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.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, JustOneMinute, Jezebel, Swampland, Political Punch, Jay Bookman, Gawker, Taylor Marsh, The Awl, The Mahablog, Tim Blair and Kausfiles
RELATED:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE EVOLUTION OF A LIE.... Earlier this year, Tom Daschle hosted some public discussions on health care, and would occasionally be confronted with questions about “forced euthanasia.” In general, he was delighted. “Almost automatically you have most of the audience on your side,” Daschle said.
Chris Kelly / The Huffington Post:
Sarah Palin Wins — The Senate Finance Committee has stripped a provision to reimburse Medicare doctors who provide end-of-life counseling to dying patients from its version of health care reform. Take that, Hitler. — Hitler, like I have to tell you, supports Medicare reimbursement …
Discussion:
protein wisdom
Attaturk / Firedoglake:
One-Tin Soldier — Mr. President; you know I like you, I respect you. I know that occasionally we liberals are difficult to deal with because somebody has to stand up for the person who is above drawing Hitler mustaches or screaming like a 2-year old. So people take us for granted, including you.
Discussion:
Wonkette
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision
Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision
Discussion:
QandO, The Politico, FiveThirtyEight, Obsidian Wings, The Confluence, The Other McCain, Washington Monthly, Conservatives4Palin.com, Gateway Pundit, NO QUARTER, Freedom's Lighthouse, New York Magazine, Sweetness & Light, Atlas Shrugs, The Note, Weasel Zippers, Taylor Marsh, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Michelle Malkin, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Political Carnival, Right Wing News, Little Green Footballs, CBS News, Below The Beltway, Iowa Independent and Donklephant
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Breaking: Finance Committee drops “death panel” provisions from Senate bill
Breaking: Finance Committee drops “death panel” provisions from Senate bill
Discussion:
American Power, Gateway Pundit, Pat Dollard, Blue Crab Boulevard, Moe_Lane's blog, Salon, Conservatives4Palin.com, neo-neocon, The Note and CBS News
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
All Hail Bipartisanship! …
All Hail Bipartisanship! …
Discussion:
RBO, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, The Impolitic, Salon, Wall Street Journal and PERRspectives
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 …
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.”
Discussion:
Think Progress, Townhall.com, ColorOfChange.org, Washington Monthly, RedState and The Huffington Post
RELATED:
Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:
E-mails from public overload House Web site — WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid a boisterous debate on health care reform, people flooded members of Congress on Thursday with so many e-mails that they overloaded the House's primary Web site. — Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House's chief administrative officer …
RELATED:
Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post:
Obama to Take On Health-Care Critics
Obama to Take On Health-Care Critics
Discussion:
Roll Call, Cato @ Liberty, CBS News, Matthew Yglesias, Truthdig and The Washington Independent
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
GOP thinks the unthinkable: Victory in 2010 — It's a possibility many Republicans speak of only in whispers and Democrats are just now beginning to face. After passionate and contentious fights over health care, the environment, and taxes, could Democrats lose big — really big — in next year's elections?
Discussion:
Redhot
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Learfield / Radio Iowa:
Boswell: Obama willing to be one-term president — Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines, Iowa) held a town hall meeting in Sigourney this afternoon. Despite one group's ad which “thanks Boswell for his support” of health care reform, Boswell told the crowd he may vote against it.
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.
WRAL-TV:
Sources: Edwards to admit paternity of ex-mistress' child — RALEIGH, N.C. — Sources have told WRAL News that they expect former U.S. Sen. John Edwards to admit that he is the father of his former mistress' 18-month-old daughter. — Edwards, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate …
Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:
Newt's advice for Palin comeback — If Sarah Palin wants to make a 2012 political comeback, she'll need three types of speeches, some serious television face time, a credible organization and a bucket load of sheer determination. — Oh, and she might want to get a place outside of Alaska, somewhere in the lower 48.
The Huffington Post:
Clinton Urges Progressive Push On Health Care, Shoots Down Euthanasia Myth — In a speech rallying progressives to make one last major push to pass health care reform, former President Bill Clinton accused Republicans of propagating a campaign of disinformation reminiscent of the effort to bring down his own attempt at reform.
Discussion:
On Deadline
RELATED:
Monica Potts / Stamford Advocate:
Stamford Marriott claims woman was negligent in her own rape — STAMFORD — A downtown hotel being sued by a woman raped at gunpoint in its parking garage is claiming she was careless, negligent and “failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use …
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.
BBC:
Iran inmates ‘tortured to death’ — One of Iran's defeated opposition presidential candidates has said some protesters held after July's disputed poll were tortured to death in prison. — The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number of prisoners, both male and female, had been raped.
Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:
Hardball: Lawrence O'Donnell Exposes Clueless Town Hall Protester — Lawrence O'Donnell filled in for Chris Matthews on Hardball Wednesday, and somehow managed to avoid savaging clueless town hall protester, Katy Abram. Abram went on a moronic tirade at Senator Arlen Specter's town hall meeting on Tuesday …
Judson Berger / Fox News:
‘Town Halls’ a Chance for the President, Not the Public, to Vent — A look at President Obama's health care “town hall” Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H., shows the president out-spoke his audience by a margin of nearly 9-to-1 — hardly the kind of even-handed exchange of ideas that marked the town meetings of colonial America.
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Senior Moment — Why the elderly are right to worry when the government rations medical care. — Printer — Friendly — Elderly Americans are turning out in droves to fight ObamaCare, and President Obama is arguing back that they have nothing to worry about. Allow us to referee.
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.
The Daily Beast:
The GOP's Misplaced Rage — Blogs and Stories — Leading conservative economist Bruce Bartlett writes that the Obama-hating town-hall mobs have it wrong—the person they should be angry with left the White House seven months ago. — Where is the evidence that everything would be better if Republicans were in charge?
Discussion:
The Awl, BlueOregon, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog, Economist's View, INSTAPUTZ and Reason
Bloomberg:
Six Lobbyists Per Lawmaker Work to Shape Health-Care Overhaul — Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — If there is any doubt that President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul U.S. health care is the hottest topic in Congress, just ask the 3,300 lobbyists who have lined up to work on the issue.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Brian Maloney / The Radio Equalizer:
MSNBC Libtalker Ed Schultz: Opponents Want Obama Dead — THE ‘ED’ POOL — Schultz Claims Conservatives ‘Want Obama To Get Shot’ — *** EXCLUSIVE TO THE RADIO EQUALIZER *** — With ObamaCare running into enormous public opposition, the effort by Democrats to demonize both concerned citizens …
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Gates: No Troop Request In Afghanistan Review — The U.S. commander in Afghanistan will not make a specific request for more troops when he submits a review of the situation there in the coming weeks, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday. — Instead, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal …
Paul Cullum / Blogs and Stories:
The Banned ‘Family Guy’ Episode — Blogs and Stories — Last night, The Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane hosted a reading of an episode censored by Fox for being too controversial. Paul Cullum attended to hear the jokes that got it spiked. — It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV.