Top Items:
Pew Research Center:
Obama's Ratings Slide Across the Board — The Economy, Health Care Reform and Gates Grease the Skids — Barack Obama's approval ratings have suffered major declines. The president's overall job approval number fell from 61% in mid-June to 54% currently.
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Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
Beer brewers beg for White House berth — Although we won't know for sure until afterward what types of beers were consumed by President Barack Obama, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Police Sgt. James Crowley at this evening's White House gathering, there are some odds on favorites: a Bud Light for Obama …
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Dems warn Baucus with gavel threat — In an apparent warning to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), some liberal Democrats have suggested a secret-ballot vote every two years on whether or not to strip committee chairmen of their gavels.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, MoJo Blog Posts, CNN, Daily Kos, Wake up America, TPMDC, Washington Monthly, Salon, Ezra Klein, Think Progress, MyDD, The Politico, Wonkette, Firedoglake, PoliGazette, The Impolitic and AMERICAblog News
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The Hill:
Health deal sparks fury on the left — A House leadership deal with Blue Dogs and an aggressive marketing push by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) shifted the healthcare debate sharply toward centrist positions Wednesday, sparking threats of rebellion from the left.
Discussion:
The Note, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, United States Senator …, Ezra Klein, The Confluence, AMERICAblog News, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Firedoglake, D-Day, Matthew Yglesias, msnbc.com, The Politico, Washington Monthly, The Strata-Sphere, New York Times, The Treatment, The Reaction and ABCNEWS
Jeff Cohen / The Huffington Post:
Are Liberal Netroots Groups Helping Obama Fail? — I've started deleting them as spam. — I'm not talking about the enlarge-your-penis emails or “You've Won the Lottery” notices. — I'm talking about the increasingly-urgent emails coming for weeks from liberal Netroots groups calling for a …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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The Hill:
Pelosi lashes out at private health insurance ‘villains’ — A day after formally delaying a vote on a healthcare bill and having to accept a further weakening of a public option to compete with private insurers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lashed out at the health insurance industry …
Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:Pelosi Calls Insurance Companies ‘Immoral,’ ‘Carpet-Bombing’ Villains
WCVB-TV:
‘I Am Not A Racist,’ Says Cop Who Wrote Gates Slur — Justin Barrett Suspended From Police Department, National Guard — BOSTON — A Boston police officer who sent a racially charged e-mail protesting newspaper coverage of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. apologized Wednesday night and said “I am not a racist.”
Discussion:
CBC News, The Huffington Post, Examiner, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Bostonist and The Raw Story
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James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:
Justin Barrett Kills Two Jobs with One Stone — Justin Barrett, a 36-year-old soon-to-be-former Boston cop and Massachussetts Army National Guard captain, is making the headlines with a letter he circulated describing, a bit too enthusiastically, his views on a Boston Globe column on the Henry Louis Gates incident.
MyFox Boston:WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT: - …
Discussion:
CNN, ABCNEWS, The Daily Dish, TheDailyBanter.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Boston Globe, Fox News, Political Byline, The Poor Man Institute, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, rightofcourse.com, Sister Toldjah, JustOneMinute, Shakesville, American Power, WCVB-TV, Left in the West and The Moderate Voice
WSB-TV:
Officers Run Background Check On Obama; Placed On Leave — DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Two DeKalb County police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after an investigation revealed they ran a background check on President Barack Obama. — A representative for the DeKalb County …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Exclusive: Earmark critic steered cash to blimp research — Rep. Pete Sessions — the chief of the Republicans' campaign arm in the House — says on his website that earmarks have become “a symbol of a broken Washington to the American people.” — Yet in 2008, Sessions himself steered …
Wall Street Journal:
Debra Burlingame: Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’ — The terrorist sues to resume his jihad from prison. The Obama administration caves in. — Multimedia — previous — next — Health Care Reform — President Obama's effort to overhaul the health-care system may have momentum.
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Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
U.S. Adviser's Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’ — WASHINGTON — A senior American military adviser in Baghdad has concluded in an unusually blunt memo that the Iraqi forces suffer from deeply entrenched deficiencies but are now capable of protecting the Iraqi government, and that it is time …
Discussion:
The Washington Independent, Obsidian Wings, TPMMuckraker, ATTACKERMAN, War, the military …, Truthdig and Raw Story
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Roy Blunt on the Birthers: Unedited — Yesterday, Mike Stark released his “Birthers on the Hill, Part II” video. Blunt's office responded by demanding the release of the entire unedited video. We are happy to comply with the request. — Mike talked with Blunt on two days.
