Top Items:
Jack Healy / New York Times:
Job Losses Slow; Unemployment at 9.4% — The United States economy lost 345,000 jobs in May, the government reported on Friday, a sharp slowing in the pace of job losses that fueled hopes that the economy was on its way toward a recovery. — The recession continued to take a toll …
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Geoff / Innocent Bystanders:
The May Unemployment Numbers are Here, and Worse Than Predicted — While I was waiting for May's numbers to be released I did a quick Google News search on “unemployment.” Here is the first set of entries that popped up: … You get the feeling that there's a little pre-spin effort afoot?
Discussion:
Associated Press, BizzyBlog, Fausta's Blog, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, Cold Fury and protein wisdom
Jared Allen / The Hill:
Intel firestorm: GOP reveals briefing info — Republicans ignited a firestorm of controversy on Thursday by revealing some of what they had been told at a closed-door Intelligence Committee hearing on the interrogation of terrorism suspects. — Democrats immediately blasted the GOP lawmakers …
Discussion:
Hot Air, JustOneMinute, Emptywheel, Wizbang, American Street, YID With LID, TPMMuckraker, PERRspectives, Wake up America, Mudville Gazette, Raw Story and Cold Fury
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Keeping Them Honest — “I appreciate your efforts, and look forward to working with you so that the Congress can complete health care reform by October.” So declared President Obama in a letter this week to Senators Max Baucus and Edward Kennedy. The big health care push is officially on.
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Blue Dog Public Plan Ideas Are Not What Deficit Control Looks Like
Blue Dog Public Plan Ideas Are Not What Deficit Control Looks Like
Discussion:
Top Stories from CQ, Ezra Klein, Left in the West, Hullabaloo, Open Left, TPMDC, Grasping Reality … and Wonk Room
Joe Klein / Swampland:
The Settlements — Charles Krauthammer has a misleading and evasive column about the Israeli settlements issue. He does not deal with the legality of these towns—he can't, of course, because they are illegal under the fourth Geneva Convention, which provides rules for occupying powers.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Inhofe Rips Obama As ‘Un-American,’ Suggests He's On The Side Of Terrorists — Reacting to President Obama's outreach to the Muslim world yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) decried the president's speech as “un-American” and even suggested Obama might be on the side of terrorists:
Discussion:
NPR, Christian Science Monitor, American Power, Jezebel, Blogs and Stories, Washington Monthly, D-Day, The Moderate Voice, Wall Street Journal, TPMDC, Raw Story and Salon
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Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Dem Leadership Moves to Kill Photo Amendment — THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership is moving to strip the Lieberman-Graham amendment blocking the release of detainee photos from the supplemental appropriations bill now in conference.
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Are House Democrats about to block Obama's new secrecy law?
Are House Democrats about to block Obama's new secrecy law?
Discussion:
Campaign Silo, MoJo Blog Posts, TPMDC, Daily Kos, TalkLeft, Corrente and MoJo Blog Posts
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Rahm's Whipping on the Afghanistan War Supplemental — Will You?
Rahm's Whipping on the Afghanistan War Supplemental — Will You?
Discussion:
Campaign Silo, DownWithTyranny!, The Huffington Post, D-Day, Hullabaloo, Taylor Marsh and Democrats.com
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Cheney and Pelosi Have Poor Ratings in Common — Pelosi's ratings down, while Cheney's improved from record low — PRINCETON, NJ — Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Dick Cheney have little in common politically, but they receive almost identical image ratings from the American public.
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Lymari Morales / Gallup:
Conservatives Shift in Favor of Openly Gay Service Members — Weekly churchgoers also show double-digit increase in support from 2004 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans are six percentage points more likely than they were four years ago to favor allowing openly gay men and lesbian women to serve in the military, 69% to 63%.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
MSNBC Shrugs About Liz Cheney's Over-Exposure: “Liz Is A Great Guest” — MSNBC is shrugging off the growing criticism of the extensive airtime the network has granted Liz Cheney to mount a political defense of her father and a political offensive against the Obama administration …
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
IT TAKES REAL EFFORT TO BE THIS AWFUL.... Once in a while, Sean Hannity's painful on-air antics are so over the top, they're almost hard to believe. — Last night, for example, whining incessantly about President Obama's speech in Cairo, Hannity told Fox News viewers that the president …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
National Review's Wise Latina Caricature Inexplicably Asian — As part of a cover package called “The Wise Latina,” the folks over at the conservative National Review—apparently flummoxed by the very idea of a “wise Latina”—have caricaturized the Puerto Rican-descended Sonia Sotomayor as an Asian Buddhist.
Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
Exclusive: Mudd Withdraws as DHS Intelligence Chief (Updated) — The White House confirmed this afternoon it was withdrawing Phil Mudd from Senate consideration to be the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence chief. — Mudd, a career CIA employee who is currently the head of FBI counterterrorism, said the choice was his.
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Charles Bremner / Times of London:
Barack and Michelle Obama decline dinner with the Sarkozys — The Obamas turn up in Paris this evening, but have declined a dinner invitation from the couple next door: the Sarkozys. — President Obama's reluctance to spend more than minimum time with the French leader on his visit for the D …
Discussion:
New York Times, Taylor Marsh, Politics Daily, Patterico's Pontifications, The Page, RedState, Fausta's Blog and Political Punch
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Coleman: GOP Needs To Compete On “The Ethernet” — Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) spoke to a friendly conservative video-blogger yesterday at the at the Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference in St. Louis, and said Republicans need to more effectively organize around the newer modes of communication — like the “ethernet”:
Discussion:
Minnesota Independent, City Pages, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Minnesota Public Radio
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Racist Knows the Pain of Being Called Racist — This is pretty rich — both for Sen. Sessions (R-AL) and CNN for taking his line at face value. Sessions is saying he can feel Sonia Sotomayor's pain over being called a ‘racist’ since he was called a ‘racist’ too.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
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John / Power Line:
It Could Be Worse — Much has been made of President Obama's “on the other hand” transition, in his speech yesterday, from the Holocaust to the travails of the Palestinians. Some thought that he implied a kind of equivalence. But the appalling Tom Brokaw reminded us that it could have been worse …
Victor Zapanta / Think Progress:
McHugh on DADT: I have no interest in excluding people ‘otherwise qualified to serve.’ — After President Obama named Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) as his nominee for Secretary of the Army, progressives have been working to better understand McHugh's current position on “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
Bay Buchanan / Human Events:
The Internet Lynching of Marcus Epstein — Last month the left wing blog, One People's Project, posted a story about one Marcus Epstein. Within this story it was reported that two years ago next month Marcus assaulted a black woman in Georgetown calling her the “n” word.
Ed Whelan / Bench Memos:
Sotomayor's Revealing Joke About Supreme Court Justices Making Policy — In a May 2006 speech, Judge Sotomayor tells “a joke that [she thinks] aptly describes the difference between supreme court, circuit court, and district court judging”: — It involves three judges who go duck hunting.
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Steele On Sotomayor: 'God Help You If You're A White Male Coming Before Her Bench' — Last week, while guest-hosting Bill Bennett's radio show, RNC Chairman Michael Steele urged Republicans to stop “slammin' and rammin'” Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with personal attacks.
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Palin takes low-key return to the road — SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — Governor Sarah Palin paused Friday afternoon at the in front of a monument bearing the Declaration of Sentiments, an early feminist touchstone. — “We anticipate no small amount of ridicule,” she read, and remarked: “Some things never change.”
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars