Top Items:
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
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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 …
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.
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.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Contradictory Objections from the Blue Dogs — One thing that's clear from reading today's news is that Representative Mike Ross (D-AR) is very upset about the House health care bill and is planning to lead a bloc of Blue Dog Dems on the Energy & Commerce Committee to vote against it unless major changes happen.
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Obama Wants Medicare Reimbursement Rates Out of Congressional Hands
Obama Wants Medicare Reimbursement Rates Out of Congressional Hands
New York Times:
A Strong Health Reform Bill
A Strong Health Reform Bill
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wonk Room, The Plum Line and Media Matters for America
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 …
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 …
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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 …
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 …
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David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Eric Holder, Democrats in Congress Play Politics With the CIA
Eric Holder, Democrats in Congress Play Politics With the CIA
Discussion:
Commentary
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 …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Flexing Hillary's ‘muscles’ — In advance of Secretary Clinton's speech yesterday, Clinton's aides appear to have pushed hard on a single theme: That the speech would be “muscular.” — The pre-spin was effective. The word “muscular” appeared in my and Mike's stories describing the speech here …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Weekly Standard, The Washington Independent, Financial Times, Yourish.com, marbury and ATTACKERMAN
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Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Sotomayor hearings: Word count — Senators out-talk her 2 to 1 — Yada yada yada. According to some politics blog — we'll call it Top of the Ticket — that's been publishing the entire transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination …
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Gail Collins / New York Times:
Op-Ed Columnist: 3 Days of the Sotomayor
Op-Ed Columnist: 3 Days of the Sotomayor
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Times, DailyHowler.com, Political Punch, Wall Street Journal and The Note
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 …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Daily Kos, The Plum Line, TPMDC, Media Matters for America, Associated Press, The Impolitic and Salon
Felix Salmon:
Ben Stein, predatory bait-and-switch merchant — How far has Ben Stein sunk? Far enough that I feel compelled to resuscitate the Ben Stein Watch, just to share this unfunny and positively harmful TV ad which is now being aired: — “I went to freescore.com and found out my score for free” …
Discussion:
Grasping Reality …
Alexander Trowbridge / The Politico:
Sebelius laughs along at Palin joke — On the Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart turned to his guest, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and noted the obvious: she was the governor of a heartland state who left in the middle of her term “for a higher calling.”
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 …
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.
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 …
Michael Yon:
Sangow Bar Village — 16 July 2009 — On a per capita basis, Afghanistan is becoming more dangerous for British and American troops than Iraq ever was. For those who fought in places like Anbar, Basra, Baghdad, Diyala and Nineveh, that's saying a whole lot.
Discussion:
Hot Air
Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
Obama losing his cool? — It's been a tough week for President Obama's cool factor. — Not only is he weathering criticism of his policies, but the Cool One has also taken a few dings to his immaculate image in recent days. — It started on Monday. Speaking at the White House …
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 …