Top Items:
Ezra Klein:
The Baucus Bill: CBO Luvs It — The Congressional Budget Office has released its preliminary score (pdf) of Max Baucus's bill. According to the CBO, the bill covers 94 percent of legal residents and actually reduces the deficit. More to the point, it keeps reducing the deficit as time goes on.
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The Note:
Dem Senator Warns of ‘Big, Big Tax’ on Middle Class in Baucus Bill — ABC News' Teddy Davis reports: — It's not every day that you hear a Democratic senator charge that a fellow Democrat is proposing to raise taxes on the middle class, but that is what happened on Tuesday when Sen. Jay Rockefeller …
Ezra Klein:
The Baucus Bill: The Worst Policy in the Bill, and Possibly in the World — Baucus's bill retains the noxious “free rider” provision on employers. Rather than a simple employer mandate that forces every employer over a certain size to provide health-care insurance or pay a small fee …
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Preliminary Analysis of Specifications for the Chairman's Mark …
Preliminary Analysis of Specifications for the Chairman's Mark …
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Business Channel:
Does Anybody Actually Like the Baucus Health Care Bill?
Does Anybody Actually Like the Baucus Health Care Bill?
Political Punch:
Blowback in the ACORN Wars — Recent videos posted online and aired repeatedly on Fox News Channel that seem to show ACORN workers allegedly advising two 20-somethings dressed up as a pimp and prostitute on how to skirt the law, the community group has taken some major hits as of late.
Discussion:
Think Progress, Outside The Beltway, PE Angels Baseball, TVNewser, The Political Carnival and The Raw Story
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James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
Obama and Acorn — Is there a case for a special prosecutor? — Printer — Friendly — The Acorn scandal continues to mushroom. Yesterday BigGovernment.com published videos from a fourth Acorn office visit by freelance investigators James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles.
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Extremism in New Jersey — We've been uncovering a remarkable level of anger toward Barack Obama in a lot of our recent polling so for New Jersey we decided to go a step further in determining how extreme some people's feelings are about the President and asked respondents if they think he is the Anti-Christ.
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Poll: One in Three New Jersey Conservatives Thinks Obama Might Be the Anti-Christ
Poll: One in Three New Jersey Conservatives Thinks Obama Might Be the Anti-Christ
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
New Jersey Poll: Birthers, Truthers, And The Anti-Christ — Oh, My!
New Jersey Poll: Birthers, Truthers, And The Anti-Christ — Oh, My!
Discussion:
Think Progress
SpeakupAmerica / CBS News:
Obama Admin: Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year — Posted by Declan McCullagh The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.
Discussion:
Washington Times, The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, Wonk Room, Planet Gore …, NRDC, Betsy's Page, Carol's Closet, The Corner on National …, Blue Crab Boulevard, Weekly Standard, Climate Progress, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Washington Independent, Reason, Erick's blog, The Foundry, Townhall.com, Sister Toldjah, American Solutions, YID With LID, QandO, PoliPundit.com, Babalú Blog and Say Anything
Alexander Zaitchik / Salon:
Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life — On Saturday, I spent the afternoon with America's new breed of angry conservative. Up to 75,000 protesters had gathered in Washington on Sept. 12, the day after the eighth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, sporting …
Rasmussen Reports:
Election 2010: New Hampshire Senate — Ayotte Leads Hodes 46% to 38% in 2010 New Hampshire Senate Match-Up — Republican Kelly Ayotte leads Democrat Paul Hodes by eight points in an early look at New Hampshire's 2010 race for the U.S. Senate. — The first Rasmussen Reports survey …
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Anita Dunn / WhiteHouse.gov Blog:
Reality Check: The Truth About “Czars” — Last week, when the President addressed the Joint Session of Congress in a speech on health reform, he referred to some of the untruths - okay, lies - that have been spread about the plan and sent a clear message to those who seek to undermine …
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Audrey Hudson / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: W.H. collects Web users' data without notice — Social-media messages go into archives — The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users …
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Jeffrey H. Birnbaum / Washington Times:
ACORN says workers conduct ‘indefensible’ — Suspends, plans audit, in wake of videos — UPDATED: — ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees “indefensible,” has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened.
Alan Riquelmy / Ledger-Enquirer.com:
Judge tosses out Army captain's complaint questioning president's birth; Orly Taitz on notice — U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land tossed out on Wednesday a complaint by an Army captain fighting deployment to Iraq by questioning the legitimacy of President Barack Obama.
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, LiveWire, Mudville Gazette, Below The Beltway and Talking Points Memo
Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:
Limbaugh Goes Full-On Racist During Rant About School Bus Beating — Rush Limbaugh has never hidden his bigoted beliefs, and on Tuesday he went on a racist rant about a highly disturbing incident on a school bus where a black student attacked a white student while other children cheered on.
Alicia M. Cohn / Human Events:
BREAKING: More ACORN Videos To Be Revealed — “There are more,” Mike Flynn, Editor-in-chief of new site BigGovernment.com, told HUMAN EVENTS in an exclusive interview this afternoon regarding the number of undercover films exposing ACORN. Flynn would not reveal the location of the ACORN office …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
‘Jackass!’ — And here's that video, which shows, above all else, the president as a normal person — and moreover, a normal pol, utterly immersed in the cable-news frivolity he affects to disdain. — UPDATE: Not so much: Wiser heads than mine at POLITICO made the call to take down the video of the “jackass” moment.
Ezra Klein:
The Baucus Bill: The Neutered Co-Ops — The co-ops have never been a satisfying alternative to the public option. But the version in Baucus's bill isn't even a satisfying alternative to the co-op option. It's a neutered version of the co-op idea, which was in turn a neutered version of the public option.
Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post:
As Right Jabs Continue, White House Debates a Counterpunching Strategy — Facing a near-daily barrage of attacks from conservative opponents, White House officials are engaged in an internal debate over how hard to hit back, even as they have grown increasingly aggressive in countering allegations they deem to be absurd.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Plum Line, Wall Street Journal, The Rhetorican, The Anchoress, RedState, Michael Calderone's Blog, Moe Lane and The Caucus
Van Jones / Grist:
A message from Van Jones — Van Jones sent this message out to friends and supporters on Tuesday, Sept. 15. — Dear Friends: — My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Waters: Probe ‘birthers and the teabaggers’ at rallies for racist views — The media should investigate the racial views of conservative activists like the ones who descended on Washington last weekend, one liberal congresswoman said Wednesday. — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) …
Discussion:
American Power, Weasel Zippers, The Daley Gator, Don Surber, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Matt Viser / Boston Globe:
Votes are lined up to appoint a senator — Top Democrats press for Mass. bill — Senate President Therese M. Murray has not pushed the bill. — Legislative leaders on Beacon Hill believe they have narrow majorities in both chambers to give Governor Deval Patrick the power to appoint …
Gregg Easterbrook / Wall Street Journal:
The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’ — One of America's greatest heroes remains little known in his home country. — Printer — Friendly — Norman Borlaug arguably the greatest American of the 20th century died late Saturday after 95 richly accomplished years.
Roll Call:
Ethics Panel Investigates Waters, Graves and Jackson — The House ethics committee revealed Wednesday it is investigating allegations involving three lawmakers in unrelated incidents. — The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly known as the ethics panel …
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Ignoring a Law on Foreign Relations — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has declared that President Obama can disregard a law forbidding State Department officials from attending United Nations meetings led by representatives of nations considered to be sponsors of terrorism.