Top Items:
Drudge Report:
‘TOLD YA SO’ — Sarah Palin hits FOXNEWS tonight for the big ‘Told Ya So’ interview, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. — As President Obama vows to spend the ‘stimulus’ faster, Governor Palin tells host Sean Hannity: ‘You gotta quit digging that hole!’ — HANNITY: What do you make of - look at the state of the economy now...
Discussion:
Gawker, Think Progress, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Mudflats, Hot Air, Wizbang, Raw Story, Don Surber and Pundit & Pundette
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
GOP Leader Working Behind Scenes To Get Palin Reinvited To Big Fundraiser — In another sign of the sway that Sarah Palin and her supporters in Palin Nation hold over the GOP, NRCC chief Pete Sessions is working behind the scenes to get Palin reinvited to the big GOP fundraiser tonight, GOP sources say.
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Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Palin versus GOP
Palin versus GOP
Discussion:
Fox News, Associated Press, Washington Times, Scorecard's Blog, MSNBC, The Hill, CBS News, Citizen, The Mudflats, GOP 12, The Washington Independent and Swampland
Washington Post:
Sotomayor Breaks Her Ankle — The X-ray revealed a small fracture in her ankle. She was released from the hospital after less than two hours and is now using crutches, said Ben LaBolt, an assistant press secretary at the White House. — “This morning, on the way to Washington, D.C., Judge Sotomayor tripped at LaGuardia Airport.
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Shelby Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Sotomayor and the Politics of Race — Americans thought they were electing a president who would transcend grievance. — Printer — Friendly — President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court points to a dilemma that will likely plague his presidency: How does a …
Kbh / KeithHennessey.com:
Understanding the Kennedy health care bill — Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy's (D-MA) health care bill leaked. After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB). Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF.
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Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:
Republican Letter to Obama Opposes Public Health Plan — A group of Senate Republicans sent a letter to President Barack Obama declaring their opposition to including a government-run plan in a health-care overhaul, saying it would be a “federal government takeover” of the health system.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Hard Labor in North Korea — As you've no doubt heard, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been arrested by the North Korean government and sentenced to twelve years hard labor. I've been trying to Google around for more information on the DPRK's labor camps …
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Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
N. Korea Sentences 2 U.S. Journalists to 12 Years of Hard Labor
N. Korea Sentences 2 U.S. Journalists to 12 Years of Hard Labor
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Lede, Aljazeera, Hotline On Call, Washington Post, RedState, TalkLeft and The Agonist
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Supreme Court Turns Down 'Don't Ask' Challenge — The Supreme Court today declined to hear a constitutional challenge to the Pentagon's “don't ask, don't tell” policy banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military, a move that could effectively leave it to the Obama administration to resolve the long-controversial issue.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, AMERICAblog News, News Desk, Think Progress, QandO, Pam's House Blend, HRC Back Story, American Power, D-Day and Salon
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Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Obama's Economic Circle Keeps Tensions High — WASHINGTON — President Obama was getting his daily economic briefing one recent morning when a fly distracted him. The president swatted and missed, just as the pest buzzed near the shoes of Lawrence H. Summers, the chief White House economic adviser.
Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
Anonyblogging Cont'd — A (anonyblogging) reader writes, in part: Jonah- If it's cowardly to blog anonymously, were Madison, Hamilton, and Jay cowards for publishing the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym “Publius”? Answer: No. Madison, Hamilton, and Jay weren't amateur pundits.
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Frank Newport / Gallup:
Obama Rated Highest as Person, Lowest on Deficit, Spending — Obama doing better than Bush and Clinton at similar points in their first year in office — PRINCETON, NJ — While 67% of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably, his overall job approval rating and his ratings on specific areas are less positive.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Weekly Standard, The Fix, Hot Air, The Foundry, Don Surber, Commentary, Say Anything, AmSpecBlog and The Rhetorican
Los Angeles Times:
Obama's summer jobs plan: work for 600,000 people — In a meeting today with the Cabinet, the president will announce plans to tap into the $787-billion stimulus to create jobs, with 10 major projects to be implemented in the next three months. — By Mark Silva reporting from washington
Discussion:
Truthdig
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Jerusalem Post:
Source: Booby-trapped horses used in failed terror attack — Article's topics: Gaza Strip, IDF, Palestinians — Under the cover of morning fog, a group of around 10 Palestinian gunmen armed with “huge amounts of explosives” launched a failed Gaza border assault at the Karni Crossing on Monday …
Tom Schaller / FiveThirtyEight:
Obama's Top Targeter Bullish on Montana and Worried About Gingrich; Predicts Deeds Win Tomorrow — Ken Strasma, recognizable to many 538 readers as Barack Obama's national targeting director in 2008, is the first participant in a new series of interviews we will be conducting with consultants …
ABCNEWS:
EXCLUSIVE: Recently Released Gitmo Detainee Talks to ABC News — Held Seven Years, Former Aid Worker Tells ABC News He Was Tortured — For 7½ years, Lakhdar Boumediene was known simply by a number: “10005.” — These were the digits assigned to him when he arrived at the detention center …
Right Wing News:
The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media — After doing The 10 Hottest Liberal Women In Politics last week, I thought that in order to be fair, I should feature the women on the Right as well. So, in the spirit of the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful lists, I present to you “The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media.”
Chris Stirewalt / Washington Examiner:
Scandal could derail Democratic dreams — The Republican Party's fall from dominance in 2002 to utter collapse in 2008 is mostly attributed to the GOP either being too conservative or not conservative enough. — But Republicans were mostly incoherent on domestic policy during their six-year ride to the bottom.
Mike Dirks / HT | http://www.blueridgenow.com:
Shuler: I'm not running for Senate — U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler shot down speculation today that he is still pondering a run for Senate. — “I am not running for Senate,” the second-term Democrat said after a ground-breaking ceremony for a new building at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest Station in Asheville.
Campbell Robertson / New York Times:
In Iraq, Colbert Does His Shtick for the Troops — CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — It was Sunday night in Baghdad, and President Obama was ordering Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of the American troops here, to shave Stephen Colbert's head. (Not to give everything away, but the general is not as brutal …
John Cole / Balloon Juice:
Your Ticking Time Bomb Scenario — So when do we get to start torturing this guy: … Since there is no doubt that we have a history of anti-abortion domestic terrorism, and since we know that evangelicals already support torture for everyone, when do we get to start waterboarding this guy?
Discussion:
Associated Press, Washington Monthly, D-Day, The Mahablog, Newshoggers.com, The American Scene and Think Progress
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Health Cost Illusion — The President's main case for reform is rooted in false claims and little evidence. — Printer — Friendly — The main White House argument for health-care reform goes something like this: If we spend now on a hugely expensive new insurance program …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Washington Post, The New Republic, neo-neocon, Commentary, Democratic Strategist and Pundit & Pundette
Ezra Klein:
Has The Obama Administration's Banking Plan Failed? — When Tim Geithner's Public-Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) plan was announced, it dominated commentary for a solid week. It was big, complicated, controversial, and, it seemed, important. It was the center of the administration's …
Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:
Something Is Not Quite Right Here . . . Right-wing contrarians supposedly inflated Michelle Obama's once-in-a-lifetime slip, “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country,” until it turned out it was a sort of topos — cf. her second take: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.”