1 U.S. CONGRESS APPROVES A DEBT CEILING DEAL WITH SPENDING CUTS AND NO TAX INCREASES BECAUSE THE ANTI-GOVERNMENT LIBERTARIAN WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY REFUSES TO COMPROMISE AND THEY WERE ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY HOLD THE WORLD ECONOMY HOSTAGE Story here. The Tea Party is just awful. Bad ideas, bad people, bad bad bad. And even after they get their way on not raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, they’re still not satisfied. Unbelievable. What an arrogant, ignorant, un-empathetic, self-absorbed political movement.
Paul Krugman of The New York Times doesn’t like it. Here’s what he wrote yesterday:
For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.
Yikes.
Need a positive and uplifting story after this mess? Me too. How about this?
2 TERRIBLE PLACES Syria sucks, Somalia sucks, Afghanistan sucks. The protestors being shot at, refugees being starved and lovers being threatened with stoning absolutely do NOT suck, just to be clear.
3 TERRIBLE MURDER IN MANITOBA A First Nations woman was found decapitated this weekend. Awful.
4 CANADIAN GOVERNMENT WAS WARNED ON WARMING Newly-released briefing notes say Canada needs to do more to reduce emissions. I imagine the Conservatives will get right on that.
5 NORWAY’S PRIME MINISTER SAYS DON’T FREAK OUT More leaders wanted like.
6 NO SHUTTLE? NO PROBLEM The 530 km asteroid Vesta is photographed by NASA’s Dawn space probe. Go science!
VIDEO BONUS! Asteroids aside, that’s just too much depressing news today. Let’s see what we can find to make us feel better. How about this?
