Top Items:
New York Times:
Health Care Vote Illustrates Partisan Divide — WASHINGTON — A party-line Senate committee vote on legislation to remake the nation's health care system underscored the absence of political consensus on what would be the biggest changes in social policy in more than 40 years.
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New York Post:
DEM HEALTH RX A POI$ON PILL IN NY — TERRIFYING 57% TAX LOOMS FOR BIGGEST EARNERS — Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state's top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Power Line, Don Surber, JammieWearingFool, The Awl, Concurring Opinions, On Deadline, JONATHAN TURLEY, Slate and Cold Fury
Peter Singer / New York Times:
Why We Must Ration Health Care — You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?
Discussion:
QandO, Fausta's Blog, Moe_Lane's blog, Taylor Marsh, The Strata-Sphere, The Mahablog, Winds of Change.NET, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Pundit & Pundette, Say Anything, American Power, The Confluence, Don Surber, Political Punch, PoliGazette, Tammy Bruce, Riehl World View, The Rhetorican and Sweetness & Light
New York Times:
A Strong Health Reform Bill
A Strong Health Reform Bill
Discussion:
Wonk Room, Los Angeles Times, Media Matters for America, Washington Post and The Plum Line
James Kirchick / Out.com Features:
Meghan McCain Will Be Heard — Call her the anti-Ann Coulter or an attention-seeking cynic, the daughter of the former presidential candidate is proving that you can rally for gay marriage and still be Republican. — “Does it sound campy to say I love gay men?” asks Meghan McCain …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Ben Smith's Blog, The Huffington Post, The Other McCain, Reason and American Power
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James Kirchick / The New Republic:
Meghan McCain: “Joe the Plumber —You Can Quote Me — is a Dumbass” — The afternoon before the White House Correspondents Dinner, I sat down with Meghan McCain, daughter of the erstwhile presidential candidate, to profile her for OUT magazine. McCain has earned herself a remarkable bit …
CNN:
Hillary Clinton almost out of the red — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hillary Clinton is almost debt free from her failed bid for the presidency. — According to reports filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, Clinton's 2007-2008 campaign for the White House is now only $1.5 million in the red.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
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Hillary Rodham Clinton / US Department of State:
Foreign Policy Address at the Council on Foreign Relations
Foreign Policy Address at the Council on Foreign Relations
Discussion:
Jerusalem Post, Soccer Dad, The Washington Independent, The Cable, WhiteHouse.gov Blog and The Plum Line
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Blue Dogs threaten to bring down Pelosi's healthcare bill — Centrist Democrats are threatening to oppose their party's healthcare legislation unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accepts changes that make the bill more to their liking. — Seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy …
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Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Romney Edges Palin, Huckabee in Early 2012 GOP Test — Palin's favorable rating stable after announcement of her resignation — PRINCETON, NJ — About one in four Republicans and Republican-leaning independents make Mitt Romney their top choice for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination …
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Swamp, Newsweek Blogs, GOP 12, Taegan Goddard's … and The Plum Line
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John Yoo / Wall Street Journal:
Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps — The inspectors general report ignores history and plays politics with the law. — Printer — Friendly — It was instantly clear after Sept. 11, 2001, that our security agencies knew little about al Qaeda's inner workings …
IBDeditorials.com:
It's Not An Option — Congress: It didn't take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House's “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal. — IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure
Discussion:
Government Bytes, Michelle Malkin, theblogprof, Gateway Pundit, Instapundit, QandO, Maggie's Farm and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Ann O'Neill / CNN:
Sotomayor learned ropes fighting NY underworld — Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series exploring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background and life with those who know her, revealing the experiences that might shape her views as a Supreme Court justice.
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Jonathan H. Adler / Washington Post:
The Sotomayor Hearings, Day Three
The Sotomayor Hearings, Day Three
Discussion:
Opening Arguments, Commentary, The Fix, TalkLeft, PostPartisan, Rough Sketch and Bench Memos
Science Fair:
Could we be wrong about global warming? — Could the best climate models — the ones used to predict global warming — all be wrong? — Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during …
Kelly Evans / Wall Street Journal:
The New Stars of the Blogosphere — Americans trying to understand the nail-biting financial trauma of the past several months are flocking by the millions to a surprisingly lively source of enlightenment: blogs written by economists. — Such blogs are thriving in this recession …
Joby Warrick / Washington Post:
CIA Assassin Program Was Nearing New Phase — Panetta Pulled Plug After Training Was Proposed — CIA officials were proposing to activate a plan to train anti-terrorist assassination teams overseas when agency managers brought the secret program to the attention of CIA Director Leon Panetta last month …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, The Plum Line and Weasel Zippers
Les Christie / CNNMoney.com:
1.5 million homes in foreclosure in '09 — Homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments in record numbers during the first six months of 2009. The future doesn't look much better. — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The foreclosure plague is not going away — it's only getting worse.
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Dan Levy / Bloomberg:
U.S. Foreclosure Filings Hit Record 1.5 Million in First Half
U.S. Foreclosure Filings Hit Record 1.5 Million in First Half
Discussion:
The Washington Independent
Dan Fitzpatrick / Wall Street Journal:
BofA Under Secret Sanction — Bank of America Corp. is operating under a secret regulatory sanction that requires it to overhaul its board and address perceived problems with risk and liquidity management, according to people familiar with the situation. — Rarely disclosed publicly …
Discussion:
naked capitalism
Aram Roston / The Huffington Post:
CIA Supervisor Claimed He Used Fire Ants On Detainee — A recently released legal memo describing interrogation techniques showed that Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of “insects” in interrogations. “You would like to place [Abu] Zubaydeh in a cramped confinement box with an insect …
Buzz Aldrin / Washington Post:
40 Years After Apollo 11 Moon Landing, It's Time for a Mission to Mars — On the spring morning in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh set off alone across the Atlantic Ocean, only a handful of explorer-adventurers were capable of even attempting the feat. Many had tried before Lindbergh's successful flight …
Scott / Power Line:
Triumph of the will — In his post on President Obama throwing out the first pitch at the All Star game on Tuesday night in St. Louis, Paul noted the weird camera angle Fox used to show the pitch (video below). Andrew McCarthy directs interested readers to the video posted here (24 seconds in) …
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
AP IGNORES CRITICISM.... Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the House Democratic health care plan cost “$1.5 trillion.” By the afternoon, the AP reporting didn't attribute the price tag to anyone; it just stated the figure as fact. — House Dems threw a fit, which was understandable …
Media Matters for America:
Beck “lose[s]” his “mind;” screams at caller: “Get off my phone you little pinhead!” — From the July 15 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' Glenn Beck Program: — Please upgrade your flash player. The video for this item requires a newer version of Flash Player.