Top Items:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
WashPost offers access: $25,000+ — For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few”: Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper's own reporters and editors.
Discussion:
Atlantic Correspondents, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Calderone's Blog, Michelle Malkin, Politics Daily, Ideas Special Report, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Guardian, Gawker, D-Day, Daily Kos, C.O.T.O., DCist, Weekly Standard, RebelReports, Right Wing News, Prairie Weather, Reason, Sister Toldjah, Crooked Timber, pandagon.net, Townhall.com, RedState, Ezra Klein, Felix Salmon, Outside The Beltway, NewsBusters.org and The Political Carnival
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
WASH. POST SELLING ACCESS?.... It's hardly a secret that newspapers, including the major dailies, have run into serious financial problems in recent years, and are frantically looking for new revenue streams. But if this report from Mike Allen is accurate, it seems the Washington Post's financial concerns …
Discussion:
Michael Calderone's Blog
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Post Publisher Cancels Plans for Off-the-Record ‘Salons’ — Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress …
Discussion:
The Politico
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
WaPo responds to flier controversy
WaPo responds to flier controversy
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
CNSNews:
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 …
Discussion:
No Sheeples Here!, Washington Post, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Liberty Street, lalate news, BitsBlog, Hot Air, NO QUARTER, Right Wing News, Scared Monkeys, Confederate Yankee, Stop The ACLU, Townhall.com, Althouse, Pundit & Pundette, The Confluence, Ace of Spades HQ, NewsBusters.org, Political Byline, The Jawa Report, Wizbang, Never Yet Melted and Raw Story
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Jack Healy / New York Times:
Job Losses Rise in June as 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 declines in the labor market. — The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Atlantic Correspondents, The Jawa Report, The Washington Note, Matthew Yglesias, Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, Economix, Washington Monthly, The Strata-Sphere, The Campaign Spot, Associated Press, Don Surber, Clusterstock, Gateway Pundit, DailyFinance, Daily Kos, Calculated Risk, TIME.com, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette, NPR Blogs and AmSpecBlog
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David Espo / Associated Press:
New Dem health plan has public option, lower cost — WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Swamp, Reason, Daily Kos, SEIU, My Left Nutmeg and The Reaction
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Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
Here We Go Again: How to Read Those HELP Numbers — Is it possible that everybody is misinterpretating the Congressional Budget Office's estimate of the Senate HELP bill...again? — Yup. — So far I've seen two different set of interpretations. One, the most common …
Discussion:
WhiteHouse.gov Blog, Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, Matthew Yglesias, AmSpecBlog, D-Day and MoJo Blog Posts
John R. Bolton / Washington Post:
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 …
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Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Saddam Hussein Said WMD Talk Helped Him Look Strong to Iran
Saddam Hussein Said WMD Talk Helped Him Look Strong to Iran
Discussion:
Think Progress, Times of London, Israel Matzav, Achenblog, Wonk Room, The World Newser and ATTACKERMAN
Washington Post:
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 …
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CNN:
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.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:
U.S. Marines Launch Major Operation in Afghanistan
U.S. Marines Launch Major Operation in Afghanistan
Discussion:
Atlantic Correspondents, Newshoggers.com, Hot Air, New York Times, BBC, democracyarsenal.org, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Jules Crittenden, Registan.net, SWJ Blog, ATTACKERMAN, JustOneMinute, The Atlanticist, Rethink Afghanistan, The Washington Independent, The Strata-Sphere and Raw Story
John_Merritt / CBS News:
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 …
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Clif LeBlanc / The State:
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.
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David Saltonstall / NY Daily News:
Blubbering Love Gov. Mark Sanford tears up again over ‘soul mate’ Maria Belen Chapur
Blubbering Love Gov. Mark Sanford tears up again over ‘soul mate’ Maria Belen Chapur
Discussion:
The Politico
Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:
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 …
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
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.
Sara A. Carter / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Taliban buying children for suicide bombers — Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers in the growing spate of attacks against Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. targets, U.S. Defense Department and Pakistani officials say.
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Quinnipiac University:
Cracks In Obama Facade As Disapproval Grows, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; But Voter Outlook On Economy, Nation Improve — President Barack Obama's first five months in office have seen his job approval remain stable overall - currently at a politically healthy 57 - 33 percent …
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Barney Frank: Let's spend TARP profits before taxpayers can get them — When President Obama announced on June 9 that some financial institutions would be allowed to repay Troubled Asset Relief Program dollars, he said the massively expensive TARP bailout had made money for the federal government.
SPLCenter.org:
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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Jonathan D. Glater / New York Times:
Finding Debt a Bigger Hurdle Than Bar Exam — All his life, Robert Bowman wanted to be a lawyer. He overcame a troubled childhood, a tragic accident that nearly cost him a leg and a debilitating Jet Ski collision. — He put himself through community college, worked and borrowed heavily …