Top Items:
USA Today:
‘Un-American’ attacks can't derail health care debate — Americans have been waiting for nearly a century for quality, affordable health care. — Health coverage for all was on the national agenda as early as 1912, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose presidential run.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Gateway Pundit, The Huffington Post, Top of the Ticket, Moe_Lane's blog, The Moderate Voice, JammieWearingFool, JustOneMinute, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Jawa Report, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Swamp, QandO, Townhall.com, Sense of Events, Flopping Aces, Daily Dose, American Power, Confederate Yankee, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Patterico's Pontifications, Below The Beltway, Political Byline, Politics Daily, YID With LID, Balloon Juice, Donklephant, Blue Crab Boulevard, Macsmind, Scared Monkeys, Right Wing News, Think Progress, The Plum Line, Taylor Marsh, Atlas Shrugs, Founding Bloggers, Don Surber, Raw Story, Perfunction, Pundit & Pundette, Dennis the Peasant, The Strata-Sphere, Michelle Malkin, Neptunus Lex, Freedom's Lighthouse, AmSpecBlog, Sister Toldjah, Cato @ Liberty, The Next Right, TPMDC, GayPatriot, Arkansas News, Shot in the Dark, The Campaign Spot, Sam Adams Alliance, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Caucus, Politics Nation, The Page, Instapundit, msnbc.com, Weasel Zippers and Newsalert
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Debra J. Saunders / San Francisco Chronicle:
Dissent is patriotic - not — Imagine it's four years ago and an aide to President George W. Bush posted a blog on the Whitehouse.gov Web site that bemoaned Internet criticism of the Iraq war, then continued: “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversations.
Andrew Breitbart / Washington Times:
I am Kenneth Gladney — OPINION/ANALYSIS: — The first round of protests against the Obama administration's chaotic and rapid-fire expansion of government came in the form of grass-roots “tea parties,” which were predictably met with scorn by the Democrat-Media Complex …
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Hoyer, Pelosi call protests against ObamaCare “un-American”
Hoyer, Pelosi call protests against ObamaCare “un-American”
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, The Huffington Post, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Swamp, JammieWearingFool, Gateway Pundit and Pat Dollard
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
GLADNEY THE UNINSURED ACTIVIST.... Over the last few days, a conservative activist in St. Louis named Kenneth Gladney seems to have become something of a cause celebre in far-right circles. Depending on which version of events you choose to believe, Gladney either initiated or was involved …
Discussion:
Gawker, Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, The Mahablog, Newshoggers.com and ColoradoPols.com
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Wall Street Journal:
Taliban Now Winning — U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Warns of Rising Casualties — By YOCHI J. DREAZEN in Kabul and PETER SPIEGEL in Washington — The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy …
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Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Unfunny Truth — It's been a melancholy summer for social conservatives. Their movement is fighting a rearguard battle in Barack Obama's Washington. A cluster of family-values politicians — some of whom bunked down in the same Christian-sponsored D.C. townhouse …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein, Sadly, No!, Cafe Talk Aggregator, pandagon.net, First Draft and TBogg
Michelle Malkin:
Rep. Tsongas tries to explain why Congress is exempt from Obamacare. Fails. — Herein lies the ultimate Achilles' Heel of Obamacare. Watch as Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas of Massachussetts attempts to explain why Congress is exempt from the government health care takeover mandates.
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Averting the Worst — So it seems that we aren't going to have a second Great Depression after all. What saved us? The answer, basically, is Big Government. — Just to be clear: the economic situation remains terrible, indeed worse than almost anyone thought possible not long ago.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Reason, DailyFinance, The Sideshow, D-Day, Grasping Reality …, Connecting.the.Dots, Arkansas News and Economist's View
Think Progress:
Gates ‘Furious’ That Brownback And Roberts Placed A Hold On McHugh's Army Secretary Nomination — President Obama named Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) in June as his nominee to become the next Secretary of the Army. Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved his nomination by voice vote …
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Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
Obama's Health Care Plan Just Expands Status Quo — “The status quo is unsustainable for families, businesses and government.” — President Obama, June 13 — One of the bewildering ironies of the health-care debate is that President Obama claims to be attacking the status quo when he's actually embracing it.
