Prominent legal scholars, along with many bloggers with no legal training whatsoever, recently have been floating the possibility that if a deal isn't struck to raise the federal debt ceiling before Treasury's August 2 deadline, then the Obama administration should use a clause in the 14th Amendment to declare the debt ceiling itself unconstitutional and continue to issue debt as usual. An interesting idea! But the Obama administration now appears to have taken this "constitutional option" off the table.

The celebration of of St. Fermin, better known as the running of the bulls, was held today in Pamplona, Spain. One man was gored by a bull and six others (including two Americans) were injured. Good idea to sit this one out. Here's all the death-defying action that you missed.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.

An Iowa organization called The Family Leader has drawn up an extremely well detailed pledge for the Republican presidential candidates to sign called "The Marriage Vow." According to the group's CEO, the new pledge is "vitally necessary because the sanctity of marriage is in crisis and leadership is desperately needed." And now Michele Bachmann has become the first candidate to sign it! So what's in this beaut of a pledge?

Lady Gaga obsesses about her body. Megan Fox obsesses about her forehead. Ryan Phillippe's baby mama gives birth. Justin Timberlake's mom walked in on him having sex. Taylor Momsen starts a teen girl sex riot. TGIFriday gossip.

A man attending a Texas Rangers game at Rangers Ballpark with his young son died tragically Thursday night, after tumbling 20 feet, head-first, trying to catch a foul ball tossed to him by Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton. The man, identified as Shannon Stone — an 18-year veteran of a local fire department — was still conscious as he was carried away by stretcher.

Biologist, philosopher, and atheist prophet Richard Dawkins really put his foot in it. The New Statesman says Dawkin's career as a public intellectual is kaput. The Atlantic Wire has him losing a flame-war against his very own fan base. In the blogosphere, the most devoted Dawkinsians—people who've spent their adult lives in adoration of his every utterance—are boycotting his books and calling him a buffoon. A classist, male chauvinistic, and potentially racist buffoon. And why?

Why is the White House tearing down a 50-foot-tall elm tree from the White House grounds today? Some might say it's because of a recent thunderstorm that twisted and bent the tree into a life-threatening position for passersby. A likely excuse.

Multiple senior House Democratic aides tell TPM that caucus members were caught off guard by news stories about President Obama's push for deeper deficit and spending reductions — and particularly about the White House's willingness to cut Social Security as part of a grand bargain to raise the debt limit.

Democratic leaders have selected state assemblyman and former NYC council member Dave Weprin to run in the special election for disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner's congressional seat. Sounds good? Good. Now show us your penis, Weprin.

Though she escaped the death penalty in the trial over her daughter's death, Casey Anthony has been sentenced to four years in jail for lying to police during the investigation into Caylee Anthony's disappearance. A smiling Anthony wore her hair down at today's sentencing hearing—between good behavior and time served, her stay in the slammer may not be much longer. [NYT, image via AP]

The Telegraph reports that News of the World phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire also has private information about families of dead British soldiers among his other creepy files. Oh, it just keeps getting worse.

Look who's back in the news! It's Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, the psychopathic German flim-flam man who convinced all of New England society, including the woman who would become his wife and mother to his child, that he was an heir to the Rockefeller estate, as immortalized in the classic Lifetime movie, Mother, May I Sleep With Eric McCormack?

You may not be surprised to hear that in one of the least productive Congresses in history, things move at a fast enough pace to confuse many members of Congress into voting the wrong way, more frequently than ever. Welcome to the latest phase of American Exceptionalism, in which no one really knows what's happening at any time.

Today was Obama's big Twitter debut. He sent his first tweet during a "Twitter Townhall" at the White House, and through the power of social media, he connected with everyday Americans like John Boehner and Times Columnist Nick Kristoff.

Now here's a good headline for America: "Cantor Signals Flexibility On Tax Loopholes." Does this mean that during tomorrow's White House debt ceiling meeting, the House Majority Leader may in fact consider modest revenue increases as part of any deficit-reduction package? Finally? No, not really.

In your wacky Wednesday media column: the phone hacking fallout predicted, a financial bright spot at the NYT Co., Tina Brown's crazy cover fails, and HuffPo afflicts the British isles.

Were Texas Gov. Rick Perry to run for president, the consensus take goes, how would he ever distance himself from his gubernatorial predecessor, disgraced former president George W. Bush? They're both "Texas cowboys" who babble on like happy drunks, all the time, so Perry might face the problem of "reminding" voters of Bush. Should Perry, then, work to "distance" himself from Bush, even if this hurts the ex-president's feelings?

Sad, sad news: America's gov Eliot Spitzer—who was not so bad on TV, once they got rid of his dead-weight co-host—is not returning to CNN's prime time lineup. His show is being canceled to make way for new CNNer Erin Burnett. We never watched your show, Eliot—but we never watched just as much as we never watched your competitors. Our condolences. Internal email from CNN boss Ken Jautz below.

You know why Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination for president? Because he has the most money, the end.