Top Items:
Frank Phillips / Boston Globe:
Kennedy, looking ahead, urges that Senate seat be filled quickly — Seeks law change for interim post — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in a poignant acknowledgment of his mortality at a critical time in the national health care debate, has privately asked the governor and legislative leaders …
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Wall Street Journal:
New Rx for Health Plan: Split Bill — The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Note, The Moderate Voice, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Politico, Salon, Washington Monthly, MyDD, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Fix, Outside The Beltway, The Foundry, TPMDC, The Treatment, Open Left, Washington Post, Obsidian Wings, Grasping Reality …, Democratic Strategist, TalkLeft, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! and Liberal Values
Washington Post:
Grassley Urges Scaling Back on Health-Care Reform Plan, Citing Town Hall Anger — Republican Grassley Cites Town Hall Anger — Sen. Charles E. Grassley, a key Republican negotiator in the quest for bipartisan health-care reform, said Wednesday that the outpouring of anger at town hall meetings …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Political Punch, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Plum Line, msnbc.com, Associated Press and WSJ.com
New York Times:
Obama Calls Health Plan a ‘Moral Obligation’ — WASHINGTON — President Obama sought Wednesday to reframe the health care debate as “a core ethical and moral obligation,” imploring a coalition of religious leaders to help promote the plan to lower costs and expand insurance coverage for all Americans.
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:White House Will Weather Liberal Anger; Baucus Doubles Down
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Unreal: MSNBC edits clip of man with gun at Obama rally to support racism narrative — I missed this yesterday at Newsbusters but Treacher, rightly aghast, tipped me to it this afternoon. Never will you see a starker example of MSNBC getting away with the sort of deception for which Fox News …
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Ace of Spades HQ:
Oh, My: MSNBC Carefully Crops Shot of Black Man Carrying AR-15 at Healt Care Rally to Avoid Skin Color, So They Can Then Rant and Rave About “White People” Showing Up With Guns When a “Person of Color” is President — Oh yes they did. — Allah is outraged, as is the Newsbusters which found this (or rather their partner/parent MRC).
Zombie / zomblog:Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org
Washington Post:
Poll Shows Most Americans Oppose War in Afghanistan — A majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting, and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. — Most have confidence in the ability …
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, TPMDC, The AfPak Channel, Raw Story, BBC, The Reaction, Top of the Ticket, Taylor Marsh, Informed Comment, CNN, The Nation, Hullabaloo, New York Times, Matthew Yglesias, Rethink Afghanistan, ParaPundit, RADAMISTO, Newshoggers.com and Stephen M. Walt
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Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
C.I.A. Sought Blackwater's Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists — WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Discussion:
Slate, Washington Post, The Caucus, Emptywheel, Guardian, Raw Story, Taylor Marsh, Firedoglake, Prairie Weather, The Takeaway and The Page
Dan Strumpf / Associated Press:
NY dealers pull out of clunkers program — NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of auto dealers in the New York area have withdrawn from the government's Cash for Clunkers program, citing delays in getting reimbursed by the government, a dealership group said Wednesday.
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Michael Cooper / New York Times:
Government Jobs Have Grown Since Recession — While the private sector has shed 6.9 million jobs since the beginning of the recession, state and local governments have expanded their payrolls and added 110,000 jobs, according to a report to be issued Thursday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
Discussion:
Reason
Scarecrow / Firedoglake:
Prospect's Starr to Progressives: Thanks for Being Pawns; Now Chill on the PO — There is something of value when elites tell you the truth, even while they're insulting you. So when the courageously anonymous *cough* senior White House official told the Washington Post that anyone who thinks …
Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:
Bernanke, a Hero to His Own, Can't Shake Critics — WASHINGTON — Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, no longer looks sleep-deprived. — He still works seven days a week, but earlier this month he took two days off — for the first time in two years — to attend his son's wedding.
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Chuck Todd thinks we support the public option just because conservatives don't — On Andrea Mitchell's show this morning, Chuck Todd was on to opine about health care reform. He said one outrageous thing and one right thing. The Toddster said that progressives might be attached …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Daniel Bates / Daily Mail:
Paedophile pensioner given Viagra on the NHS - despite string of attacks on children — A paedophile with a 30-year history of abusing children is being prescribed Viagra on the NHS - and there is nothing the authorities can do to stop him. — Roger Martin, 71, merely has to visit his GP …
Discussion:
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Associated Press:
AP source: White House deficit less than projected — WASHINGTON — The federal budget picture will look slightly better next week. Relatively speaking. — The White House plans to announce the federal deficit will still be a record breaker, at $1.58 trillion, for the current 2009 fiscal year.
Fox News:
Health Insurers Fear Probe By House Dems Is Reprisal for Opposing Part of Obama's Plan — Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sent a letter warning health insurers that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is “examining executive compensation and other business practices of the health industry.”
Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
A Good-News Photo Op Embarrasses 2 French Ministers — PARIS — It was apparently just a little summertime spinning with the aid of a grocery chain, but Luc Chatel, the education minister and government spokesman, found himself in some hot water over a supposedly staged visit to a quiet supermarket on Monday.
Discussion:
Marginal Revolution
Robert Stacy McCain / AmSpecBlog:
Another Inauspicious Omen: Gersonism Revisited — No sooner do I get through hammering David Frum for his errors than I turn around to discover that we are to be afflicted with new plagues from the Duke of Dull, that eminent Master of Mediocrity, Michael Gerson.
Discussion:
The Other McCain, Moe_Lane's blog, The Atlantic Online, Right Wing News and Washington Post
Martin Fletcher / Times of London:
The face of Abbas Kargar Javid — man accused of killing Neda Soltan — The man accused of killing Neda Soltan has been identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a pro-government militiaman, after photographs of the Basiji's ID cards appeared on the internet. — The identification challenges …
Discussion:
Wizbang
Greg Giroux / Top Stories from CQ:
McCain: Maverick No More? — He ran for president last year as a “maverick” Republican and had a high-profile meeting with Barack Obama after the election, but Arizona Sen. John McCain has been a staunch Republican vote since failing to win the White House.
Mike Scarcella / The BLT:
Harriet Miers Takes Another Crack at the U.S. Supreme Court — Former White House counsel Harriet Miers once aspired to serve on the Supreme Court, a bid that failed in 2005. Now, back in private practice, she's angling to argue a case before the high court.
Zaid Jilani / Think Progress:
New poll finds that 39 percent of Americans want government to ‘stay out of Medicare.’ — As ThinkProgress has noted before, conservatives have frequently obscured the fact that Medicare is a government-run single-payer program. Constituents appearing at health care town halls have even demanded …
Discussion:
The In Box
Daily Express:
SICK FANATICS CHEER BODY BAGS — BRITISH Muslim fanatics sparked fresh fury last night by praising Taliban “heroes” for sending our troops back from Afghanistan in body bags. — Dozens of homegrown “jihadis” have posted website messages cheering last weekend's carnage in Helmand province …
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
The Baucus Caucus: PhRMA, Insurance, Hospitals and Rahm — We started this whip count effort on June 23 because it became clear that in the course of making their deals with stakeholders, the Baucus Caucus (who were negotiating on behalf of the White House, with the participation of the White House) …
Discussion:
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