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Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
I Didn't Wake Up Planning to Write About Samuelson
I Didn't Wake Up Planning to Write About Samuelson
Discussion:
Ezra Klein
Jacob Gershman / New York Magazine:
Why Neoconservative Pundits Love Jon Stewart — Back in April, when the debate over torture was roaring, Jon Stewart invited Cliff May, a national-security hawk and former spokesman for the Republican Party, to come on The Daily Show and defend waterboarding. May was hesitant.
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama Job Approval: Highest in D.C., Hawaii, Vermont — PRINCETON, NJ — From the time Barack Obama took office as president until the end of June, 63% of Americans, on average, approved of the job he was doing. The breakdown of his half-year approval ratings at the state level shows …
Rasmussen Reports:
On Health Care, 51% Fear Government More Than Insurance Companies — When it comes to health care decisions, 51% of the nation's voters fear the federal government more than private insurance companies. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% hold the opposite view and fear the insurance companies more.
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Limbaugh responds to David Brooks' “insane” comment — Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that town-hall attendees critical of the Democratic health care makeover were “carrying swastikas and symbols like that” to meetings. The next day, Rush Limbaugh responded at length on his radio program …
CNN:
CNN Poll: Dems becoming less popular but no gains for GOP — WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new national poll indicates that the Democratic party's becoming less popular with voters. But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, suggests that the Republican party has not been able to capitalize on the Democrats' downturn.
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Prevention and Wellness — On Friday CBO released a letter that discusses how the agency's budget estimates reflect potential reductions in federal costs from improvements in health that might result from expanded governmental support for preventive medical care and wellness services.
Southern Beale:
Don't talk to me about death panels, Sarah Palin. — You, who so carelessly bolstered a lie about healthcare reform to score a cheap political point; you, the most craven of political opportunists, who fearmongers about some dystopian socialist/fascist fantasyland; you …
Jay Bookman:
It doesn't take Stephen Hawking to figure this one out — The conservative opinion magazine Human Events was reputedly Ronald Reagan's favorite read, and to this day fancies itself the house organ for the hard-right intelligentsia. Among those published regularly in its pages are such luminaries as Newt Gingrich and Ann Coulter.
Wall Street Journal:
Opposition Emerges to House's Jet Spree — WASHINGTON — Bipartisan opposition is emerging in the Senate to a plan by House lawmakers to spend $550 million for additional passenger jets for senior government officials. — The resistance to buying eight Gulfstream and Boeing planes comes …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, JustOneMinute, Top of the Ticket, Ben Smith's Blog, On Deadline, Wizbang, Wonkette and Right Pundits
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
If Only We Had Some Means of Taking Rich People's Money and Devoting it to Public Purposes — Internal Revenue Service headquarters, Washington DC (cc photo by cliff1066) — I don't think it should come as a shock that the Obama administration's efforts to reign-in or reform compensation policies …
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
George Soros Pledges $5 Million To Bankroll Health Care Reform Push, Group Says — In another sign of the urgency gripping the pro-health care reform camp, billionaire George Soros has pledged to sink $5 million into the fight, the group getting the money confirmed.
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
Where Are The Doctors? — I did not envision that we could get this far down the road toward fundamental health care reform with so little input in the public discourse from physicians. Sure, the AMA has come out in favor of the House bill that includes public option.
Scott / Power Line:
Does Linda Douglass know about this? — Last week White House flack Linda Douglass responded to a video of Barack Obama expressing support for a government takeover of the health care system (i.e., “single payer") with a vehement denial. Douglass disparaged the video of Obama as “disinformation.”