memeorandum: 247,000 Jobs Lost in July; Rate Falls Slightly to 9.4% (Jack Healy/New York Times)

3:45 PM ET, August 7, 2009

Top Items:

Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:

Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform — As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line. — The recent attacks by Republican leaders …

Discussion: The Hill's Pundits Blog, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, QandO, DownWithTyranny!, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Brendan Nyhan, Neptunus Lex, The Campaign Spot, Media Research Center, The Foundry, rubber hose, Prairie Weather, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Town Hall Mob — There's a famous Norman Rockwell painting titled “Freedom of Speech,” depicting an idealized American town meeting. The painting, part of a series illustrating F.D.R.'s “Four Freedoms,” shows an ordinary citizen expressing an unpopular opinion.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Crooks and Liars, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Feministe, The Foundry, Eunomia, Washington Monthly, The Campaign Spot, Jules Crittenden, The Moderate Voice, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Note, Lance Mannion, The Mahablog and Discriminations

Wall Street Journal:

‘You Are Terrifying Us’ — Voters send a message to Washington, and get an ugly response. — Printer — Friendly — We have entered uncharted territory in the fight over national health care. There's a new tone in the debate, and it's ugly. At the moment the Democrats are looking …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Firedoglake, Stop The ACLU, National Review, The Opinionator, The Anchoress, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Boston Globe, Gawker, Mediaite, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Strata-Sphere, No More Mister Nice Blog and PrairiePundit

Dana Loesch / thedanashow.wordpress.com:

Meet the Mob — You've heard a lot about this crazy, scary, vicious mob on some shadowy GOP payroll. By the way the DNC, Rachel Maddow, and President Obama talk, you'd think it was a motley crue of Hell's Angels. — Let me introduce you to the mob: — I am the mob. My kids are the mob.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Michelle Malkin, Moonbattery, The Greenroom, CatherineFavazza.com, RedState, Don Surber, American Power and The Mahablog

Adam Smith / St. Petersburg Times:
Protesters drown out Tampa health care summit

Jon Henke / The Next Right:
The Mob Revealed — Reports out of Florida indicate that Democrats …

Discussion: Red County, 209.157.64.200, NewsBusters.org and Pundit & Pundette

CBS News:
Teabaggers Shout Down Tampa Bay Town Hall

Discussion: Doug Ross and NewsBusters.org

William March / TBO.com:
Protests, passions roiling town hall meeting on health care

Discussion: Fox News, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Little Green Footballs, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Salon, Power Line, Erick's blog, New York Post and Don Surber

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Pearlstein Dubs Health Reform Opponents “Political Terrorists”

CNN:

First on the CNN Ticker: Florida senator to resign seat — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Florida, will announce that he is resigning his seat, three GOP sources tell CNN. — The sources said that Martinez will officially announce his intention to step down on Friday.

Discussion: The Swamp, The Huffington Post, The Note, Shakesville, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Salon, The Daily Dish and The Plank

Josh Kraushaar / Scorecard's Blog:

Mel Martinez resigning — Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will be resigning from the Senate, according to several senior Republican sources familiar with his thinking. — He made the announcement at a morning staff meeting, where he said he will not be returning to the Senate after the August recess.

Discussion: Central Florida Political …, The Hill, The Politico, Hot Air, NPR Blogs, Swing State Project, FiveThirtyEight, Senate Guru, Daily Kos, The Page, Michelle Malkin and The Buzz

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
FL-Senate: Martinez to Resign

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Naked Politics and The Atlantic Politics Channel

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Woman Who Said She Was ‘Just A Mom’ …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post and NOW! Blog

MiamiHerald.com:
Florida's Sen. Mel Martinez to step down

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and The Reaction

The Campaign Spot:
Mel Martinez, Leaving Office a Little Early? (UPDATED)

Discussion: Naked Politics, National Review, TPMDC and The Washington Independent

Leah Thorsen / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Six people, including P-D reporter, arrested at Carnahan meeting — UPDATE: St. Louis County police say six people were arrested. Two of those were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances. Carnahan was gone when the ruckus started.

Discussion: Hot Air, Weekly Standard, Gateway Pundit, Right Wing Nut House, Moe_Lane's blog, Media Blog, Outside The Beltway, NewsBusters.org, QandO, Moonbattery, Althouse, Wake up America, No More Mister Nice Blog, Confederate Yankee, Political Punch, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Jawa Report and Blogs of War

Gateway Pundit:

RAW VIDEO!!.....TEA PARTY PROTESTERS ATTACKED— 1 Black Conservative Seriously Hurt in St. Louis!... 6 Arrested Including SEIU Members — ** RAW VIDEO from Missourah blog: — A black conservative was attacked by the Carnahan-supporting mob. — At least one SEIU member is arrested by St. Louis police in this video:

