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
RELATED:
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.
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, The Strata-Sphere, Donklephant, Ezra Klein, The BLT, Connecting.the.Dots and The World Newser
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
HEALTH CARE REFORM AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS.... At this point …
HEALTH CARE REFORM AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS.... At this point …
Discussion:
Zandar Versus The Stupid
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
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 …
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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 …
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, Capital Journal and The Huffington Post
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, QandO, New York Times, The Confluence, Right Wing News and Washington Post
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: — As she did yesterday, Sotomayor asserted that a right is “fundamental” if it is “incorporated” against the states via the 14th Amendment rather than that a right is incorporated against the states if it is fundamental.
Discussion:
Bench Memos
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.
RELATED:
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 …
Discussion:
Reuters, NewsBusters.org, Reason, NO QUARTER, USA Today, Swampland and Confederate Yankee
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
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.
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Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Florida Project Under Investigation Is Linked to Rep. Murtha — When an Air Force command in north Florida sought new battlefield technologies, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors. — The research effort at the Pensacola Air …
Discussion:
YID With LID
RELATED:
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 …
RELATED:
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 …