Top Items:
New York Times:
Democrats Seem Set to Go Alone on a Health Bill — WASHINGTON — Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority's cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.
Discussion:
Political Punch, The Plum Line, Hot Air, Matthew Yglesias, Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars, Salon, The Huffington Post, PERRspectives, RedState, Hullabaloo, Erick's blog, The Note, The Moderate Voice, CNN, NPR Blogs, YID With LID, Sweetness & Light, MoJo Blog Posts, Boston Globe, The New Argument, Commentary, Think Progress, Daily Kos, Right Wing Nut House, The Reaction, The Sundries Shack, The Strata-Sphere, Congress Matters, Wake up America, Raw Story, QandO, Glenn Thrush's Blog, PoliBlog, The Hill, Scared Monkeys, CBS News, The Monkey Cage, The Confluence, The Washington Independent, The Page, Don Surber, Atlas Shrugs, Open Left and the albany project
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Nat Hentoff / Jewish World Review:
I am finally scared of a White House administration — The members of that ultimate federal board will themselves not have examined or seen the patient in question. For another example of the growing, tumultuous resistance to “Dr. Obama,” particularly among seniors, there is a July 29 …
Washington Post:
White House Is Seeking to Repair Intraparty Rift About Public Option — Public Option Wasn't Intended as Major Focus — President Obama's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that they were unprepared for the intraparty rift that occurred over the fate of a proposed public health insurance program …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Capitol Briefing, Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The Hill's Pundits Blog, Think Progress, TPMDC, USA Today, AMERICAblog News, TalkLeft, Hullabaloo, Emptywheel, Reuters, CBS News, Taylor Marsh, The Caucus, RedState, The Media Consortium, NY Daily News, Reason, Congress Matters and Right Wing News
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
Time to Give Up on the Public Option — Enough already with the public option! — It is not the be-all and end-all of health-care reform. It is not the long-awaited safety net for the uninsured. And if, as many liberals hope, it turns out to be nothing more than Medicare for All …
Rasmussen Reports:
Without Public Option, Enthusiasm for Health Care Reform, Especially Among Democrats, Collapses — Just 34% of voters nationwide support the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats if the so-called “public option” is removed.
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
TIPPING POINT.... By all appearances, Democrats have gone above and beyond in trying to secure at least some Republican support for health care reform. GOP leaders have gotten a lot of face time at the White House. Dems have signaled a willingness to make all kinds of concessions.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Salon, Hullabaloo, The Mahablog, Firedoglake, Progress Illinois and Dennis the Peasant
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Grassley to Dems: Let's keep working together — Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the powerful Republican who has spent weeks working on a healthcare reform compromise, is urging Democrats not to abandon bipartisan talks despite growing pressure from liberal activists and White House officials.
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
NBC poll: Doubts over Obama health plan
NBC poll: Doubts over Obama health plan
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, TPMDC, Open Congress, FiveThirtyEight, Health Care Policy …, Hot Air, Fox News, Washington Wire, The Daily Dish, The Smirking Chimp, Angry Bear, Washington Monthly, Sweetness & Light, Los Angeles Times, NOW! Blog, Real Clear Politics, Brendan Nyhan, NewsBusters.org, Washington Post and AMERICAblog News
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CREATING A STRONG INCENTIVE TO LIE.... Following up on the earlier item …
CREATING A STRONG INCENTIVE TO LIE.... Following up on the earlier item …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Blue Dog: Votes aren't there to go it alone on public option
Blue Dog: Votes aren't there to go it alone on public option
Discussion:
TPMDC
Conor Clarke / The Daily Dish:
Time To Let Go Of The Public Option — I have decently warm feelings …
Time To Let Go Of The Public Option — I have decently warm feelings …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
CNN:
Barney Frank goes toe to toe at health care town hall — (CNN) — Most Congress members conducting town hall meetings this month have chosen a noncombative posture to deal with angry participants who disrupt the proceedings. Not Rep. Barney Frank. — At a lively two-hour meeting Tuesday night …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Capitol Briefing, Fox News, Think Progress, Liberal Values, Althouse, Mediaite and Outside The Beltway
