memeorandum: Another Hurdle for the Jobless: Credit Inquiries (Jonathan D. Glater/New York Times)

2:25 PM ET, August 7, 2009

Top Items:

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: TPMDC, Moe_Lane's blog, Moonbattery, Right Wing Nut House, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gateway Pundit, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Althouse, Wake up America, Confederate Yankee, The Jawa Report, Outside The Beltway, Political Punch, NewsBusters.org, Blogs of War and Talking Points Memo

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, Washington Monthly, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Campaign Spot, Brendan Nyhan, Neptunus Lex, Media Research Center, rubber hose, The Foundry, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Prairie Weather 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: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Crooks and Liars, Pajamas Media, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, Jules Crittenden, The Huffington Post, The Campaign Spot, The Note, The Mahablog, The Volokh Conspiracy, Discriminations, TalkLeft and American Power

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, The Opinionator, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Gawker, Boston Globe, Mediaite, Zandar Versus The Stupid, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Anchoress, The Strata-Sphere, JustOneMinute, PrairiePundit 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 …

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

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 Jawa Report, Don Surber, CatherineFavazza.com, The Greenroom, RedState, American Power, St. Louis Tea Party and The Mahablog

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

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

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

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Red County, 209.157.64.200, Pundit & Pundette and Erick's blog

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

Discussion: Right Wing News

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

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

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

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

Gateway Pundit:
SHOCK VIDEO— DEMS SNEAK UNION THUGS INTO CARNAHAN TOWN HALL …

Discussion: Hot Air, GayPatriot and JammieWearingFool

CBS News:
Teabaggers Shout Down Tampa Bay Town Hall

Discussion: Doug Ross and NewsBusters.org

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

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs and Maggie's Farm

Attaturk / Firedoglake:
“The Other” — Now that a Democrat is in the White House,

Discussion: Daily Kos

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

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, Swing State Project, FiveThirtyEight, Hot Air, Senate Guru, NPR Blogs, Daily Kos, Michelle Malkin, The Page and The Buzz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion: TPMDC, Naked Politics, Sister Toldjah and National Review

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, The Washington Independent, The Long War Journal, Democracy in America, ATTACKERMAN, Danger Room, PrairiePundit, Power Line, Registan.net and MoJo Blog Posts

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, The Daily Dish, TalkLeft, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias, RedState, Wonk Room and ProPublica

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

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: New York Times, Silicon Alley Insider, The Register, MediaFile and Mashable!

Tom Parfitt / Guardian:
Georgian blames net attack on Russia

Discussion: Epicenter and New York Times

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

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.

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

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

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

GOP political tactics and media inanity in a nutshell — (updated below - Update II - Update II) — Rush Limbaugh today, speaking to his audience of 15 million, compares Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Nancy Pelosi to Nazi leaders (h/t Atrios): — Fox News, January 6, 2004:

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Reactions to Rush Limbaugh's Obama/Hitler comparison

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Felix Salmon:

Ben Stein finally Expelled from NY Times — You'll forgive me if I take some small measure of credit for this one: after something in the region of 35,000 words of the Ben Stein Watch, the world's worst financial columnist has finally been fired from the New York Times. And I couldn't be happier.

Discussion: Gawker