Discussion: Power Line, thedanashow.wordpress.com, Stop The ACLU, protein wisdom, Founding Bloggers and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Patterico's Pontifications:
Angry Mob of Racist Extremists Beats Black Man at Town Hall Meeting

Discussion: Examiner, St. Louis Tea Party and American Power

K. Daniel Glover / Accuracy in Media:
The Media Take Aim At ‘The Mob’

Discussion: Right Wing News

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Town Halls Turning Into Town Brawls

Discussion: Think Progress and Ezra Klein

Michelle Malkin:
SEIU and the “persuasion of power;” Update: St. Louis thuggery on tape

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs

Jack Healy / New York Times:

247,000 Jobs Lost in July; Rate Falls Slightly to 9.4% — The American economy lost 247,000 jobs in July, and in a reversal, the unemployment rate fell slightly, to 9.4 percent, the government reported Friday. — Although businesses are expected to keep cutting jobs through the rest of the year …

Discussion: Reuters, Washington Post, Indecision Forever, The Daily Dish, Associated Press, RedState, Wonk Room, Washington Monthly, ProPublica, Above the Law, TalkLeft and Matthew Yglesias

Daniel Indiviglio / The Atlantic Business Channel:
Did The Unemployment Rate Really Go Down? — As Derek wrote …

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Confluence and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Susan Crabtree / The Hill:

Dodd, Conrad cleared in Countrywide probe — The Senate Ethics Committee on Friday dismissed complaints against Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.) over their participation in Countrywide Financial Corp.'s VIP lending program. — But the panel cautioned the senators …

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Monthly, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Michelle Malkin

U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd:
Senate Ethics Committee Clears Senator Dodd

Discussion: Capitol Briefing, CREW and CT News Junkie

New York Times:

Taliban Leader in Pakistan Is Reportedly Killed — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Baitullah Mehsud, the main leader of Pakistan's fearsome Taliban movement, was killed Wednesday in a C.I.A. drone missile strike, two Taliban fighters said Friday, though American and Pakistani officials could not confirm the reports.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Jawa Report, Newsweek, ATTACKERMAN, The Long War Journal, The Washington Independent, Democracy in America, Danger Room, PrairiePundit and Registan.net

Bill Roggio / The Long War Journal:
‘Baitullah Mehsud is alive’ - US intelligence official

Discussion: DAWN.COM, Newshoggers.com, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Defense Tech and BBC

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

Americans for Prosperity Compares Health Care Reform To Holocaust, Tells Protesters To Put ‘Fear Of God’ In Members Of Congress — During the course of the last week, you may have wondered why anti-health care reform activists are so riled up—what buttons are being pushed by the people encouraging the town hall disruptions.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly and ColoradoPols.com

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Widening Gyre — We had a number of emails last night discussing …

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Reactions to Rush Limbaugh's Obama/Hitler comparison — [updated below (ADL) - Update II (Simon Wiesenthal Center)] — As I noted yesterday, the comparison of an anonymous person in the 2004 MoveOn.org ad contest of Bush to Hitler generated a massive media firestorm for a full week …

Discussion: Political Punch and Below The Beltway

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
GOP political tactics and media inanity in a nutshell

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Abf / We'll Know When We Get There:

Sincerely, John Hughes — I was babysitting for my mom's friend Kathleen's daughter the night I wrote that first fan letter to John Hughes. I can literally remember the yellow grid paper, the blue ball point pen and sitting alone in the dim light in the living room, the baby having gone to bed.

Elinor Mills / CNET News:

Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user — A Georgian blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Google's Blogger and YouTube was targeted in a denial-of-service attack that led to the sitewide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on Thursday, according to a Facebook executive.

Discussion: Guardian, Bits, The Register, Silicon Alley Insider, On Deadline, MediaFile and New York Times

David Harsanyi / Denver Post:

Presenting new rules for radicals — If you're a virtuous and patriotic American, you may find this column either offensive or misleading. If so, please forward it to White House authorities at the Department of Fishy Activity. (E-mail the good people at flag@whitehouse.gov.)

Discussion: Dr. Helen

Jonathan D. Glater / New York Times:

Another Hurdle for the Jobless: Credit Inquiries — Digging out of debt keeps getting harder for the unemployed as more companies use detailed credit checks to screen job prospects. — Out of work since December, Juan Ochoa was delighted when a staffing firm recently responded to his posting …

Discussion: Megan McArdle, The Atlantic Business Channel, MoJo Blog Posts, The Washington Independent and Gawker

Raymond Hernandez / New York Times:

Gillibrand Rival Won't Run in Primary — WASHINGTON — Representative Carolyn B. Maloney announced Friday that she had changed her mind and had decided not to mount a Democratic primary challenge against Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand in next year's election.

Discussion: Capitol Briefing, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and New York Post