Top Items:
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
President Obama's Conference Call with Liberal Bloggers: John Amato asks Congress to work through the August recess — You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player! — DOWNLOADS: 463 — PLAYS: 1315 … President Obama and David Axlerod hosted …
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The Huffington Post:
Obama Calls On Bloggers To Keep Health Care Pressure On Congress — In a reflection of a legislative strategy that has left no stone unturned, President Barack Obama on Monday called on like-minded bloggers to help his administration keep the heat on lawmakers to pass health care reform.
Amie Parnes / The Politico:
Barack Obama's gaffe: seeking greater inefficiencies — Would health care reform bring “greater inefficiencies” to the country's health care system? — That's exactly what Obama said Monday when he spoke about health care reform at the Childrens National Medical Center in Washington.
Tracy Jan / Boston Globe:
Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home — Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among …
Los Angeles Times:
Budget accord reached — Calling for deep cuts and avoiding broad tax hikes, Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders agree on ways to close California's $26.3-billion deficit. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced today that they have reached a deal …
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Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:
Obama's Gitmo Task Force Blows Its Deadline — Exclusive: why a key report on closing the facility has been delayed until the fall. — Brennan Linsley / Reuters-Landov — A U.S. journalist walks past sleeping quaters at Camp Justice, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, July 14, 2009.
Eamon Javers / The Politico:
Bailouts could cost U.S. $23 trillion — A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government's watchdog over the effort says - a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation's entire economic output for a year.
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, The Provocateur, Blue Crab Boulevard, Right Wing News and Zandar Versus The Stupid
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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.
Discussion:
The Provocateur, Right Pundits, Say Anything, PoliGazette, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, Don Surber, The Moderate Voice, Commentary, Democratic Strategist, AIP Blog, Conservatives4Palin.com, Politics Nation, TPMDC, skippy the bush kangaroo, Wake up America, The Washington Independent, Real Clear Politics, Townhall.com, GOP 12, JammieWearingFool and Weasel Zippers
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Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Rumors of the Demise of ObamaCare Have Been Greatly Exaggerated — The beltway consesnsus seems to be that the Democrats' prospects of passing meaningful health insurance reform this year have become much slimmer, if they haven't already entirely evaporated. Like Ezra Klein, however, I'm not really sure what everyone was expecting.
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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Kristol: Kill It, and Start Over
Kristol: Kill It, and Start Over
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Politico, The Plum Line, Blogs and Stories, Sadly, No!, Daily Kos, Liberal Values, American Street, Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, Washington Monthly, marbury, The Page, Hullabaloo, Swampland, The Reaction, Democracy in America, Zandar Versus The Stupid, D-Day, Ezra Klein, Taylor Marsh, Betsy's Page, The Daily Dish, Obsidian Wings, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, The Washington Independent and Pundit & Pundette
CNN:
Maloney apologizes for using N word — (CNN) - New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, apologized Monday for using the N word in a recent interview while recounting a phone call she had received. — “I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting,” Maloney said in a statement.
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool
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Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
Iran's supreme leader warns protesters to end campaign of civil disobedience — Government opponents, meanwhile, call for a national referendum to resolve the disputed presidential election. — Reporting from Beirut — Iran's supreme leader on Monday sternly warned government opponents …
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Najmeh Bozorgmehr / Financial Times:
Khamenei warns Iran opposition of ‘collapse’
Khamenei warns Iran opposition of ‘collapse’
Discussion:
Daniel W. Drezner
David Boies / Wall Street Journal:
Gay Marriage and the Constitution — Why Ted Olson and I are working to overturn California's Proposition 8. — Printer — Friendly — When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost 20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the same race.
Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher:
‘New York Times’ Defends Palin Story that Quotes Hairdresser — NEW YORK A story on The Huffington Post Monday reporting that Sarah Palin's hairdresser was upset about being inaccurately cited in a New York Times piece drew a response from a Times spokeswoman today claiming the hairdresser had praised the story.
Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:
Democrats Want to Teach You to Die With Dignity — H.R. 3200 is the Democrat healthcare bill. — Let's back up for a minute. I noted some time ago Jay Rockefeller went on record to say that at some point the government has to decide whether or not you are allowed to receive …
Penny Starr / CNSNews:
Health Care Bill Directs HHS Secretary to Develop ‘Standards for Measuring Gender’—As Opposed to ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ — (CNSNews.com) - The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee's health care legislation will give the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to develop …
Ezra Klein:
The Unbearable Lightness of Greg Mankiw — A friend e-mails: … I would respond by saying that there's a weird tendency among people to think that very banal comments are very important insights when they come from Greg Mankiw. And this is worse than a very banal comment: It's disengaged with the debate.
Alex Spillius / Telegraph:
US car dealer offers free Kalashnikov with every purchase — A Missouri car dealer has taken a novel approach to combating the fall in US vehicle sales by offering a free Kalashnikov assault rifle with every truck, whether new or used. — Mark Muller, whose business slogan is “God, Guns …
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Rep. Mike Castle Fends Off the Birthers — I got a little friendly fire from my friend and colleague Matt Welch over last week's article on the Obama birth certificate conspiracy. He took issue with my “contention that the movement ‘dogs Republicans’ (there being so very many other issues that have more bite than a few barkers).”
Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Less faith in Obama's economic abilities — WASHINGTON — The public's confidence in President Obama's ability to handle the economy is eroding amid concern about higher federal spending and expanding government power, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a development that could complicate …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Politics Nation, Scared Monkeys, YID With LID, Say Anything, Macsmind, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, AmSpecBlog and Commentary
Aaron Blake / The Hill:
Senate Dems outraise GOP counterparts — The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised $6.2 million in June, outraising the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) by nearly $3 million. — The DSCC banked $7.9 million and had $3.7 million in debt.
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Julia Preston / New York Times:
Lawyer Leads an Immigration Fight — DALLAS — On a recent morning, Kris W. Kobach, a conservative law professor, rushed late into a federal courtroom here with his suit slightly rumpled and little more than a laptop under his arm. His mission was to persuade the judge to uphold …
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.”
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P.J. Tobia / Afghan Desk:
Source: Bergdahl Deserted
Source: Bergdahl Deserted
Discussion:
Right Wing News, Oregon at War, This ain't Hell …, The Jawa Report, Los Angeles Times and BLACKFIVE
Hope Yen / Associated Press:
2008 voting rate down as older whites stayed home … WASHINGTON (AP) - For all the attention generated by last year's presidential race, census figures show the share of eligible voters who actually went to the polls in November declined from 2004. — Census figures released Monday show …
Think Progress:
Jimmy Carter: ‘The words of God do not justify cruelty to women.’ — Former President Jimmy Carter, who in 2000 officially severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention after the SBC declared its opposition to female pastors and reiterated its calls “for wives to be submissive to their husbands …
Vanity Fair:
Palin's Resignation: The Edited Version — If you watched Sarah Palin's resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago. Just how poorly constructed was the governor's holiday-weekend address? We asked V.F.'s red-pencil-wielding …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Reuters:
Clinton likens North Korea to unruly children — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said North Korea should not receive the attention it is seeking through behavior like missile launches and likened Pyongyang's behavior to that of unruly children.
Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Obama Loves Mayo, But Mayo Does Not Love Him (Update: Gibbs Responds, Badly) — Throughout his push for health-care reform, President Obama has held up the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as an example of great medicine at lower prices—something that could and should be emulated all over the country …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Reason and NewsBusters.org