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Barney Frank's Townhall — Obviously, not all aspects of the Barney Frank Experience are going to play in Peoria, but I think his fighting spirit is something that progressive politicians in jurisdictions of all kinds could learn from: — Voters don't have a great deal of knowledge about the issues …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
CNN Fails to Report Woman Comparing Obama to Hitler is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat — CNN's Larry King showed the above video of Barney Frank laying the smack down on a woman at a townhall meeting who compared Obama to Hitler. CNN left out the fact that this woman is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, JammieWearingFool, HotAirPundit, TPMDC, NECN, Michelle Malkin, The Washington Independent, Gawker, Mediaite and Ben Smith's Blog
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Was Barney Frank's ‘Nazi’ Questioner a LaRouche Cultist? [UPDATE: Confirmed]
Was Barney Frank's ‘Nazi’ Questioner a LaRouche Cultist? [UPDATE: Confirmed]
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, Boing Boing, Reason, Shakesville and Personal Democracy Forum blogs
Ryan Sager / New York Times:
Keep Off the Astroturf — WITH the “public option” part of President Obama's health care reform plan looking dead in the water, many of its supporters are taking issue with the legitimacy of its opposition. “We call it ‘Astroturf,’ ” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said of the protesters at town-hall meetings.
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Domenico Montanaro / msnbc.com:
FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA'S GOOD, BAD NEWS — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg — *** Good news and bad news: The (relatively) good news for the Obama White House in the new NBC News poll is that the contours of the health-care debate haven't really changed …
Discussion:
Think Progress
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Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Axelrod's ties targeted in health fight — Critics of President Obama's health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser David Axelrod, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight.
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Jo Becker / New York Times:
A Conservative's Road to Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy — Theodore B. Olson's office is a testament to his iconic status in the conservative legal movement. A framed photograph of Ronald Reagan, the first of two Republican presidents Mr. Olson served, is warmly inscribed with “heartfelt thanks.”
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, The Corner on National …, The Daily Dish, New York Magazine, #gay, Law Dork, Law Blog, Gawker and The Huffington Post
Carla Marinucci / San Francisco Chronicle:
Senate bid dogged by Fiorina's failure to vote — (08-18) 19:51 PDT — Republican Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, took her first formal step Tuesday to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer - but does she pass the Citizenship 1o1 test?
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Warren E. Buffett / New York Times:
The Greenback Effect — IN nature, every action has consequences, a phenomenon called the butterfly effect. These consequences, moreover, are not necessarily proportional. For example, doubling the carbon dioxide we belch into the atmosphere may far more than double the subsequent problems for society.
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Brad Plumer / The New Republic:
McKinsey On The Case For Playing Nice With China
McKinsey On The Case For Playing Nice With China
Discussion:
MoJo Blog Posts
James Brown / CBS News:
TV News Giant Don Hewitt Dies At 86 — CBS News Legend And “60 Minutes” Creator's Career Spanned 60 Years — (CBS) Don Hewitt, recognized as a father of modern television news and the creator of the medium's most successful broadcast, “60 Minutes,” died Wednesday after battling pancreatic cancer.
Martin Feldstein / Wall Street Journal:
ObamaCare Is All About Rationing — Overspending is far preferable to artificially limiting the availability of new procedures and technologies. — Printer — Friendly — Although administration officials are eager to deny it, rationing health care is central to President Barack Obama's health plan.
Discussion:
Democracy in America, Betsy's Page, Pundit & Pundette, Sense of Events, The Greenroom and BizzyBlog
Larry Rohter / New York Times:
New Doubts Raised Over Famous War Photo — After nearly three-quarters of a century Robert Capa's “Falling Soldier” picture from the Spanish Civil War remains one of the most famous images of combat ever. It is also one of the most debated, with a long string of critics claiming that the photo …
Discussion:
The New Republic
Sam Dagher / New York Times:
At Least 95 Killed in Series of Attacks in Baghdad — BAGHDAD — At least 95 people were killed and 563 wounded in a series of truck bombings and other attacks on Wednesday that rocked areas around official buildings in central Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.