1.) Obama bullies pulpit some more — Here’s yet another law Obama doesn’t care about: the law of diminishing returns. Last night he gave yet another televised address on the debt ceiling, breaking into “MasterChef” and “The Bachelorette” and other shows people actually wanted to watch, saying nothing he hasn’t said countless times before — corporate jets, “balanced” approach, it’s Bush’s fault, why can’t those stupid Republicans be bipartisan like me, everything’s going to fall apart if I don’t get what I want, yadda yadda yadda — and clearly getting frustrated that it isn’t working. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports: “President Barack Obama used his televised speech to the nation Monday night to paint a lurid picture of U.S. debt default if the GOP doesn’t raise the debt ceiling enough to continue the administration’s spending until after the president completes his 2012 campaign. Obama did not threaten to veto a short-term measure, but presented an alarming vision of a default, urged a tax increase, and then called on Americans to press their legislators to pass a debt ceiling deal that would be large enough to cover spending until 2013… Moments later, House Speaker John Boehner pushed back hard, saying it is time ‘to end the spending binge in Washington.’ Boehner briefly outlined his own two-step plan to raise the debt limit and set similar cuts, finishing by saying ‘we’re up to the task, and I hope President Obama will join us in that work.'” Obama’s not going to fall for that one. Listening to people who disagree with him? Taking ideas seriously even though they’re not his? What’s bipartisan about that? P.S. You know why there were no American flags behind Obama? He’s tired of the competition.
2.) Boehner rips up blank check — For more on Boehner’s response, here’s TheDC’s Amanda Carey: “A mere two minutes after President Barack Obama addressed the American people on the debt limit stalemate, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner made his case to the public that what the president really wants is a blank check to continue the Washington spending binge. ‘Here’s what we got for that spending binge: a massive health care bill that most Americans never asked for,’ said Boehner. ‘A stimulus bill that was more effective in producing material for late-night comedians than it was in producing jobs. And a national debt that has gotten so out of hand it has sparked a crisis without precedent in my lifetime or yours…’ The crux of the Ohioan’s argument was that the current climate in Washington, D.C. presents the perfect opportunity to fundamentally reform the tax code and federal spending, and to seriously consider a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The president, Boehner argued, has failed to embrace that challenge… ‘The solution to this crisis is not complicated,’ the Speaker added. ‘If you’re spending more money than you’re taking in, you need to spend less of it.'” That’s crazy teabagger talk! And no, libs, Boehner did not burst into tears. By the way, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, the White House “would have preferred that Pres. Obama have the national stage to himself tonight without a GOP response.” It’s good to want things.
3.) Senate Republicans didn’t like Obama’s speech either — Amanda Carey: “Republican responses from Capitol Hill were swift and brutal Monday night, following President Barack Obama’s speech to the American people about the federal debt limit. The assessments were as unanimous as they were scathing: Obama’s ‘balanced’ fix to the debt limit is flawed. Moments after Obama and House Speaker John Boehner concluded their dueling remarks, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee’s highest-ranking Republican, fired the first of many GOP broadsides. ‘The President spoke of consensus and compromise,’ said Hatch in a statement, ‘but when has he ever brought people together? The American people … expect better than more spending, more taxes, and more debt that is a lead weight around the neck of our nation’s weak economy and the millions of unemployed Americans looking for work,’ Hatch added. ‘It’s time the President delivered.’ Missouri Senator Roy Blunt echoed the GOP’s mantra on taxes and spending levels: ‘Our problem in Washington isn’t that we’re taxing too little — it’s that we’re spending too much. Unfortunately, the President’s repeated calls for higher taxes will not encourage job creators to grow their businesses and hire more workers.'” Don’t these guys know that compromise means doing whatever a Democratic president wants, the way he wants, whenever he wants? Do they really think they’re impressing anybody by standing on principle and remembering why they were elected? Don’t they know the American people want higher taxes and more government spending? Why would Obama say so if it weren’t true?
4.) HuffPo buries… er, deletes toxic rhetoric — The New Civility. The New Tone. Whatever you want to call it, one thing’s for sure: It doesn’t exist. TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports: “The business editor at The Huffington Post wrote Monday that Republicans ‘are acting like terrorists’ in the debt ceiling talks. But those sentiments didn’t last very long in the piece. The article’s title and lead paragraph, including the terrorism comparison, were eventually scrubbed from the liberal website. The piece was authored by Peter S. Goodman, who previously worked at The New York Times… Goodman’s piece started off this way: ‘A major factor in how the United States wound up in hock to the tune of $ 14.3 trillion is the so-called Global War on Terror, the American jihad under which all causes have been subsumed, while niggling things like facts, the constitution and strategic objectives have been relegated to irrelevance. So it seems a tad ironic that as they attempt to square the books, the same Republicans who have so eagerly prosecuted the war on terror, running up huge deficits in the process, are now behaving like the enemies on which they have squandered so much blood and treasure: They are acting like terrorists…’ Neither Goodman nor a Huffington Post spokesman immediately responded to a request for comment. But the revised version included a note at the end of the article explaining, ‘An earlier version of this opinion piece employed terrorism as a metaphor — a metaphor that some readers appear to have taken literally. In this updated version, the language has been changed to address these concerns.’” Harsh rhetoric is bad unless you’re talking about Republicans. And it’s only meant to be taken literally when it’s said by a Republican. Notice a pattern?
5.) Katy Perry works blue — In troubled times, it’s good to know we can take comfort in the little things. Like Katy Perry’s skirt. TheDC’s Laura Donovan reports: “Unlike attention-grubbing songbird Lady Gaga, pop sensation Katy Perry can pull off looking simultaneously weird and sexy. The ultimate California girl, who squashed the ‘Monster’ singer at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, showed up to the premiere of ‘The Smurfs’ in a white dress with a sequined Smurfette plastered on the front. According to Us Weekly, the ‘Firework’ performer also decorated her fingernails with the film’s cartoon characters. ‘It feels great to be Smurfette!’ Perry told Us Weekly of her role in the movie.” Not to get too smurfy, but holy smurf, does she ever look smurf in that smurfing skirt. You really need to smurf that smurf for yoursmurf. Can you believe she’s smurfed to Russell Brand? What in the smurf does she see in that smurfy, smurfed-out smurf?
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin’s Twitter feed — “The older I get, the less young I feel.”
VIDEO: Krauthammer: “I thought I was cynical until I heard that speech”
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