memeorandum: The White House deal with Big Pharma undermines democracy (Robert Reich/Salon)

3:50 PM ET, August 10, 2009

Top Items:

‘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: Think Progress, Weekly Standard, Gateway Pundit, Moe_Lane's blog, Top of the Ticket, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, JammieWearingFool, JustOneMinute, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Jawa Report, NewsBusters.org, Boston Globe, QandO, Daily Dose, The Swamp, Flopping Aces, Sense of Events, Confederate Yankee, American Power, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Townhall.com, Politics Daily, Patterico's Pontifications, theblogprof, Below The Beltway, YID With LID, Donklephant, Political Byline, Blue Crab Boulevard, Balloon Juice, Scared Monkeys, Right Wing News, The Plum Line, Taylor Marsh, Atlas Shrugs, Macsmind, Founding Bloggers, Raw Story, Freedom's Lighthouse, Don Surber, Perfunction, Pundit & Pundette, Dennis the Peasant, The Strata-Sphere, Michelle Malkin, Neptunus Lex, AmSpecBlog, Sister Toldjah, Cato @ Liberty, The Next Right, TPMDC, GayPatriot, Arkansas News, Shot in the Dark, Sam Adams Alliance, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Caucus, The Campaign Spot, The Page, Politics Nation and Instapundit

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.

Discussion: Wake up America, unbossed.com and Dean's World

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 …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, TBogg and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Peter Slevin / Washington Post:

Key Democrat Feels the Heat in Indiana District After Voting for House Health-Reform Plan — BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — “The war's on,” says Rep. Baron P. Hill, and he's not talking about a conflict overseas, but a battle over health care in his own back yard, where thousands of people are trying to tell him what to do, some not so nicely.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, DailyFinance and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Zaid Jilani / Think Progress:
Right Wing's Anti-Health Care Icon Is Uninsured, Seeking Donations To Pay For Care

Discussion: New York Magazine, Southern Beale and RedState

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: Talking Points Memo, Gawker, The Plum Line, The Mahablog, Newshoggers.com and ColoradoPols.com

Mark Steyn / The Corner:
Beat Me in St. Louis (cont)

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Gateway Pundit and Pundit & Pundette

Georgina Gustin / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Protestors gather outside closed union office

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice and Gateway Pundit

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

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 …

Discussion: democracyarsenal.org, Times of London, Right Pundits, The Washington Independent, Raw Story, Politics Daily, Jay Bookman, Wonk Room, Taylor Marsh, Informed Comment and msnbc.com

James Risen / New York Times:
U.S. to Hunt Down Afghan Drug Lords Tied to Taliban

Discussion: Guardian, Times of London, UN Dispatch, The Washington Independent, The Page and MyDD

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: The Atlantic Business Channel, Grasping Reality …, Free exchange, Reason, Washington Monthly, DailyFinance, The Sideshow, D-Day, Connecting.the.Dots, Arkansas News and Economist's View

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.

Discussion: Freedom's Lighthouse, QandO and The Jawa Report

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Tsongas: I won't take ObamaCare because I have better options

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, theblogprof and Blue Crab Boulevard

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.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Atlantic Business Channel, The Glittering Eye, Hullabaloo and Dennis the Peasant

Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
I Didn't Wake Up Planning to Write About Samuelson

Discussion: Ezra Klein

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 …

Discussion: Townhall.com, Facing South, Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo and AngryBlackBitch

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Beck agrees with Palin's ‘death panel’ claim: ‘I believe it to be true.’

Discussion: The New Republic, Glenn Thrush's Blog and Where's the Outrage?

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.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Liberal Values, Michael Calderone's Blog and Gawker

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 …

Discussion: Washington Wire, MoJo Blog Posts, Don Surber, Blue Hampshire and Real Clear Politics

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.

Discussion: Megan McArdle, Power Line, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Don Surber and Wake up America

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.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Eschaton and The Page

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 …

Discussion: Firedoglake, NewsBusters.org, Cold Fury, No More Mister Nice Blog and Power Line

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.

Discussion: Political Punch, The Daily Dish, Outside The Beltway and Wake up America

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 …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Top Stories from CQ, Washington Monthly and The Washington Independent

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, On Deadline, Ben Smith's Blog, Wizbang, Wonkette and Right Pundits

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.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Matthew Yglesias and Washington Monthly

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.

Discussion: Hot Air and Michelle Malkin

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 …

Discussion: New York Times, The Atlantic Business Channel and MoJo Blog Posts

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.

Discussion: Liberal Values and Althouse

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.”

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, The Foundry, Fausta's Blog, Cold Fury and The Right Coast