a dictator and unilaterally raise the debt ceiling using the so-called “14th Amendment” option.

The hyperpartisan Democrat rattled off a laundry list of horribles she claimed would happen if Speaker Boehner’s bill passes:

• Medicare would be gone
• Pell Grants would not be available
• Seniors would be put out of nursing homes
• Social Security would be trampled on
• American savings would be lost
• The American dream of buying a home would be lost
• Public transportation like airplanes and trains would be somehow jeopardized

Holding a two-inch think book, Jackson Lee said, “And if we cannot pay our bills Mr. President, use the Constitution and use the 14th amendment.”

In a rambling, almost incoherent statement, she said:

“We will not suffer the idea of a one-sided government that takes away entitlements, that caps spending that is for those in need and balances an amendment on the backs of those who are suffering from devastating disasters like states like Missouri, states like Alabama, with all of the flooding…”

“Pray for America,” she added.

Jackson Lee is the latest Democrat to call for the President to usurp Congress and unilaterally raise the debt ceiling.

Keep reading…

Busted.

(Raw Story) — Pfc. Nasser Abdo, the 21-year-old soldier arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged plot to attack Fort Hood, had ties to a number of prominent anti-war organizations, including Iraq Veterans Against the War and Courage to Resist, Raw Story can confirm.

Abdo, who went AWOL from duty over the July 4 weekend after being charged with possession of child pornography, was an applicant for conscientious objector (CO) status, supported by the Oakland-based GI rights group Courage to Resist. In turn, his efforts to resist deployment were supported by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), one of the best-known anti-war groups in the nation.

He was arrested Thursday outside Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas, after police received a tip informing them that Abdo had purchased firearms with cash, from the same gun store that Major Nidal Hasan visited before murdering 13 of his fellow soldiers in 2009.

In the wake of Abdo’s arrest, Courage to Resist removed a page on their website that detailed Abdo’s plight, but it was preserved through Google cache. Reached by Raw Story, Jeff Paterson, the group’s project director, acknowledged that they had tried to cover up their involvement with the soldier and said they would be issuing a statement in the coming hours.

He added that his impression of Abdo was a young man with “mental health issues” who was “very difficult to work with.”

“I worked with him last August, in order to help formulate his application as a conscientious objector, then we helped formulate his legal appeals for the objector process,” Paterson said. “Then he got hit with pornography charges on his laptop, at which point we told him that we would help him through the resolution of his objection issues, but he would have to find himself legal defense separate for these criminal matters.”

Keep reading…

As repulsive as it is, I’m convinced this is where we’re headed, regardless if the GOP passes a bill.

(The Hill) — President Obama should invoke the 14th Amendment to hike the debt ceiling unilaterally as a last resort to prevent a government default, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday.

“It’s arguably his power to do so,” Hoyer told MSNBC.

“Very frankly, if it came down to his looking default in the eye on Tuesday or taking this action, as President Clinton said, better to take the action and find out later that perhaps he went beyond his authority but at least protected the credibility of the United States of America,” he said.

The remarks align Hoyer with a number of other House Democratic leaders, who are urging Obama to invoke the Constitution to prevent a government default if Congress fails to raise the debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline.

“The Republicans, through their failure, have given you license to do whatever it takes to not let the American family go down into [the] abyss,” Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday.

Obama reportedly horrified.

PRAGUE (AP) — They’re the Czech Republic’s fourth-largest political party, but the hardline Communists could soon be outlawed if the center-right government has its way.

It’s more than two decades since communism collapsed here, but the survivors and ideological heirs to the party that ruled from 1948 until the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 are under increasing political pressure.

Petr Necas’ government has taken the first step toward a possible ban by asking the Interior Ministry to work on a legal complaint to make it happen. A study commissioned by a Senate committee compiled numerous complaints from lawmakers about their conduct.

The party, which is vehemently opposed to NATO, brands opponents “terrorists” and maintains friendly ties with the ruling Communists in Cuba, China and North Korea.

Unlike most other communist parties in the region that have joined the left-wing mainstream, the Czech party has maintained its hardline stance.

Supporters of the ban say it is a direct successor of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, whose members killed more than 240 political prisoners while thousands of other opponents died in prisons.

Cough, cough . . . bullshit . . . cough, cough.

(Washington Examiner) — The White House is pushing back against the growing narrative that Obama is “sitting on the sidelines,” as reported by the New York Times yesterday, and letting Congress do all the work.

As John Boehner spent the night trying to wrestle members into place to support his debt ceiling deal, Valerie Jarret reminded reporters yesterday that it was President Obama who was losing sleep over the issue.

“He’s getting absolutely no sleep. He’s working tirelessly, meeting with his economic team, doing a lot of outreach, exploring all kinds of possibilities for compromise,” Jarrett said.

Keep reading…