Top Items:
Washington Post:
Approval Ratings Drop for Obama on Health Care, Other Issues — Approval Rating on Health Care Falls Below 50 Percent — Obama's approval ratings on other front-burner issues, such as the economy and the federal budget deficit, have also slipped over the summer, as rising concern …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, The Huffington Post, NY Daily News, Hot Air, Politics Daily, Think Progress, Commentary, Michelle Malkin, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Right Pundits, The Politico, Political Byline, Taylor Marsh, The Swamp, Newsweek Blogs, The Page, Rasmussen Reports, Boston Globe, Guardian, Flopping Aces, Salon, marbury, Below The Beltway, Campaign Silo, Top of the Ticket, Riehl World View, Scared Monkeys, NewsBusters.org, Stop The ACLU, Don Surber, DownWithTyranny!, AMERICAblog News, Macsmind, D-Day, Pundit & Pundette, No More Mister Nice Blog, Say Anything, msnbc.com, The Campaign Spot, Chicago Tribune, BuzzFlash.org, TPMDC, The Plum Line and The Strata-Sphere
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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Kristol: Kill It, and Start Over — With Obamacare on the ropes, there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible. There will be a tendency to want to let the Democrats' plans sink of their own weight …
Tom Raum / Associated Press:
White House putting off release of budget update — WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape. — The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits …
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Pelosi: Make millionaires pay — Trying to sell a historic health bill to a balky caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told POLITICO in an interview that she wants to soften a proposed surcharge on the wealthy so that it applies only to families that make $1 million or more.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Business Channel, Washington Monthly, Eye of Polyphemus, WSJ.com and The Page
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
PRESIDENT'S SUPPORT STILL SOFTENING.... A new Washington Post-ABC News poll offers some discouraging news for the White House, but not all of the news was bad. — Overall, President Obama's approval rating stands at 59%, similar to the latest results from Gallup.
Discussion:
The Fix, Politics Daily, AmSpecBlog, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Zandar Versus The Stupid
Washington Post:
Obama Heads to the Front to Do Battle on Health-Care Reform
Obama Heads to the Front to Do Battle on Health-Care Reform
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, Bloomberg, The Politico, Townhall.com, Ezra Klein, Wall Street Journal, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Crooks and Liars, PoliGazette, Political Punch, New York Times, The Caucus, The Huffington Post, Kausfiles, The Right Coast, New York Times, Blog entry, Wizbang, Macsmind and Zandar Versus The Stupid
Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted — Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.”
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Registan.net, TheZoo, JONATHAN TURLEY, ATTACKERMAN and The Washington Independent
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Rachel Slajda / Talking Points Memo:
Steele On Health Care: What's Individual Requirement? — Michael Steele, chairman of the RNC, doesn't seem to know the basic terminology of the health care debate. — In a Q&A at the National Press Club just now, Steele was asked if Republicans support an individual requirement to get health care …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo and Grasping Reality …
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Rasmussen Reports:
2012 Match-ups: Obama, Romney Tied at 45%; Obama 48%, Palin 42% — If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Morning Fix: Jindal Rises Again — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) will wade into the national debate over health care this week by penning op-eds in Politico and the Wall Street Journal and appearing on a series of cable chat shows today and tomorrow. — “Governor Jindal has seen enough …
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Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Race in 2028 — During last week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republican senators kept bringing the conversation back to 2001 — the year when Sonia Sotomayor delivered the most famous version of her line about how a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” might outshine a white male judge.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Brilliant at Breakfast, Shakesville, TBogg and Zandar Versus The Stupid
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
REJECTING THE IDEA OF AN OVERHAUL.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky was on “Meet the Press” yesterday, talking about his opposition to the health care reform proposal(s). That's fine; he's the opposition leader. Of course he's going to oppose the majority's agenda.
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Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
Mitch McConnell Makes the Dems Look Good
Mitch McConnell Makes the Dems Look Good
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Binyamin Appelbaum / Washington Post:
Financial Rescue I.G. Says Banks Funneled TARP Aid to Various Expenses — Many of the banks that got federal aid to support increased lending have instead used some of the money to make investments, repay debts or buy other banks, according to a new report from the special inspector general overseeing …
Discussion:
The Other McCain, Hot Air, ProPublica, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Piece of Work In Progress, The Page and The Hill
Peter S. Goodman / New York Times:
Subprime Brokers Resurface as Dubious Loan Fixers — LOS ANGELES — From the ninth floor of a downtown office building on Wilshire Boulevard, Jack Soussana delivered staggering numbers of mortgages to homeowners during the real estate boom, amassing a fortune. — By Mr. Soussana's own account, his customers fared less happily.
Discussion:
Wonk Room, D-Day, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Washington Independent, Riehl World View, Economist's View and Eschaton
Jonathan Tobin / Jerusalem Post:
A pause for serious self-reflection — When US President Barack Obama met with 15 representatives of American Jewish organizations on July 13, Haaretz reported that he told them that he wanted to help Israel achieve peace but that if they were to benefit from his well-intentioned counsel …
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Eugene Volokh / The Volokh Conspiracy:
More on Amazon's Deleting Books from Customers' Kindles: — It now appears that Amazon deleted a particular edition of 1984 from customers' Kindles because the edition was infringing: … Does that make the deletion of the books proper? I don't think so.
Discussion:
Open Left
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Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Business Channel:
Amazon to World: We are Not Evil Totalitarians
Amazon to World: We are Not Evil Totalitarians
Discussion:
Law Librarian Blog
S.logan / insert clever s.logan here:
God, Guns, Guts, and CNN's Idiot Reporters — Greetings, Instapundit readers! — “You don't have a problem with God, do ya?” — This is a question posed to CNN reporter Carol Costello during a recent interview with Mark Muller, a Missouri car dealer whose company is offering an unusual incentive …
Megan McArdle:
One Small Step For Man . . . If you're like me (and I know many of you are), you grew up reading the science fiction of the 1940's and 1950's, promising a quick and rapid expansion into the solar system, and not too long thereafter, the galaxy. Your young mind tried, and failed …
Chris Matyszczyk / Technically Incorrect:
New iPhone app helps you score pot — States that are low on funds are steadily inhaling the idea of taxing the sale of a substance that gets you high. — Meanwhile, as if anticipating an uptick in demand, the folks at Apple have approved a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that will allow …