Top Items:
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:
Megan McArdle, The Swamp, Top of the Ticket, The Fix, Opinion L.A., At-Largely, Think Progress, Washington Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Don Surber, Weekly Standard, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Swampland, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Gawker, Political Punch, QandO, White House Watch, Flopping Aces, Scared Monkeys, Wolf Howling, Raw Story and Mises Economics Blog
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New York Times:
Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care — A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care …
Discussion:
Atlantic Correspondents, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, CBS News, Reuters, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Swamp, msnbc.com, The New Republic, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, White House Watch, Latest Open Salon Blog, Los Angeles Times, Eunomia, TVNewser, Swampland, Maggie's Farm, Daily Kos, No Sheeples Here!, AMERICAblog News, Wake up America, The Strata-Sphere, Outside The Beltway, Pundit & Pundette, The Foundry, Scared Monkeys, WSJ.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Cato @ Liberty and rubber hose
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 — Another update: A witness to Walpin-gate. The Wash. Times isn't buying it. It is pretty thin gruel. — (Just a note — Why are we reading about this in the Chicago Tribune? Perhaps his local paper doesn't have an Oba-worship problem?)
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
White House Defends Inspector General's Firing
White House Defends Inspector General's Firing
Discussion:
American Spectator, Hot Air, Democracy in America, Runnin' Scared, The Swamp, AmSpecBlog and The Other McCain
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 …
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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 …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, presstv.ir, Blogs and Stories, Undiplomatic, Newsweek, Shadow Government, Power Line, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Matthew Yglesias, Hot Air, JustOneMinute, PoliGazette, msnbc.com, Commentary, ATTACKERMAN, BBC, MoJo Blog Posts, WillCollier.com and The Washington Independent
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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 …
Discussion:
Time, The Huffington Post, The Washington Note, Weekly Standard, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Taylor Marsh
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.
Discussion:
The Opinionator, Crooks and Liars, The Hill, The Treatment, Kaiser Health News, Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Hullabaloo, Ben Smith's Blog, Wonk Room, DownWithTyranny!, Democratic Strategist, FiveThirtyEight, The Confluence, About.com US Liberal Politics, New York Times, Blue Mass. Group and Corrente
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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:
Washington Post, CBS News, Daily Kos, AmSpecBlog, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The Foundry, First Draft, Weekly Standard, The Treatment, Commentary and AMERICAblog News
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, The Fix, 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 …
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.
Lee Speigel / Political Punch:
PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama a Humane Fly Catcher — ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: — PETA has a few words for President Obama: Brush, don't kill. — After the President very publically swatted and then killed a fly during an interview with CNBC yesterday …
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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.
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 …
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
In a Staff Shuffle, Signs of Obama's Direction on Mideast — WASHINGTON — So now Dennis B. Ross, the Obama administration's senior Iran policy maker, less than three months into his State Department job, is moving to the White House, administration officials say.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
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.
Jennifer Rubin / Commentary:
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Demands Answers on Voter Intimidation Case Dismissal — As was commented upon here at CONTENTIONS, and widely reported and remarked upon elsewhere, the Obama Justice Department took the unusual action last month of dismissing a default judgment …
Kirit Radia / ABCNEWS:
Hillary Clinton Fractures Her Elbow — The Secretary of State will undergo surgery to repair the damage next week — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fell down on her way to the White House late Wednesday afternoon, fracturing her right elbow, her Counselor and Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
The Most Important Number in Politics Today — Seventy-two percent. — That's the number of people in the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll who say that President Obama inherited the “current economic conditions” gripping the country as compared to just 14 percent who said the situation was the result mostly of his policies.
Discussion:
msnbc.com
James Osborne / Fox News:
Pentagon Exam Calls Protests ‘Low-Level Terrorism,’ Angering Activists — A written exam administered by the Pentagon labels “protests” as a form of “low-level terrorism” — enraging civil liberties advocates and activist groups who say it shows blatant disregard of the First Amendment.
Barry Ritholtz / The Big Picture:
Bailout Costs vs Big Historical Events — It is exceedingly difficult to convey exactly how much we are spending on all these bailouts. Whenever I start talking trillions (versus mere billions), I get puzzled looks from people. Humans have a hard time conceptualizing any number that large.
Discussion:
Bob McCarty Writes