SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:02 P.M. ET:

BOEHNER BILL PASSES HOUSE – In a largely symbolic vote, the House tonight passed the Boehner debt-reduction bill.  It will be sent to the Senate, where Harry Reid promises to kill it instantly, which will happen.  There is also a Reid proposal floating around.  The major, and alarming, difference between the Boehner and the Reid is that the Reid Democratic proposal guts the Defense Department, a dream of the left wing of the Democratic Party.  Fortunely, enough Republicans have retained their sanity and are pledged to block any such grossly irresponsible act.  Boehner's proposal passed with 218 votes, two more than needed.  Some 22 Republicans, mostly from the Tea Party, voted against it.  Included among the 22 was Michele Bachmann.  We are now four days from the August 2nd default deadline, with no proposal out there capable of winning both houses of Congress.  Look for 'round-the-click talks.  If we had a real president, those talks would be in the White House, behind locked doors and with plenty of cigar smoke.

OBAMA HITS NEW GALLUP LOW – President Obama today hit his lowest approval number in the Gallup tracker – 40%.  Approval among independents stands at 34%.  By contrast, Rasmussen, sometimes accused of being a GOP-leaning pollster, has Obama's approval at 46%, with 54% disapproving.  We caution that numbers like this do not automatically translate into support for Republicans, who also are taking a hit in the polls.  There's a kind of "plague on both your houses" attitude among many Americans.

SPAIN GOING TO EARLY ELECTIONS – Spain is in desperate economic shape, and is run by a prime minister who is aloof to the United States and our interests.  Today Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, under pressure, moved elections scheduled for next March forward to this November.  It is critical for America that Zapatero's socialists be tossed out, and replaced by the conservative opposition.  Spain had been one of America's strongest allies in the war on terror until the great Prime Minister José María Aznar was defeated in 2004, after the Madrid train bombings. 

VULGAR – The United Nations, which long ago outlived its usefulness as a "peace" organization, is at it again.  Despite the horror of what is going on in Syria, with citizens shot in the street for protesting, while others quietly disappear after dark, the U.N. is extending its development partnership with the brutal Assad regime.  Hey, what's a couple of thousand bodies in the street?  This comes as some Western democracies, whose response is weak enough, are imposing some sanctions on Syria in an attempt to get the government to change.  Some chance.  Reports out of Syria say 20 more protesters were killed today.

July 29, 2011