Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
4:35 PM ET, August 17, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Administration Official: “Sebelius Misspoke.”  —  An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “misspoke” when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option “is not an essential part” of reform.
RELATED:
Mike Allen / The Politico:
White House disables e-tip box  —  Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag@whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on “fishy” claims about President Barack Obama's health plan.
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Sorry, Can't Pass Health Care Bill Without a Public Option  —  The headline in The Hill says it loud and clear: … Many people are rightly upset that the White House is sending stronger and stronger signals that they are willing to jettison a public option.
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Anthony Weiner: Not Including Public Plan Will Cost Reform “100 Votes” in the House  —  [Jane will be appearing on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports today at 1pm EDT.  —Ed.]  —  When I wrote that 64 Democrats in the House had pledged to vote against a health care bill with no public plan …
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Liberal Dems alarmed by public option move  —  Liberal Democrats are alarmed by President Barack Obama's weakening support for a “public option” to compete with private insurance companies as part of his healthcare initiative.  —  “Leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling …
Jay Cost / HorseRaceBlog:
Obama Misread His Mandate  —  After a rough week for health care reform, Democratic leaders appear to be pulling back on their demand for a public option.  It remains to be seen whether liberal Democrats, especially in the House where they are more numerous, will go along with this.
Matt Taibbi / Taibblog:
Obama's Pre-emptive Health Care Surrender
Discussion: Taylor Marsh and The Awl
Michelle Malkin:
White House public option ploy: A trial balloon, not a white flag
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Life After the Death of the Public Option
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:   Weiner: Senate healthcare deal could cost 100 House votes
Matt Spetalnick / Reuters:
RPT-Obama to seek to rally support for Afghan war effort
Discussion: AmSpecBlog
National Review:
Rationing and Rationality  —  Defined at a high level of abstraction, rationing is inevitable in medicine.  Not everything that might be in a patient's best interest can be done in a world of finite resources, and some constraint has to limit his treatment.  Thus the left-wing jibe that the market features “rationing by price.”
RELATED:
CNSNews:
Conservatives Now Outnumber Liberals in All 50 States, Says Gallup Poll  —  (CNSNews.com) - Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.  —  At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year …
Discussion: Don Surber
John Faherty / Arizona Republic:
Obama: ‘Honored and humbled’ to speak before veterans in Phoenix  —  Police report no arrests or calls for medical assistance  —  President Barack Obama came to Phoenix this morning to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention.  —  But the real story, was on the streets outside …
RELATED:
Rachel Slajda / Talking Points Memo:
Man Carrying An Assault Rifle And Pistol Outside Obama Event
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Swiss Menace  —  It was the blooper heard round the world.  In an editorial denouncing Democratic health reform plans, Investor's Business Daily tried to frighten its readers by declaring that in Britain, where the government runs health care, the handicapped physicist Stephen Hawking …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Mike Huckabee bashes America on foreign soil  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  Mike Huckabee this week traveled to a foreign country and, speaking on foreign soil, is now bashing America in front of a foreign audience: … According to Haaretz, Huckabee is joined on this trip by …
RELATED:
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Israelis sour on Rahm
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Exclusive: New Poll Finds Majority Of Republicans Either Believes Or Isn't Sure About “Death Panel” Claim  —  Wow.  A forthcoming poll by the nonpartisan Research 2000 for DailyKos finds that a majority of Republicans either believes, or isn't sure about, the claim that the Dem health care proposal …
Discussion: Weekly Standard and TPMDC
Ross Doutha / New York Times:
Telling Grandma ‘No’  —  When Democratic congressmen dream these days, they're tongue-tied in town halls, fumbling with their microphones while they're shouted down by slavering, pitchfork-wielding Limbaugh listeners.  —  But Barack Obama is wiser than most Democratic congressmen, and his nightmares are savvier.
Brad Heath / USA Today:
Poll: 57% don't see stimulus working  —  WASHINGTON — Six months after President Obama launched a $787 billion plan to right the nation's economy, a majority of Americans think the avalanche of new federal aid has cost too much and done too little to end the recession.  —  POLL RESULTS: Six questions
The Platform:
Truth and not-quite-truth in the health reform debate  —  As chairman of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Springfield, knows a thing or two about health care.  But some of what he knows just isn't true.  —  “I'm 59,” Mr. Blunt said last week during a meeting with Post-Dispatch reporters and editors.
Washington Post:
Time to Legalize Drugs  —  Undercover Baltimore police officer Dante Arthur was doing what he does well, arresting drug dealers, when he approached a group in January.  What he didn't know was that one of suspects knew from a previous arrest that Arthur was police.  Arthur was shot twice in the face.
Discussion: The Daily Dish and Reason
Emily Miller / Politics Daily:
Tom DeLay on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ — It's Hammer Time!  —  Tom DeLay, the former Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, will be a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars” when the popular ABC show premieres Sept. 21.  And, before you laugh or think this is going to be a joke …
Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Note and Don Surber
Benjamin L. Hartman / Associated Press:
Orly Taitz: Obama policies are ‘clear and present danger to Israel’  —  The driving force behind the ‘birther’ movement has found her star is rising in Israel.  —  U.S. President Barack Obama's domestic and foreign policies pose “a clear and present danger to Israel,” says the driving force behind …
Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:
Pentagon Worries Led to Command Change  —  McKiernan's Ouster Reflected New Realities in Afghanistan — and Washington  —  In mid-March, as a White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan was nearing completion, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen …
Kpicket / The washington times Blogs:
Video - Rep. Massa: I will vote against the interests of my district  —  Representative Eric Massa (D- NY) addressed an intimate group of Netroots activists during their annual Netroots Nation gathering in Pittsburgh this weekend.  Mr. Massa reiterated his support for a single payer health care bill.
Discussion: QandO and Dennis the Peasant
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Grassley Retracts Claim That Government Could “Pull The Plug On Grandma”  —  This passed unnoticed, but it's a big deal: Over the weekend, and very quietly, Senator Chuck Grassley completely retracted his widely-reported claim last week that people have “every reason to fear” …
Chris Bowers / Open Left:
Democratic Elites Urge Progressive Block To Fold  —  There are a lot of actions that progressives can take to help progressive health care legislation become law.  You can call members of Congress or the White House.  You can attend town hall events.  And, just as importantly …
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 4:35 PM ET, August 17, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Who's Hiring in Media? 
 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Charles Mahtesian / Scorecard's Blog:
Braley vs. Grassley?
Media Matters / Media Matters for America:
On Fox, Mark Sanford “(D)” holds press conference
Discussion: TPMDC
Fox News:
Auto Dealers Paid for Just 2 Percent of ‘Clunkers’ Claims, Congressman Says
Discussion: Hot Air
 Earlier Items: 
JammieWearingFool:
Profile in Cowardice: Florida Dem to Hold ‘Town Hall’ at Union HQ
Discussion: The Buzz
Reuters:
Reader's Digest plans to file for US bankruptcy
Discussion: The Other McCain
Bill Rankin / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Court says Troy Davis can present evidence
Discussion: SCOTUSblog and The Moderate Voice
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
The Press Loves a Hero, but . . .
Discussion: Firedoglake and Gawker
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ORRIN HATCH, PAINFULLY CONFUSED.... It's frightening to think this guys …
Discussion: The Treatment and ABCNEWS