Top Items:
Patrick Gavin / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Froomkin out at Washington Post (UPDATED) — In a move sure to ignite the left-wing blogosphere, washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin (author of the “White House Watch” blog) has been let go by the news organization, POLITICO hears. In so many words, Froomkin was told that his blog had essentially run its course.
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why? — (updated below - Update II - Update III) — One of the rarest commodities in the establishment media is someone who was a vehement critic of George Bush and who now, applying their principles consistently, has become a regular critic …
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Torture-Mongers vs Froomkin
The Torture-Mongers vs Froomkin
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Joe Nocera / New York Times:
Only a Hint of Roosevelt in Financial Overhaul — Three quarters of a century ago, President Franklin Roosevelt earned the undying enmity of Wall Street when he used his enormous popularity to push through a series of radical regulatory reforms that completely changed the norms of the financial industry.
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ALL-TIME LOWS.... I've seen a few Republican blogs today crowing about the latest national polls, which show some lukewarm support for some of White House's policy priorities. There are a couple of numbers, though, that should give them pause. — For one thing, President Obama's approval ratings still look quite strong.
Discussion:
Atlantic Correspondents, New York Times, Think Progress, Taegan Goddard's … and The Political Carnival
Economist.com l WASHINGTON / Democracy in America:
Or maybe the honeymoon's not over — IT'S possible to read …
Or maybe the honeymoon's not over — IT'S possible to read …
Ezra Klein:
Health Care Reform in Danger — Health reform is, I think it fair to say, in danger right now. The news out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee was bad. The Congressional Budget Office had scored a partial bill and the result was a total fiasco.
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Jared Allen / The Hill:
Bipartisan group wants reconciliation off table
Bipartisan group wants reconciliation off table
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Joseph Curl / Press Association:
Bush takes swipes at Obama policies — Defends interrogations — Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector not government will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Washington Monthly, Top of the Ticket, Indecision Forever, Megan McArdle, The Swamp, The Fix, Opinion L.A., Weekly Standard, DISSENTING JUSTICE, No More Mister Nice Blog, Swampland, Don Surber, At-Largely, Washington Times, Think Progress, Gawker, White House Watch, No Sheeples Here!, Political Punch, QandO, Flopping Aces, Scared Monkeys and Mises Economics Blog
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
U.S. Struggling for Right Response to Iran — Obama Seeks Way to Acknowledge Protesters Without Alienating Ayatollah — The political unrest in Iran presents the Obama administration with a dilemma: keep quiet to pursue a nuclear deal with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader …
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John Kerry / New York Times:
With Iran, Think Before You Speak — THE grass-roots protests that have engulfed Iran since its presidential election last week have grabbed America's attention and captured headlines — unfortunately, so has the clamor from neoconservatives urging President Obama to denounce the voting …
The Huffington Post:
Daschle Urges Obama To Drop Federal Public Health Care Plan — The man once slated to head Barack Obama's health care system overhaul is now coming out against one of the chief components of that effort. — Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said on Wednesday that the Obama White House …
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Gorman Gorman / The Note:
Daschle Folds on Federal Public Health Care Plan
Daschle Folds on Federal Public Health Care Plan
Discussion:
Daily Kos, AmSpecBlog, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Weekly Standard, The Treatment, Commentary and AMERICAblog News
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Bipartisan Heavy Lifters for Team Up for Health Care Reform
Bipartisan Heavy Lifters for Team Up for Health Care Reform
Discussion:
CBS News, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Foundry, First Draft, New York Times and The Fix
Chicago Tribune:
Senator questions firing of 3 inspectors general — Removal of 2 inspectors general prompts questions — WASHINGTON - — He was appointed with fanfare as the public watchdog over the government's multi-billion dollar bailout of the nation's financial system.
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Dan / Riehl World View:
Not Just Walpin - 3 IG Firings Being Questioned
Not Just Walpin - 3 IG Firings Being Questioned
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Moe_Lane's blog, Media Blog, Flopping Aces, The Sundries Shack and Fausta's Blog
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
White House Defends Inspector General's Firing
White House Defends Inspector General's Firing
Discussion:
The Plum Line, American Spectator, Hot Air, Democracy in America, The Swamp and Runnin' Scared
Politics in Minnesota:
Two sources: Supreme Court ruling on U.S. Senate race to arrive tomorrow! — PIM has now heard from two sources on different sides of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race recount scene that the final Minnesota Supreme Court ruling is expected to arrive tomorrow, Thursday, June 18th.
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Washington Wire, Alas, a blog, Talking Points Memo and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
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Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Court rejects DNA access claim — CORRECTION 3:50 p.m.: The paragraph describing the Court's ruling in Yeager v. U.S. was in error as published. F. Scott Yeager has not been convicted of any crime. See the UPDATE below, at the end of that paragraph. — Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court …
Steve Verdon / Outside The Beltway:
SCOTUS: No to Post Conviction DNA Testing
SCOTUS: No to Post Conviction DNA Testing
Discussion:
Megan McArdle
The Independent:
Robert Fisk: Secret letter ‘proves Mousavi won poll’ — They were handing out the photocopies by the thousand under the plane trees in the centre of the boulevard, single sheets of paper grabbed by the opposition supporters who are now wearing black for the 15 Iranians who have been killed in Tehran …
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Olive Garden pulls Letterman ads — Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor's daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman's “Late Show” for the rest of the year.
Associated Press:
PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly — Rights group seeks compassion for curious and ‘least sympathetic animals’ — WASHINGTON - The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Gay Dems complain DNC cut off funding, drop support for Biden event — Theboard of directors of the National Stonewall Democrats are dropping their support for a June 25 DNC fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden over, they wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO, a combination of policy slights …
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Bill Posey, Congressional Birther, Finds Some Friends and Bashes ‘Angry Woman’ Rachel Maddow — Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), who has introduced a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, has collected four more co-sponsors — Reps. John R. Carter …
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Andrea Shea King / WorldNetDaily:
Posey: Eligibility document plan not personal
Posey: Eligibility document plan not personal
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
BBC:
South African rape survey shock — One in four South African men questioned in a survey said they had raped someone and nearly half admitted having attacked more than one victim. — The study, by the country's Medical Research Council, also found three out of four who admitted rape attacked for the first time while in their teens.
Blaine Harden / Washington Post:
Global Insurance Fraud By North Korea Outlined — Government Has Collected Millions Of Dollars on Large, Suspicious Claims — For Kim Jong Il's birthday, North Korean insurance managers prepared a special gift. — In Singapore, they stuffed $20 million in cash into two heavy-duty bags and sent them …
City Room:
Jet Lands at Newark With Dead Pilot — A Continental Airlines jetliner carrying 247 passengers landed in Newark shortly before noon on Thursday, after the flight's captain died midflight. — Two first officers took control of the plane, a Boeing 777, after the captain, who was 61 years old …
Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:
Oberstar blasts White House, accelerates highway bill — Lawmakers pushed back aggressively against the Obama administration Thursday as they moved forward with the long-anticipated highway bill. — Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. John Mica …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Mark Blumenthal / Pollster.com:
Mebane: “Moderately Strong Support” for Iran Fraud — Walter Mebane, the University of Michigan political science and statistics professor who specializes in statistical tools “for detecting anomalies and diagnosing fraud in election results,” has updated his assessment of the official vote return statistics for the Iran elections.