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3:55 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 …
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.
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Life After the Death of the Public Option
Michelle Malkin:
White House public option ploy: A trial balloon, not a white flag
Matt Taibbi / Taibblog:
Obama's Pre-emptive Health Care Surrender
Discussion: Taylor Marsh and The Awl
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:   Weiner: Senate healthcare deal could cost 100 House votes
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
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:
Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:
Palin Was Right on the “Death Panels” …
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 …
Associated Press:
Obama administration says marriage law unfair  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration filed court papers Monday claiming a federal marriage law discriminates against gays, even as government lawyers continue to defend the law.  —  Justice Department lawyers are seeking to dismiss …
RELATED:
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Obama underlines DOMA opposition
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
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
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Israelis sour on Rahm  —  As the Obama administration presses Israel to cease settlement expansion as part of a renewed push for a Middle East peace deal—a course of action that many Israelis have interpreted as evidence of the president's favoritism towards Palestinians …
Discussion: Israpundit and Israel Matzav
RELATED:
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.
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 …
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 …
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: 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
Reid Wilson / The Hill:
Obama, Biden to raise money for Specter  —  Sen. Arlen Specter (D) will welcome President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to Pennsylvania in the coming months as he looks to build his financial lead in his race for reelection.  —  The president will attend a Sept. 15 fundraiser …
Discussion: RedState
Fox News:
Auto Dealers Paid for Just 2 Percent of ‘Clunkers’ Claims, Congressman Says  —  Rep. Joe Sestak says only 2 percent of claims have been paid and that four of every five applications have been “rejected for minor oversight.”  —  FOXNews.com  —  The federal government has only reimbursed auto dealers …
Discussion: Hot Air
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ORRIN HATCH, PAINFULLY CONFUSED.... It's frightening to think this guys was involved for months with the center-right negotiations in the Senate Finance Committee.  —  On ABC's “This Week” yesterday, Jake Tapper asked Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah a good question.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Gromer Jeffers Jr / Dallas Morning News:
Kay Bailey Hutchison kicks off run for Texas governor
Discussion: Washington Wire and The Caucus
John Kenagy / The Huffington Post:
Solving the Healthcare Reform Puzzle
CNN:
Holbrooke: Taliban leader dead or he'd be on TV
Discussion: The Long War Journal
 Earlier Items: 
Reuters:
Reader's Digest plans to file for US bankruptcy
Discussion: The Other McCain
Michael Yon:
The Kopp-Etchells Effect
Bill Rankin / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Court says Troy Davis can present evidence
Discussion: SCOTUSblog and The Moderate Voice
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
ARMEY'S STANDARDS, MEMORY LACKING.... On “Meet the Press” …
Discussion: Jezebel and Eschaton
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
The Press Loves a Hero, but . . .
Discussion: Firedoglake and Gawker