Top Items:
Washington Post:
House Democrats Want to Fund Health Care With an Ill-Advised Surtax on the Rich. — THERE IS a serious case to be made that the U.S. income tax system should become more progressive. The average rate paid by the top 1 percent of households shrank from 33 percent in 1986 to about 23 percent in 2006.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, The Daily Dish, Hot Air, Los Angeles Times, Wake up America, THE WEEK News & Opinion, Wizbang, RedState and The Note
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Edwin Chen / Bloomberg:
Obama Open to Partisan Vote on Health-Care Overhaul, Aides Say — President Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican opposition doesn't yield soon, two of the president's top advisers said.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Open Congress, Don Surber, WhiteHouse.gov Blog, Washington Post, The Politico, Ezra Klein, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Note, Wall Street Journal, Commentary, AMERICAblog News, Say Anything, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, AmSpecBlog and edlabor.house.gov
Kbh / KeithHennessey.com:
Does the House really want to raise taxes on eight million uninsured people? — The President has said he would not allow taxes to be raised on anyone with less than $250,000 of income. — Today for the first time we see the legislative language for and a summary of the health care reform bill …
Wall Street Journal:
Health Bill Would Hit Small Business — $1.04 Trillion House Health Bill Hits All but Tiniest Firms for Not Providing Insurance — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from left, stands with House Democratic leaders Steny Hoyer, Pete Stark, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, and John Dingell to announce health-care legislation on Tuesday.
Washington Post:
House Democrats Propose Surtax on Wealth to Fund Health-Care Plan
House Democrats Propose Surtax on Wealth to Fund Health-Care Plan
Discussion:
The New Republic, Gawker, Donklephant, The Strata-Sphere, Ezra Klein, The BLT, Connecting.the.Dots and The World Newser
The Hill:
Healthcare reform advances
Healthcare reform advances
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Note, The Hill's Twitter Room, USA Today, Blog entry, TPMDC, msnbc.com and Wonk Room
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Praising HELP — A full-throated statement from President Obama …
Praising HELP — A full-throated statement from President Obama …
Discussion:
The Hill
Craig Crawford / Craig Crawford's Trail Mix:
Smiling GOPers Ought to be Frowning — Watching Lindsey Graham's gotcha grin as he needled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with disingenuous and rhetorical questions you had to wonder what was so funny. — Does the Republican senator think it is amusing that he and his party's …
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Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
White Man's Last Stand — You can't judge a judge by her cover. — Despite the best efforts of Republicans to root out any sign that Sonia Sotomayor has emotions that color her views on the law, the Bronx Bomber kept a robotic mask in place. — A wise Latina woman with the richness …
Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
At Sotomayor's hearing, the abortion protestors are the only ones telling the truth.
At Sotomayor's hearing, the abortion protestors are the only ones telling the truth.
Discussion:
Washington Post, ACS Blog, Latest Open Salon Blog, The Mahablog, Balkinization, PostPartisan and Capital Journal
Paul / Power Line:
The great gesturer — Why do so many Senators persist during …
The great gesturer — Why do so many Senators persist during …
Discussion:
Sadly, No!
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Republicans don't believe Sotomayor's stories
Republicans don't believe Sotomayor's stories
Discussion:
Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Time, Power Line, NY Daily News and Sister Toldjah
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Sotomayor's so-so reviews thus far
Sotomayor's so-so reviews thus far
Discussion:
The Corner, Bookworm Room, Flopping Aces, Washington Examiner, GayPatriot, Confederate Yankee, Washington Post and Right Wing News
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
GOP not buying ‘Latina’ explanation
GOP not buying ‘Latina’ explanation
Discussion:
The Swamp, Politico Live's Blog, New York Times, QandO, The Confluence, Right Wing News and Washington Post
Gateway Pundit:
OBAMA BOOED IN ST. LOUIS!... And Throws a Sissy Pitch (Video) — Barack Obama Booed at the All-Star Game in St. Louis On Tuesday! — And, he threw a sissy pitch: — It's going to be a rough 4 years. He's only been in office 5 months and he's already getting booed. — ...And protested.
