Morning Newsdome: After ridiculously drawn-out debate, the two debt plans might not be so different after all July 27 2011

>> After House Speaker John Boehner’s debt plan called for an immediate $900 million increase to the debt ceiling—the exact thing the GOP is vehemently against—as well as only cutting the deficit by $851 billion instead of the promised $1 trillion, Boehner went back to the drawing board last night. The vote on the bill is now pushed back to tomorrow, not today. Analysts say that Boehner’s new bill won’t be so different from Democrat Harry Reid’s except that they’d have to go through more debt talks next year—hooray! (CNN, the Washington Post)

>> “One thing we know about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Michele Bachmann writes on her official website of the federal lenders, “is that they cost the already overburdened and financially strapped taxpayer a pretty penny.” Yet Bachmann took out a $417,000 loan from one of those agencies, the maximum possible amount in her region, and she borrowed $249,999 against her home’s equity. She is also anti-government handouts, yet she also received subsidies for fostering children. And don’t get me started on her district’s crazy rate of teen suicide. (the Washington Post, Mother Jones)

>> Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, has asked for a third trial over charges that he tried to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. I was hoping “Celebrity Apprentice” would finally be the nail in his coffin. (the Guardian)

>> Ghulam Haider Hamidi, the mayor of Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar city, was killed in a suicide bomb attack today after a visitor detonated a device hidden in his turban. This comes two weeks after the brother of the president of Afghanistan was assassinated in the same city. Maybe they’ll ban turbans at government buildings? (the Guardian)

>> And finally: Former stripper Diane Passage is divorcing Kenneth Starr, who rose to notoriety while impeaching Bill Clinton. Starr is currently serving seven and a half years in prison for Ponzi scheming $33 million from investors, and Passage has returned to stripping since Starr’s assets were frozen. What’s the frequency, Kenneth? (Page Six)