Top Items:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Sanford Story Takes More Serious Turn — Late Monday evening, Gov. Mark Sanford's office revealed that he is hiking on the Appalachian Trail. — On the face of it, that solves the mystery. But this article from The State, South Carolina's main newspaper, suggests some more troubling possibilities to the story.
RELATED:
The State:
Gov. Sanford not heard from since Thursday — The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford have been unknown to state officials since Thursday, and some state leaders are questioning who is in charge of the executive office. — Neither the governor's office nor the State Law Enforcement Division …
Discussion:
WMBF News, msnbc.com, TPMMuckraker, Indecision Forever, Associated Press, The Reaction, PoliGazette, Local News for WCBD, Firedoglake, AmSpecBlog, Talking Points Memo, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Gun Toting Liberal, Salon, The Note, pandagon.net, The Sundries Shack, Hot Air, TPMDC, Crooks and Liars, Wonkette, Don Surber, Say Anything, Washington Monthly, Washington Wire, Gawker, MoJo Blog Posts and Daily Kos
The Politico:
Missing Gov. sparks political fight — In a new twist to an already-bizarre episode, South Carolina's lieutenant governor said Monday night that neither he nor Gov. Mark Sanford's staff know where the governor is and that Sanford's office refused his demand to talk his fellow Republican.
Agence France Presse:
US says hot dog diplomacy still on with Iran — WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters. — President Barack Obama's administration …
RELATED:
Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
Family, friends mourn Iranian woman whose death was caught on video — Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, ‘was a beam of light’ and not an activist, friends say. The video footage of her bleeding to death on the street has turned her into an international symbol of the protest movement.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Mahablog, The Daily Dish, Taylor Marsh, TBogg, Gawker, Wizbang, Washington Post, Boing Boing, Babylon & Beyond, We Are All Neda, MoJo Blog Posts, NY Daily News and Hot Air
Jenny Booth / Times of London:
Iranian authorities scramble to negate Neda Soltan ‘martyrdom’ — The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
State Dep't: Iranian diplomats still welcome to celebrate July 4th …
State Dep't: Iranian diplomats still welcome to celebrate July 4th …
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit, Patterico's Pontifications, And So it Goes in Shreveport and Riehl World View
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Why Obama's sudden news conference today? And what he'll say — You don't need to be a basketball-loving president of the United States to know that if you're trying to block opponents' shots in your end, you sure aren't increasing your own totals. You can't score points on D.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
At Least Nine Killed in Red Line Crash — The number of people killed in last night's deadly Red Line crash has risen to at least nine, Metro officials said this morning, shortly after five bodies were removed from the mangled wreckage. — The train that slammed into the back of another during …
Discussion:
Politics Daily
RELATED:
New York Times:
Top Clerical Council in Iran Rejects Plea to Annul Vote — CAIRO — Iran's Guardian Council, the senior clerical body charged with certifying the disputed presidential election, has rejected the opposition's demand for the vote to be annulled on grounds of fraud, state television reported on its Web site Tuesday.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Poll: Americans Less Upbeat About Stimulus Bill's Impact — Expectations for President Obama's stimulus package have diminished, with barely half of Americans now confident the $787 billion measure will boost the economy, and the rapid rise in optimism that followed the 2008 election has abated …
Discussion:
The Swamp, theblogprof, msnbc.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, The Politico, Hot Air, Capitol Briefing, DailyFinance and Democracy in America
RELATED:
Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:
Rubio's curious Tweet — Twitter hasn't always been a politician's best friend — see Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra's comparison of House Republican floor rebellions to the uprising in Iran or Newt Gingrich calling Sonia Sotomayor a “racist.” — Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio …
Discussion:
Hot Air
alarabiya.net:
Iranian clerics seek supreme leader alternative — Clashes between protesters and police Saturday left at least 13 people dead (File) — Religious leaders are considering an alternative to the supreme leader structure after at least 13 people were killed in the latest unrest to shake Tehran …
Farnaz Fassihi / Wall Street Journal:
Son's Death Has Iranian Family Asking Why — TEHRAN—The family, clad in black, stood at the curb of the road sobbing. A middle-aged mother slapped her cheeks, letting out piercing wails. The father, a frail man who worked as a doorman at a clinic in central Tehran, wept quietly with his head bowed.
Jerusalem Post:
US: Settlement freeze must include J'lem — Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem are included in the US demand that Israel halt “settlement” construction, including for natural growth, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told The Jerusalem Post during a press briefing on Monday.
Discussion:
Israel Matzav
RELATED:
Christopher Hitchens / Slate:
Iranian leaders will always believe Anglo-Saxons are plotting against them. … - There is nothing at all that any Western country can do to avoid the charge of intervening in Iran's foreign affairs. The deep belief that everything—especially anything in English—is already and by definition …
Attaturk / Firedoglake:
America's Concern Troll — Richard Cohen manages to write a column that is for the most part reasonable and logical defending the Obama Administration's tempered words on Iran — because historically we have good reason to be measured. But he just cannot help himself:
Scott / Power Line:
What Bill Keller learned from George Bush — On Sunday we wrote about the escape of New York Times reporter David Rohde from his captivity with the Taliban. In its page-one story on Rohde's escape, the Times disclosed that it had kept Rohde's kidnapping and detention by the Taliban a secret for the past seven months.