Top Items:
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
William Jefferson verdict: Guilty on 11 of 16 counts — ALEXANDRIA, VA. - Former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson was found guilty of 11 of 16 corruption charges today by a federal jury. — The jury of eight women and four men returned a guilty verdict following five days of deliberation.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, TPMMuckraker, Wonkette, Macsmind, Salon, On Deadline, msnbc.com, Blue Crab Boulevard and AMERICAblog News
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Washington Post:
Former La. Congressman Convicted of Taking Bribes — Jefferson Found Guilty on 11 of 16 Counts — Former Congressman William J. Jefferson was convicted of corruption charges today in a case that featured $90,000 in bribe money stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid …
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Let the Big Dog Run — When I look at the incorrigible Kim Jong-il, an insult hurled by the incomparable Billy Wilder comes to mind. — Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, was having dinner with Wilder years ago when the subject of Swifty Lazar, the very famous and very short agent, came up.
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The Corner:
Krauthammer's Take — From last night's All-Stars: On North Korea releasing U.S. journalists to President Clinton: Well, it's the return of hostages in exchange for stuff. And we will learn about that stuff. It's clear that this was wired in advance. There probably was an apology [offered by President Clinton in Pyongyang].
Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:
Right Wing Attacks Clinton's Successful Trip To Free American Journalists In North Korea — Yesterday, super-hawk John Bolton was upset that President Clinton, along with a group that included Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta, went over to North Korea to negotiate …
CNN:
CNN Poll: Americans split on Obama's health care proposals — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Americans appear split over President Barack Obama's health care reform proposals, according to a new national poll. — Fifty percent of those questioned in CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday morning …
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Quinnipiac University:
Scrap Health Care Reform If It Adds To Deficit, U.S. Voters Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll; Voters Disapprove Of Obama's Handling Of Health Care — American voters, by a 55 - 35 percent margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit …
Discussion:
GayPatriot, The Fix, Hot Air, Outside The Beltway, The Foundry, Media Blog, The Jawa Report, Tammy Bruce, RedState, Glenn Thrush's Blog and PrairiePundit
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Boxer: Protesters too well dressed to be sincere — Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) appeared on Hardball last night in support of the Left's attempt to discredit the people showing up to townhalls in protest of ObamaCare. Boxer says she can tell that they're fakes, because they're too well dressed.
Mark Preston / CNN:
GOP turns tables on Democrats — WASHINGTON (CNN) — National Republicans turned the tables on their political counterparts Wednesday by redirecting angry telephone calls coming into their switchboard to the Democratic National Committee. — The DNC released a Web video early …
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Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Washington Post Kills ‘Mouthpiece’ Video Series — The Washington Post has brought down the curtain on “Mouthpiece Theater.” — Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday after harsh criticism of a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton …
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
A Word on Mouthpiece Theater — As Howard Kurtz is now reporting, Mouthpiece Theater is no more. — With Dana Milbank and I headed out on August vacations, we had always planned to re-evaluate the relative merits of the show, which was begun as an experiment by the Post …
Roll Call:
House Orders Up Three Elite Jets — Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies. — But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel …
Discussion:
St. Louis Tea Party, msnbc.com, Moonbattery, Townhall.com, Hot Air, Raw Story, Jules Crittenden, Flopping Aces, Neptunus Lex, JammieWearingFool and Gateway Pundit
Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Think Progress, MSNBC ‘Manufacture’ a Story With Putative Smoking Gun ‘Mob’ Memo — When the “manufactured” outrage the Left is trying to demonize lines up so inconveniently with public polling, it's sometimes necessary to create evidence for the “manufactured” storyline.
Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Cornyn to Obama: Stop With the Enemies Lists — The White House call for people to inform on anyone spreading “disinformation about health insurance reform” didn't sit well with a lot of people — Obama isn't running a political campaign anymore, he's supposed to be running the country …
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Think Progress:
Freshman Democratic lawmaker ‘physically assaulted at a local event’ by activists. — As lobbyist-run groups encourage conservative activists to “rattle” members of Congress at local town hall events, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the president of the freshman Democratic class has revealed that …
Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:
Liasson: ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program ‘is like a mini-Katrina.’ — Last night, Fox News aired a clip of a woman at a Philadelphia town hall meeting over the weekend berating Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) about health care reform. “What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. ...
The Politico:
Lessons learned from: A) cash for clunkers B) the town halls C) the Clinton rescue mission — The “shout downs” organized by the Republican right meet one of the classic definition of “fascist” tactics—defined as using shouting and disruption to deprive the civil and respectful debate of ideas.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
CNN Refusing To Run Health Care Ad Critical Of Insurance Industry — What on earth is going on at CNN? — The network — already taking criticism for declining to run an ad criticizing Lou Dobbs — is now refusing to run an ad nationally criticizing the insurance industry, the group that tried to place the ad tells me.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Raw Story, Media Decoder and Eye on 2010
Sandhya Somashekhar / Washington Post:
Obama's Domestic Policies Are Having Immediate Effects on Race for Va. Governor — Some Voters Who Backed President Disillusioned Over Economic Pledges — The coffee was still brewing when Chris Ann Cleland got her first reminder of the day that voting for Barack Obama might have been a mistake.
Boston Globe:
Mass. bashers take note: Health reform is working — PUNDITS and politicians who oppose universal healthcare for the nation have a new straw man to kick around - the Massachusetts reform plan that covers more than 97 percent of the state's residents. In the myth that these critics have manufactured …
Rasmussen Reports:
71% Say Obama's Policies Have Driven Up Deficit — Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. voters say President Obama's policies have increased the size of the federal deficit, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. — Only five percent (5%) say the president's policies …
Helen Kennedy / NY Daily News:
Shepard Fairey-designed Obama portrait on cover of upcoming Rolling Stone — Artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic HOPE campaign poster of Barack Obama was a global sensation, is back with a new image that both questions and deifies the President. — Appearing on the cover of the Aug. 20 Rolling Stone …
Right Wing News:
Joker Obama Flyers Show Up At George Washington University & Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Updated) — Supposedly, prior to yesterday, the Joker Obama posters had only shown up in LA and Atlanta. Well, now a few hundred have shown up at George Washington University. Here are a few pics I was emailed yesterday.
Steve Portnoy / Political Punch:
A First Hand View of a Raucous Town Hall Meeting — ABC's Steven Portnoy reports: — There were no lobbyist-funded buses in the parking lot of Mardela Middle and High School on Tuesday evening, and the hundreds of Eastern Maryland residents who packed the school's auditorium loudly refuted …
ABCNEWS:
Woman Who Tried to Kill Ford to Be Released Aug. 16 — Manson Follower ‘Squeaky’ Fromme to Get Out of Prison — Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the Charles Manson cult follower who tried to kill President Ford, is scheduled to be released from prison next week.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
M Peretz / The Spine:
Obama Needed This Like a Hole in the Head — I give him the benefit of a doubt. He may not himself have made the decision to honor the contemptible Mary Robinson, arguably a real bigot, with the Medal of Freedom. But, then, there is someone in his entourage who is leading him astray, gravely astray.
Discussion:
Zandar Versus The Stupid, JW Political Insider, Matthew Yglesias, The Debate Link and Capital J | JTA
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Dem Congressman's Office: His Life Has Been Threatened Over Health Care Bill — Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) will not be hosting any town hall events this August — instead, he's making himself available to constituents for one-on-one meetings about health care reform — and at least part of the reason is this …
On Politics:
Rand Paul joins race, fundraises in NYC — Rand Paul, son of former presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, officially entered the Kentucky Senate race today to replace retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning. — In an e-mail to supporters sent this afternoon, the Republican ophthalmologist …