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:
Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Politico, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Moderate Voice, The Note, Washington Monthly, MyDD, Salon, Patterico's Pontifications, Health Care Policy …, Balkinization, The Treatment, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Open Left, The Foundry, The Fix, Outside The Beltway, Democratic Strategist, Grasping Reality …, Blog entry, TPMDC, Obsidian Wings, Washington Post, CNN, TalkLeft, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Liberal Values and Hot Air
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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:
Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Open Left, Left in the West, The Washington Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, Political Punch, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Plum Line, Associated Press, WSJ.com, Media Matters Action Network and The Atlantic Politics Channel
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).
US News:
Tom Ridge on National Security After 9/11 — Tom Ridge, the first head of the 9/11-inspired Department of Homeland Security, wasn't keen on writing a tell-all. But in The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again, out September 1, Ridge says he wants to shake “public complacency” over security.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, Ben Smith's Blog, The Washington Independent, Raw Story, Gawker and Emptywheel
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Ridge admits Bush administration pushed to raise security alert for political reasons on eve of re-election. — Former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is releasing a book on September 1 titled, “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again.”
Discussion:
Democratic National Committee
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:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Huffington Post, Think Progress, The Moderate Voice, Commentary, Associated Press, The AfPak Channel, BBC, Top of the Ticket, Taylor Marsh, TPMDC, Informed Comment, Raw Story, Matthew Yglesias, The Reaction, The Nation, Hullabaloo, Hot Air, New York Times, Rethink Afghanistan, ParaPundit, RADAMISTO, Weasel Zippers and Newshoggers.com
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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.
Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:
Thinking Through the ‘Public Option’ — Getting to Know the Public Option As It Disappears: Steven Pearlstein argues that the “public option” isn't necessarily a good way to keep down health costs. He notes that, unlike Medicare, “public” insurers would have to bear the costs of collecting premiums, managing care and marketing.
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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
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 issued Thursday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
Peter Finn / Washington Post:
Obama Administration Making Progress on Transferring Guantanamo Bay Detainees — The Obama administration has secured commitments from nearly a dozen countries willing to accept detainees from Guantanamo Bay and is increasingly confident about its ability to transfer a large majority …
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.
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
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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Mike / The Baseline Scenario:
Has Mortgage Modification failed? — Obama's mortgage modification plan, HAMP (Home Afforable Modification Program), isn't working very well. Designed to help prevent foreclosures by incentivizing and giving legal protection to previously indifferent middle-men servicers it isn't producing anywhere near …
Susie Madrak / Crooks and Liars:
Hypocritical Insurance Companies: Stop Us Before We Kill Again! — Paul Waldman in the American Prospect:
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
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.
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
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
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.”
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 …
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