Top Items:

Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama — (CNSNews.com) - Following a testy exchange during today's briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control …
RELATED:


Health Care Stagecraft — President Obama held an “online town hall” health care meeting in Annandale, Virginia today. It was televised and, coincidentally, I happened to catch the emotional centerpiece of the production on CNN. Obama gave a long introductory pitch in support of his health care plan …

Bush's ‘Town Halls’ vs. Obama's Town Halls
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, The Caucus, Hot Air, Washington Wire, The Anchoress, Sister Toldjah and The Campaign Spot


39 trips for Sanford with no security in '09 — EXCLUSIVE: Governor's secret trip prompts scrutiny — Gov. Mark Sanford left the Governor's Mansion without a security escort, 38 times in 2008. In the first six months of this year, he left the mansion without security, 39 times.
Discussion:
The Page
RELATED:


House of Pain: GOP's Class of '94 — The sex scandals that have tarnished Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) don't appear to have much in common. Yet there is one thread that binds them together: Both Ensign and Sanford were members of the famed Republican House class of 1994, as well as its latest casualties.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog


S.C. GOP: Sanford must go — Gov. Mark Sanford's long and emotional interview with The Associated Press Tuesday appears to have been the final straw for South Carolina's Republican establishment, much of which is now actively seeking his resignation. — While Sanford seemed to have weathered …


Blubbering Love Gov. Mark Sanford tears up again over ‘soul mate’ Maria Belen Chapur … He's still crying for you, Argentina! — A blubbering Gov. Mark Sanford broke down in tears as he dubbed his Argentine mistress his “soul mate” during a rambling interview with The Associated Press, audiotapes of the sitdown reveal.
Discussion:
Real Clear Politics


Taliban capture U.S. soldier — KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — A U.S. soldier has been captured by militants in Afghanistan, the U.S. military and the Taliban said Thursday. — The unidentified soldier has been missing since Tuesday. U.S. forces are exhausting all resources to find the soldier, the military said.
RELATED:


U.S.: American Soldier Captured in Afghanistan — A U.S. soldier missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan since Tuesday is believed to have been captured by Taliban militants, the military said Thursday. — In a statement issued from U.S. military headquarters in Kabul, officials said …


U.S. Marines Launch Major Operation in Afghanistan
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Wall Street Journal, Jules Crittenden, Los Angeles Times, BBC, The Strata-Sphere, Registan.net and Raw Story


Palin E-mails Show Infighting With Staff — Exclusive: Spat Over Todd Palin's Membership In Secessionist Party Was Major Distraction On Critical Day In '08 Campaign … Internal campaign e-mails exchanged three weeks before Election Day offer a rare look at just how frustrated …
RELATED:


WashPost sells access, $25,000+ — For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors.

467,000 Jobs Lost in June; Unemployment Reaches 9.5% — The pace of job losses quickened in June after slowing just a month earlier, casting a shadow over the Obama administration's attempts to stanch months of stark declines in the labor market. — The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month …
Discussion:
Calculated Risk, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Don Surber, Clusterstock and NPR Blogs


Fox hosts on Franken victory: “in denial”; Franken and nation crazy; Coleman originally won — SUMMARY: Several Fox News hosts have expressed bewilderment, disappointment, and denial about Al Franken's victory in the Minnesota Senate race. — After Norm Coleman conceded the 2008 Minnesota Senate race …
Discussion:
The BRAD BLOG, Gawker, Think Progress, Minnesota Independent, Crooks and Liars, Washington Monthly and Wall Street Journal
RELATED:


Time for an Israeli Strike? — With Iran's hard-line mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unmistakably back in control, Israel's decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever. — Iran's nuclear threat was never …


Terror from the Right — 75 plots, conspiracies and racist rampages since Oklahoma City … What follows is a detailed listing of major terrorist plots and racist rampages that have emerged from the American radical right in the years since Oklahoma City.


Karl Malden, Actor Who Played the Uncommon Everyman, Dies at 97 — Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning character actor who for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun authenticity to roles in theater, film and television, from “A Streetcar Named Desire” to …
RELATED:

Karl Malden dies at 97; Oscar-winning actor
Discussion:
The Reaction, Tim Blair, Scared Monkeys, Shakesville, skippy the bush kangaroo and ArtsBeat


U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny — The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition. — Nuns were the often-unsung workers who helped build …


Black Reporters on the Beat of Michelle Obama — While Michelle Obama was meeting with doctors and patients at the Upper Cardozo Health Center, nearly two dozen journalists stood behind a white rope in a small room upstairs, most finally growing so tired during the hour-long wait that they sat on the floor.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org

Michelle Malkin Reports on IG-Gate — Michelle Malkin's syndicated column today moves the story forward substantially with this: … Read the whole thing. She gives me credit for pushing the story last week. I had mentioned this at The American Spectator blog:
Discussion:
Swampland
RELATED:

Let the Usurpers Writhe — TEHRAN — Think of normalized relations with the United States as the big prize. Who gets to deliver it? One thing is certain: Iran's ruthless usurpers are determined to ensure reformists are never in a position to claim the breakthrough.


Times Square Tea Party Denounces Obama, Media, Imaginary Tax Rates, Etc. — They had another one of those Tea Party things this evening, this time right next to the Times Square subway station on Broadway. The anti-Obama pep rally occupied part of the street and part of the sidewalk …

A few victory laughs for Sen.-elect Franken — Al Franken is funny again. — The senator-elect alternated between jokes and emotion Wednesday in a victory rally that was, as he acknowledged, more than two years in the making. — “It was close,” Franken began, garnering a big laugh for his even bigger understatement.
Discussion:
SEIU