Norwegian justice minister confirms that the suspect in today’s youth camp shooting — who has also been tied to the bomb attack — is Norwegian.
Look out, Iowa! Tim Pawlenty is coming for your vote and he’s going to be relentless about it, as he made so clear today: “The first real test and real benchmark … is the Ames Straw Poll … and I think you’ll see our campaign make very good progress between kind of back-of-the-pack status to something closer to front-of-the-pack status.”
Did you miss that clarion call to supporters? Have more stirring words ever been spoken?
The great declarations of history: “Give me liberty or give me death!” “We shall fight on the beaches …” “I shall return!”
And now Tim Pawlenty: We shall “make very good progress between kind of back-of-the-pack status to something closer to front-of-the-pack status.”
The President is about to make an appearance in the White House briefing room to address the latest developments in the debt talks. Watch live.
Meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner has announced he is breaking off negotiations with the President on a grand bargain to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending and increase revenue. Here’s Boehner’s letter to his members.
These talks didn’t just fall apart, they exploded, according to President Obama’s account that he’s offering right now in the White House briefing room.
An obviously irritated and frustrated Obama has finally had his fill of Republican intransigence. “Can they say yes to anything?” Obama asked rhetorically.
“We have now run out of time,” Obama declared, as he announced that he had summoned congressional leaders from both parties to the White House for urgent meetings Saturday.
The President also complained that he thought things were still on track for some kind of deal until Speaker Boehner didn’t return his phone call this afternoon. “I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times,” Obama complained to reporters.
Read Boehner’s letter withdrawing from negotiations with President Obama.
In summoning congressional leaders back to the White House, Obama said: “We have run out of time and they are going to have to explain to me how we are going to avoid default.”
Brian Beutler on where the debt ceiling dilemma goes from here.
Ezra Klein talks to Standard and Poor’s about why it has suddenly made deficit reduction a key pillar of preserving the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating.