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8:20 PM ET, August 14, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots  —  WASHINGTON — The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama's health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks.
RELATED:
Amy Sullivan / Swampland:
Oh, Those Death Panels  —  You would think that if Republicans wanted to totally mischaracterize a health care provision and demagogue it like nobody's business, they would at least pick something that the vast majority of them hadn't already voted for just a few years earlier.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Multiple Republican Leaders Voted In 2003 For Measure Similar …
Discussion: msnbc.com
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
NYT's Jim Rutenberg Calls Out Death Panel Liars
Discussion: Firedoglake and American Power
Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
Obama: ‘TV loves a ruckus’  —  BELGRADE, Mont. — It was another town hall and another well-mannered crowd for President Barack Obama as he took his pitch for health care reform to the Rockies, telling residents of a small town in this big Republican state that none of the insurance nightmares raised by opponents will come true.
RELATED:
Slinkerwink / Firedoglake:
Senator Conrad Says He'll Vote Against the Public Option
Discussion: DownWithTyranny! and Ezra Klein
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Conrad Says He'll Vote Against The Public Option
Bloomberg:
Climate Change Measure Should Be Set Aside, U.S. Senators Say  —  Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say.
Emily Friedman / ABCNEWS:
Whole Foods CEO's Op-Ed: Bad Taste?  —  Branding Experts Say CEOs Should Stay Quiet When It Comes to Politics  —  Joshua has been taking the bus to his local Whole Foods in New York City every five days for the past two years.  This week, he said he'll go elsewhere to fulfill his fresh vegetable and organic produce needs.
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Host Loses Some Sponsors After an Obama Remark  —  ABOUT a dozen companies have withdrawn their commercials from “Glenn Beck,” the Fox News Channel program, after Glenn Beck, the person, said late last month that President Obama was a racist with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”
RELATED:
David Mark / The Politico:
Armey leaves firm amid health care flap  —  Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is resigning from DLA Piper law firm amid a wave of negative attention his grassroots organization, Freedom Works, has drawn for helping to organize protesters at health care town hall meetings with members of Congress.
RELATED:
Zachary Roth / TPMMuckraker:
Armey Leaves Lobby Firm, Citing Negative Attention Brought by FreedomWorks
Discussion: TPMDC and The Reaction
ABCNEWS:
Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash  —  Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President  —  Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Republican Death Trip  —  “I am in this race because I don't want to see us spend the next year re-fighting the Washington battles of the 1990s.  I don't want to pit Blue America against Red America; I want to lead a United States of America.”  So declared Barack Obama in November 2007 …
Wall Street Journal:
From ‘Yes, We Can,’ to 'No!  Don't!'  —  Obama turns out to be brilliant at becoming, not being, president.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Don't strain the system.  Don't add to the national stress level.  Don't pierce when you can envelop.  Don't show even understandable indignation when you can show legitimate regard.
Lane Hudson / Firedoglake:
Why I Interrupted Bill Clinton's Speech at Netroots Nation  —  I love Bill Clinton, but we all make mistakes.  Sometimes we even are forced to do things we don't want to.  That's why I was prepared to ask Bill Clinton a tough question last night as he delivered the opening keynote address at Netroots Nation 2009.
JammieWearingFool:
Brooklyn Mobsters: ‘You Are Bankrupting Our Country.  You Guys are Crooks’  —  Angry, un-American evil-monger dares to question a Democrat  —  Keep in mind as you read this that Anthony Weiner's district votes overwhelmingly for him every two years, and prior to that it was Chuckie Scumer's …
Ari Levy / Bloomberg:
Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point of No Return  —  Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank's equity and threaten its survival.
Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:
Down with the health insurers  —  Dear conservatives: Health insurance companies are not your friends.  Keep opposing a new government-run insurer, a single-payer plan, and new regulations on the HMOs.  But grant that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is correct on this: Insurance companies are villains.
Discussion: Reason and OpenMarket.org
Ed Henry / CNN:
Obama's big problem in Big Sky country  —  LIVINGSTON, Montana (CNN) — Spend a day in this tiny town about 23 miles or so from where President Obama held a town hall meeting on Friday, and it's easy to see why his health-care push is facing big problems in Big Sky country — even from the people he's trying to help.
