memeorandum: France Fights Universal Care's High Cost (David Gauthier-Villars/Wall Street …)

11:30 AM 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: Matthew Yglesias, The Opinionator, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Neptunus Lex, Brendan Nyhan, rubber hose, Prairie Weather, Obsidian Wings, Paul Krugman, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, John Stossel's Take, JammieWearingFool and Reason

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, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Huffington Post, TalkLeft, Jules Crittenden, The Mahablog, American Power, Reason and Connecting.the.Dots

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: JustOneMinute, PrairiePundit, Boston Globe, The Anchoress, Zandar Versus The Stupid, No More Mister Nice Blog and National Review

Adam Smith / St. Petersburg Times:

Protesters drown out Tampa health care summit — TAMPA - Bitter divisions over reforming America's health care system exploded Thursday night in Tampa amid cat calls, jeering and shoving at a town hall meeting. — “Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!” dozens of people shouted as U.S …

Jon Henke / The Next Right:

The Mob Revealed — Reports out of Florida indicate that Democrats have decided to do something about the emerging threat of those pesky voters talking back to their betters. You see, the way it works is the politicians talk AT the people, and the people shut up and listen. These angry people are doing it wrong.

Discussion: Red County, Pundit & Pundette, Erick's blog, RedState and American Power

Attaturk / Firedoglake:

“The Other” — Now that a Democrat is in the White House, — without Howard Kurtz's castigation. — Suck on that, single Move-On contest entrant. — As is often elaborated upon here, there are huge flaws in the health care plan (d)evolving through Congress, for example insurance companies …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Shakesville

The Huffington Post:
Tampa Town Hall On Health Care Reform Disrupted By Violence (VIDEO)

Discussion: Facing South, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Think Progress, Washington Post, Pam's House Blend, The Huffington Post, News Hounds, The Plum Line, Paul Krugman, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG and American Power

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

Discussion: Power Line, Salon, Don Surber and Glenn Thrush's Blog

Fox News:
Health Care Town Halls Turn Violent in Tampa, St. Louis

Discussion: Denver Post and Power Line

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Fist Fight(s?) at Tampa Townhall

Discussion: TBO News Breaking and The Impolitic

RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Violence Erupts At Rep. Castor's Town Hall In Tampa

Discussion: Newsalert

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: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Moe_Lane's blog, The Jawa Report, Wake up America, TPMDC, Taylor Marsh, Confederate Yankee, NewsBusters.org, Outside The Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Blogs of War, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Capitol Briefing, PrairiePundit, QandO, St. Louis Tea Party and Conservatives4Palin.com

Patterico's Pontifications:

Angry Mob of Racist Extremists Beats Black Man at Town Hall Meeting — I guess the Democrats were right after all. At a town meeting held by a Democrat congressman, a rowdy group of organized and angry thugs showed up to make a point about ObamaCare, and then beat up a man.

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: protein wisdom, thedanashow.wordpress.com, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Piece of Work In Progress

Gateway Pundit:

SHOCK VIDEO— DEMS SNEAK UNION THUGS INTO CARNAHAN TOWN HALL— 1,000 Tea Party Taxpayers Locked Out! — Over 1,000 St. Louis Tea Party Taxpayers showed up at the Russ Carnahan town hall meeting in South St. Louis tonight. — They were Locked Out! — But... The Carnahan staff was sneaking …

Discussion: Hot Air, GayPatriot, Reboot Congress, Wizbang and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Dueling protesters disrupt Carnahan forum on aging

Discussion: Fired Up! Missouri, On Deadline, Atlas Shrugs, Below The Beltway and NPR Blogs

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
WH to Dems: Punch back twice as hard

Discussion: New York Times, The Huffington Post, New York Times, St. Louis Tea Party, Washington Post, The Jawa Report, Pajamas Media, The Strata-Sphere, Hot Air, JammieWearingFool, GayPatriot, The Reaction and Columbian

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

Discussion: Maggie's Farm, Atlas Shrugs and Gathering of Eagles: NY

New York Times:

Taliban Leader in Pakistan Was Killed, His Aides Say — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Baitullah Mehsud, the main leader of Pakistan's fearsome Taliban militia, was killed Wednesday in a C.I.A. missile strike, two Taliban fighters said Friday, but a spokesman for Pakistan's military, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas …

Discussion: Power Line, Democracy in America, ATTACKERMAN, democracyarsenal.org, Registan.net, Danger Room, PrairiePundit, The Washington Independent and The Page

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

Discussion: BBC and The Strata-Sphere

Los Angeles Times:
Death of Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mahsud is confirmed

Discussion: Mudville Gazette

ABCNEWS:
U.S. Official: ‘Strong Indications’ …

Discussion: The Long War Journal, New York Times, The Washington Independent, The Lede, Don Surber, Hot Air, FP Passport, PrairiePundit, ATTACKERMAN and Jihad Watch

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: TalkLeft, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Associated Press, Donklephant and The Glittering Eye

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

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog

Annys Shin / Washington Post: Job Losses Slow to 247,000; Unemployment Rate Dips

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: Washington Wire, Central Florida Political …, The Page, Salon and Below The Beltway

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: The Register, Guardian, MediaFile, Mashable!, The Glittering Eye and TechCrunch

The Hill:

Axelrod gives Dems their health talking points — Senate Democrats are girding themselves for a month of vigorous debate over healthcare reform, armed with a new set of talking points from David Axelrod, the president's chief political strategist. — Axelrod and Jim Messina …

Discussion: The Foundry

The Huffington Post:
Reid Backs Off Health Care Deadline

Discussion: TPMDC

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: Michelle Malkin, The Mahablog, American Power, RedState and St. Louis Tea Party

David Gauthier-Villars / Wall Street Journal:

France Fights Universal Care's High Cost — When Laure Cuccarolo went into early labor on a recent Sunday night in a village in southern France, her only choice was to ask the local fire brigade to whisk her to a hospital 30 miles away. A closer one had been shuttered by cost cuts in France's universal health system.

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts and Stop The ACLU

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 and PrairiePundit

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Sotomayor Faces Big Workload of Complex Cases — Now comes the hard part. — With the Senate's approval of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday, the new justice will soon take on one of the most demanding jobs in the land. — Just over a month from now …

Discussion: TPMDC, OpenSecrets.org, The BLT, Law Blog, Washington Post and The Volokh Conspiracy