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Duk / Yahoo! Sports:
Obama reps Chicago's South Side, delivers All-Star first pitch — ST LOUIS — Where did it land? Was it a strike or wasn't it? Why didn't the network choose a better camera to shoot from? Those were the questions that viewers of baseball's All-Star Game were asking themselves at home …
Washington Post:
Sen. Coburn Questions Judge Sotomayor at Supreme Court Nomination Hearings — Review all exchanges organized by senator — COBURN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd ask unanimous consent to put an article from the newspaper this morning, the Washington Times. — LEAHY: Without objection, it'll be placed in the record.
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Randy Barnett / The Volokh Conspiracy:
Sotomayor Again Misstates Fundamental Rights Doctrine:
Sotomayor Again Misstates Fundamental Rights Doctrine:
Discussion:
Bench Memos
WorldNetDaily:
Bombshell: Orders revoked for soldier challenging prez — Major victory for Army warrior questioning Obama's birthplace — A U.S. Army Reserve major from Florida scheduled to report for deployment to Afghanistan within days has had his military orders revoked after arguing he should not be required …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Palin: All Tail, No Head — Sarah Palin's political action committee — SarahPAC — raised $733,000 in the first half of the year and is set to push past $1 million in the wake of the recent attention she's gotten herself. On the one hand, this isn't that impressive. Mitt Romney, for instance, has raised twice as much.
Discussion:
Riehl World View
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Buchanan: GOP Needs More Race-Baiting, Not Less — A provocative article by Pat Buchanan argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, Republicans shouldn't worry about alienating Hispanic voters, they should just focus on getting white people to like them more: … And he sees race-baiting attacks as the way to do it:
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Ta-Nehisi Coates, TalkLeft and Blogs and Stories
John O'Connor / The State:
Media jostled for access to Sanford — E-mails illustrate frenzy to be the first on the air or in print — National media blitzed Gov. Mark Sanford's staff, offering big ratings and, possibly, a sympathetic venue in an effort to land the first interview with the governor after his six-day trip to Argentina.
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Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Media pushed for Sanford access; Tapper on ‘slimy’ email
Media pushed for Sanford access; Tapper on ‘slimy’ email
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Another FBI probe involves Murtha — The Washington Post reports on a new FBI investigation into contract fraud involving an Air Force project run out of Pensacola AFB. Prosecutors focused on at least one Congressional earmark of $8 million for the project, which funded not the stated purpose …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report
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Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Florida Project Under Investigation Is Linked to Rep. Murtha
Florida Project Under Investigation Is Linked to Rep. Murtha
Discussion:
YID With LID
Michelle Malkin:
Study in contrasts: Christian scientist vs. eco-mad scientist — My syndicated column below contrasts the Left's “unease” over the evangelical Christian faith of NIH director-designate Francis Collins with its radio silence on the eco-zealotry of Obama science czar John Holdren.
Discussion:
Washington Times, Time, zomblog, ¡No Pasarán!, Pundit & Pundette, Right Wing News and Bookworm Room
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Key Obama advisers indicate openness to pushing health care reform through with just Democratic votes. — Bloomberg's Ed Chen reports that two of Obama's top advisers — Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod - “may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress …
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Kyle / Right Wing Watch:
CFJ: Obama Is Putting a Terrorist On The Bench! — Yesterday, we noticed that the Committee for Justice had just unveiled two ads calling for Sonia Sotomayor's defeat - one contrasting her to Martin Luther King and the other claiming she wants to “take away your guns.”
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Chuck Todd's arguments against investigations — (updated below - Update II) — NBC's Chuck Todd — who, remember, is billed as a reporter covering the White House, not a pundit expressing opinions — was on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Tuesday discussing reports that Eric Holder is likely …
Thomas Szasz / Wall Street Journal:
Universal Health Care Isn't Worth Our Freedom — What would Thoreau have made of the current debate? — Printer — Friendly — People who seek the services of auto mechanics want car repair, not “auto care.” Similarly, most people who seek the services of medical doctors want body repair, not “health care.”
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Exclusive: In Speech, Hillary Will Push Arabs To Do More Towards Peace — In a major foreign policy speech this afternoon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take direct aim at Arab states for not doing their part towards securing Mideast peace, demanding that “all sides” …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air, Associated Press, The Washington Independent and Mondoweiss