CNN:
‘Squeaky’ Fromme released from prison  —  (CNN) — Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was released from federal custody Friday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said.  —  Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.
Discussion: Right Pundits
Zombie / zomblog:
Bush as Hitler, Swastika-Mania: A Retrospective  —  At recent rallies, town hall meetings and “tea parties,” a few protesters have shown up with signs comparing Obama to Hitler (i.e. depicting him with a Hitler mustache), or displaying swastikas in the context of implying that Obama and/or his administration are Nazi-like.
Jon Boone / Guardian:
Afghan law savages women's rights  —  Rehashed legislation allows husbands to deny wives food if they fail to obey sexual demands  —  Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Septuagenarian Twitter Flame War: Grassley Warns Specter He Never Said “Death Boards”  —  Earlier today, I reported that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) planned to call his old friend Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to admonish him that health care legislation will not result in the creation of death panels.
BBC:
Deadly gun battle in Gaza mosque  —  At least 13 people have been killed and at least 85 injured in a fierce gun battle in Gaza, emergency services say.  —  Eyewitnesses say hundreds of Hamas fighters and policemen surrounded a mosque where followers of a radical Islamist cleric were holed up.
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Nazis for Me, but Not for Thee  —  It's this week's fashion on the left, and among such fashionably contemplative moderates as Mort Kondracke, to blast Rush Limbaugh for comparing Democrats to the Nazis.  It's no surprise that the Obama hardcores are misrepresenting the sequence and substance of events …
Discussion: Right Pundits
Rasmussen Reports:
Voters Say Carter Is Best of Living Ex-Presidents  —  For nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%), Jimmy Carter is the living ex-president who has done the best job since leaving the White House, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.  —  Carter, who served in the White House …
Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Weasel Zippers
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blog:
Out with “Mobs”...  ...in with There Are Far More Civil Town Halls Taking Place That Conflict-Loving Cable News Stations Aren't Covering.  —  Roll Call's John Stanton:  —  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday argued that despite extensive media coverage of the protests …
Scot Lehigh / Boston Globe:
When the kooks take the stage  —  IT'S HARD TO SAY what's more amusing, the wild-eyed rants at town hall meetings or the conservative attempts to portray those snarling sentiments as genuine mainstream anger about the president's health care plans.  —  Some Republicans are gleeful in the hope …
Discussion: Don Surber
Jordan Fabian / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Palin signed resolution promoting end-of-life directives in 2008  —  Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) recently claimed that the end-of-live provision in the healthcare reform legislation would create a government “death panel” to decide such issues.  But during her term as governor …
Discussion: Riehl World View
The Huffington Post:
Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY  —  Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez.
CNSNews:
Speaking in Mexico, Obama Calls American Opponents of Immigration Amnesty ‘Demagogues’  —  (CNSNews.com) - At a joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Guadalajara, Mexico on Monday, President Barack Obama referred …
 
 
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 More Items: 
US News:
Mark Sanford's Wife Urged to Write Tell-All Book
City Room:
Back at Work, Harlem Store Owner Recounts Shooting
Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Pace of stimulus spending plummets
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Palin continues Facebook attacks on healthcare
Discussion: Salon and Washington Monthly
Kenneth Li / Financial Times:
TV ratings shake-up challenges Nielsen
Discussion: BuzzMachine and TVNewser
Pat G. / Think Progress:
Rove Claims ‘A Lot Of Economists’ …
Discussion: Washington Monthly
 Earlier Items: 
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Obama ‘bullied a lot?’ - no slam dunks
Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and The Politico
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Mixed News for Burr
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Senior Moment
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Guthrie Scrimgeour / Wired:
Hawaii's The Garden Island stops using AI-generated newscasters on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram after two months, likely due to the negative public response

Bloomberg:
The DOJ's proposal would require Google to divest from AI partnerships, like with Anthropic, and ban Google from offering exclusive deals to content providers

 
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