Explaining why the President was putting so much effort into trying to reach a grand bargain with John Boehner that would include trillions in spending cuts on worthwhile government programs, White House Chief of Staff William Daley essentially said that Obama was doing this not merely because we need to raise the debt limit, but because, “this deficit is a serious drag on the economy.”

Think about that: “The deficit is a serious drag on the economy.”

It is hard to read the tea leaves sometimes, but when a major Republican crosses his party on Ryancare, then his campaign staff quit, well that is not that tough to read.

Bradley Manning’s friend David House was initially quite concerned about Manning’s state of mind, and felt he was beginning to exhibit some of the damaging symptoms of prolonged isolation including emotional withdrawal and impaired cognitive function. Bradley seemed slow to respond when they spoke, and could not process information as quickly as he normally did. Bradley became excited and engaged, however, when David mentioned the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Okay, it’s my own fault. Watching the panel of Meet the Press is diving into the deep end of inanity, but I did it anyway. Even for the Meetheads, this one was outstanding. Bobo has the answer to the violent tragedy of Tucson.

It’s sinfulness.

The Washington Post’s dwindling readership — and young journalists who look up to Broder — would do well to keep in mind that Broder’s views may not be his own. They may be purchased by a recent lobby shop, as a speaking fee.

The primary value Peter Daou’s piece on liberal bloggers had yesterday was that it named names, and it gave outlets like Politico an excuse to link to something. Although journalists won’t say so in public because they’ve been told these things “off the record,” they well know who gets under the skin of people at the White House. And that’s why things said by Glenn Greenwald, or John Aravosis, or on FDL consistently get picked up in the media as prime examples of the “professional left.” We hear about it when they call us for comments, or when they want to book us to respond.

The Pentagon’s public relations machine is working overtime these days trying to sell a theme of “progress” in Afghanistan to push back against calls to end the war. The message machine behind this push is gargantuan, costing $547 million and employing more than 27,000 people. But, as our latest Rethink Afghanistan video shows, all that wasted P.R. money can’t paper over the fact that the Afghanistan War isn’t making us safer, and it’s not worth the cost.

Van Hollen rightly made it clear that eliminating the popular and cost-effective public Medicare program and replacing it with subsidized, badly regulated private insurance companies would be a terrible idea. He calls giving vouchers to seniors and making them buy private health insurance “throwing you over to the insurance industry.”