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Think Progress, TPMDC, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Talking Points Memo and Salon
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Washington Post:
Tough on Israel — Why President Obama's battle against Jewish settlements could prove self-defeating — ONE OF THE MORE striking results of the Obama administration's first six months is that only one country has worse relations with the United States than it did in January: Israel.
Discussion:
Commentary, Taylor Marsh, Wonk Room, Zandar Versus The Stupid, TPMCafe, The New Republic and Israel Matzav
Jeffrey Goldberg:
White Cops Are Always Right — That's been my experience as a citizen and as a reporter. Back in the day, I used to write about the subject of racial profiling a bit, and and I'm reasonably sure, based on my reporting, that Sergeant Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department a) …
Andrew Travers / aspendailynews.com:
Dan Rather wants Obama to help save the news — Login or register to post comments — Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute.
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Rove Had Heavier Hand in Prosecutor Firings Than Previously Known — Political adviser Karl Rove and other high-ranking figures in the Bush White House played a greater role than previously understood in the firing of federal prosecutors almost three years ago, according to e-mails obtained …
The Huffington Post:
Disorderly Conduct: Conversation About Gates Arrest Precedes Arrest — A lawyer who moments earlier had been complaining to friends about police overreaction in the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., got a taste of the Gates treatment himself after loudly chanting …
Heather / Crooks and Liars:
Why is MSNBC Allowing Matthews to Repeat “Deathers” Rhetoric as Maddow Debunks Him on the Same Day? … Why is Chris Matthews carrying water for the “deathers” — as Rachel Maddow aptly called them on her show — and conflating end of life counseling with abortion, and something to fear …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Debts paid, Hillary Clinton builds $3+ million campaign fund for ...? — With all of the immense numbers coming out of Washington these days, former senator, ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign debt is chump change. Make that, “was.” — Here's the news: There is no more Hillary Clinton campaign debt.
Peter S. Goodman / New York Times:
Lucrative Fees May Deter Efforts to Alter Loans — This week, the Obama administration summoned mortgage company executives to Washington to demand they move faster to lower payments for homeowners sliding toward foreclosure. Treasury officials called on the companies to hire and train …
The Hill:
50 Most Beautiful 2009 - Top 10 (HTML) — 1. Rep. Martin Heinrich … Rep. Martin Heinrich has gone from climbing mountains to climbing stairs. — The avid outdoorsman, who once ran a wilderness adventure program for children and teens, now has to rely on his trips from his fifth-floor Longworth office …
R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:
Despite Obama's Objections, House Appropriators Seem Intent on Earmarks — The Democratic-controlled House is poised to give the Pentagon dozens of new ships, planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says the military does not need to fund next year …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Capitol Briefing, Weekly Standard, MoJo Blog Posts, The Politico, The Atlanticist, The Caucus and The Foundry
Suzanne Ziegler / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Cash for Clunkers: Federal rebate revs up buyers — Dale Skreen, left, of Loretto, took a last look at his 1993 Ford F-150 pickup truck before he drove away in his 2009 Ford F-150 XLT pickup. Salesman Adam Notsch helped Skreen get a federal rebate in the Cash for Clunkers program.
Felicity Barringer / New York Times:
White Roofs Catch On as Energy Cost Cutters — SAN FRANCISCO — Returning to their ranch-style house in Sacramento after a long summer workday, Jon and Kim Waldrep were routinely met by a wall of heat. — “We'd come home in the summer, and the house would be 115 degrees, stifling,” …
Rep. Tom Price / The Politico:
How the GOP wants to fix health care — Thursday marks the anniversary of the most significant piece of health care legislation in our nation's history. It was on this day in 1965 that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law, ensuring government health care for seniors.
Jeffrey Goldberg:
Self-Hating Jews and Other Sad Cases — I've received a lot of mail already in reaction to my post about the crisis in Israel — a crisis caused by the willful disregard of settler extremists to Israeli law, and by the Israeli government's impotence in the face of such law-breaking …
Los Angeles Times:
Iran security forces retreat as huge numbers of mourners gather at cemetery — As many as tens of thousands of protesters meet at the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose shooting death was videotaped. Meanwhile, the first group of protesters arrested in the unrest heads to trial.
Ezra Klein:
Obama Speaks About Speaking — Time's Karen Tumulty has a very nice interview with Barack Obama. This bit was especially striking: … I'm loath to be an armchair political strategist. But I do know a little something about trying to explain McKinsey reports to people.
New York Times:
Texas Hospital Flexing Muscle in Health Fight — McALLEN, Tex. — One of the largest sources of campaign contributions to Senate Democrats during this year's health care debate is a physician-owned hospital in one of the country's poorest regions that has sought to soften measures that could choke its rapid growth.
Discussion:
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