Today on the Dish, Andrew picked apart both Reid and Boehner's plans and grew dismayed as the GOP splintered at the hand of its own nihilism. Matt Steinglass reminded us that the Clinton surplus wasn't all it was cracked up to be, our AAA rating quivered, and Nate Silver measured the egg on Boehner and Obama's faces. Limbaugh battled Boehner, Bachmann battled Boehner, even Palin battled Boehner, while even the NRO realized the ceiling had to be raised. We summoned all the facts and fictions about who pays taxes and how much, and Michael Grunwald urged the press to remind everyone how this mess got started. We wondered if Congress is broken and no one knew who was winning this fight, except for China. The unemployed could only theoretically work for less, and despite all Obama's ratings remained stable. Michael Tomasky pressed Obama on why he hasn't invoked the 14th Amendment yet, and we wondered whether the left was right about capitalism and its ills after all.
On politics, Larison didn't think social conservatives would fall for Rick Perry's "federalism," Friedersdorf was reduced to "fecal" for criticizing Palin, and Herman Cain apologized to Muslim Americans. Support for marriage equality passed the tipping point, Larry Kramer finessed his position, and Dan Savage issued a new threat to Santorum. The male pill could move the conversation forward on non-monogamy but divorce may have made adultery less socially-acceptable.
In international news, Norway's prisons blew ours out of the water, some argued Breivik is a Christian nationalist not fundamentalist, and readers dissented with Andrew about how "creepy" the Utøya camp really is, and Jon Stewart reported on the GOP's Special Victims Unit. Islamists in Somalia outlawed pastries, we reflected on autocracy and China's high-speed rail, and war got the Hipstamatic treatment. We had high hopes for a second-term Obama against torture, and the FBI indoctrinated its agents with racist reading materials. Hussein Ibish debated an Israeli settler on the idea of human rights, Hillary Clinton wowed the world, and tunnels snaked under Europe.
And on the assorted links front, houses slimmed down, the government tallied what our lives are worth, and access to public transportation could be the next civil rights movement. Theodore Dalrymple weighed the impossible promises the UK government made to its citizens and healthcare workers struggled with electronic medical records just as much as paperwork. D'Souza's Christianist crusade flopped, Piers Morgan dug himself in deeper, and a New York assemblyman loved him some CityVille. We considered the tax problem for paying college athletes, couples planned gaybies the old-fashioned way, and beards were officially trendy according to the NYT.
Chart of the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.
–Z.P.
The Dish 