Top Items:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER.... A new Research 2000 poll conducted for Daily Kos asked respondents a rather straightforward question: “Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?” Since the president was born in the U.S., ideally, the results would be around 100%.
Discussion:
TPMDC, Eunomia, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Taylor Marsh, MoJo Blog Posts, Shakesville, Salon and The Plum Line
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Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
58 percent of GOP not sure/doubt Obama born in US — Shocker poll from Kos/Research2000 today. — A whopping 58 percent of Republicans either think Barack Obama wasn't born in the US (28 percent) or aren't sure (30 percent). A mere 42 percent think he was.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Poll: 28% of Republicans don't believe Obama was born in U.S. — A new Research 2000 poll, sponsored by the site DailyKos, finds broad traction among Republican voters for the belief that President Obama was not born in the United States. — The survey of American adults asked …
Discussion:
Townhall.com, Democracy in America, Below The Beltway, Hot Air, The Washington Independent, Daily Kos and Donklephant
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
In Beer Summit “Spoof” Milbank Suggests Hillary Drink “Mad Bitch” Beer — If I were on the board of directors of the Kaplan test prep company, and discovered that the people running a money-losing Kaplan subsidiary affiliate (better known as the Washington Post) had greenlighted a feature called …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, TPMCafe, Taylor Marsh, The Politico, Wonkette, Talking Points Memo, D-Day and Romenesko
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Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Milbank jokes that Hillary Clinton should drink ‘mad bitch’ beer. — Washington Post reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza regularly do a political commentary video series called “Mouthpiece Theater.” In the newest segment, Milbank and Cillizza discuss President Obama's “beer diplomacy …
Peter Daou / ConsiderThisNews:
Washington Post's Milbank Says Hillary Clinton Should Drink “Mad Bitch” Beer
Washington Post's Milbank Says Hillary Clinton Should Drink “Mad Bitch” Beer
Patrick O'Connor / The Politico:
Waxman gets deal on health bill — Liberal and conservative Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce panel struck a late-night deal Friday that will allow them to move a sweeping health care bill out of the committee after a two-week deadlock that put its fate in serious doubt.
Discussion:
The Treatment, Weekly Standard, MoJo Blog Posts, Washington Monthly, TPMDC, AmSpecBlog, The Moderate Voice and The Page
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The Speakers Lobby:
McCain to filibuster “Cash for Clunkers” bill; Trouble for Reid with Dems, too — When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, tries to take up the House-passed “Cash for Clunkers” bill next week, he will hit a series of bipartisan road blocks. — Fox has learned that Sen. John McCain …
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Wall Street Journal:
House Votes to Extend ‘Clunkers’ Program
House Votes to Extend ‘Clunkers’ Program
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Commentary, Salon, LewRockwell.com Blog, Environmental Capital, Weekly Standard and Townhall.com
Charlottesville Daily Progress / Daily Progress:
Forged letters to congressman anger local groups — As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman's office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Rudy: ‘Shut Up’ — Rudy Giuliani, who has returned as a leading Republican spokesman, condemned Obama's health care plan in an interview with Sean Hannity. — He also offered, in response to the president's hope that the Gates arrest would be a “teachable moment,” this: — “He's actually right.
Discussion:
FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
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Alex Isenstadt / The Politico:
Town halls gone wild — Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.
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Lee Fang / Think Progress:
Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: ‘Yell,’ ‘Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’ — This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls.
Josh Bivens / Economic Policy Institute:
More than 500 days of recession — The Commerce Department reported today that gross domestic product (GDP) contracted at a 1% annual rate in the second quarter of 2009, following a 6.4% decline in the previous quarter. GDP is the total market value of goods and services produced in the U.S. economy …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, New York Times, Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic, Salon, The Daily Dish, MoJo Blog Posts and Hullabaloo
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Eamon Javers / The Politico:
Franken feuds with T. Boone Pickens — Five years after he put his money behind the Swift Boat ads that helped tank John Kerry's presidential campaign, Senate Democrats gave T. Boone Pickens a warm welcome at their weekly policy lunch Thursday. — Or at least most of them did.
Daniela Altimari / Hartford Courant:
Dodd Diagnosed With Early-Stage Prostate Cancer — U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. — Dodd is scheduled to undergo surgery during the Senate's August recess and said he expects to be back at work after a “brief recuperation” at home.
Discussion:
Washington Wire, TVNewser, The Swamp, The Note, Scorecard's Blog, D-Day, NPR Blogs, Ben Smith's Blog, Swampland, Clusterstock and Don Surber
Elizabeth Gates / Blogs and Stories:
What I Saw at the Beer Summit — Blogs and Stories — The Daily Beast's Elizabeth Gates joined her father, Skip, Sgt. Crowley, and the president to raise a beer and bury the hatchet. An inside report from the peace talks. — In a world in which the conversation on race has traditionally taken …
Discussion:
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The New Republic, Hot Air, Althouse, Mediaite and Jim Treacher's Blog …
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Porn prosecution fuels debate — President Barack Obama's Justice Department has quietly agreed to move a pornography prosecution out of socially conservative Montana to more urbane New Jersey - fueling perceptions by some attorneys that the new administration is stepping back from the aggressive approach …
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Probe finds new clues in AmeriCorps IG scandal — After seven weeks of trying, investigators looking into President Barack Obama's abrupt firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin are still unable to answer the most basic question of the whole affair: Why did the president do it?
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Looking At Race — DailyKos has an interesting poll on whether Americans believe that Africa and America were one part of the same continent. I have to say I would have said yes, but not too confidently. But what's interesting to me is that Republicans were far less likely to believe this than Democrats or Independents.
CNN:
Do quick tweets sink ships? — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican who represents the northern suburbs of Chicago and is running for Senate, also happens to be a Navy Reservist. While on service in the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, he recently ‘tweeted,’ causing the Military to look into the situation.
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Republicans Reveal Their Hypocrisy On Health Care, Refuse To Support Bill To Kill Government-Run Medicare — For months, Republicans have been trying to scare Americans away from supporting a public option in health care reform, claiming that “government-run” medicine is akin to socialism and would be disastrous.