Top Items:
Bob Woodward / Washington Post:
McChrystal: More Forces or ‘Mission Failure’ — Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive — The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Washington Monthly, Mudville Gazette, Weekly Standard, Think Progress, FiveThirtyEight, Achenblog, The New Republic, Swampland, BLACKFIVE, QandO, Guardian, democracyarsenal.org, TalkLeft, Wall Street Journal, Outside The Beltway, Don Surber, Hot Air, The BLT, PoliBlog, Wonk Room, Commentary, MoJo Blog Posts, SWJ Blog, Weasel Zippers, Christian Science Monitor, The Confluence, Jules Crittenden, Below The Beltway, EU Referendum, Taylor Marsh, ATTACKERMAN, Political Punch, George's Bottom Line, Townhall.com, Prairie Weather, The Page, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Washington Independent, LiveWire, Truthdig and Associated Press
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New York Times:
General Calls for More U.S. Troops to Avoid Afghan Failure — WASHINGTON — The top military commander in Afghanistan warns in a confidential assessment of the war there that he needs additional troops within the next year or else the conflict “will likely result in failure.”
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Matthew Yglesias, Shakesville, Donkeylicious, BBC, DownWithTyranny!, The Faster Times, MyDD, Guardian, CNN and EU Referendum
Washington Post:
Changes in Afghanistan, Washington May Require Shift in U.S. War Strategy
Changes in Afghanistan, Washington May Require Shift in U.S. War Strategy
Discussion:
Informed Comment, Newshoggers.com, The Washington Independent, The New Republic and The Hill
The Huffington Post:
Bush In 2008: “I'm Not Going To Tell Some Gay Kid In The Audience That He Can't Get Married” — Speechwriter Matt Latimer's new book trains its gaze on the lunacy of the late-era Bush White House. And there was plenty of material. — Latimer, who first wrote speeches and congressional testimony …
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Other McCain, The Moderate Voice, LiveWire and The Raw Story
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Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Self-Correcting Presidency — Last week, the Census Bureau released a statistical report on the last year of George W. Bush's presidency. The numbers were brutal. On every indicator, Americans lost ground during the Bush era. The median income slumped. The poverty rate increased.
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Obama's TV Blitz: On The Air, but Off His Game? — The White House doesn't buy the notion that President Obama, who appeared on five talk shows Sunday and is heading next for David Letterman's couch, could be wearing out his welcome on the tube. — Sure, this is a president …
Discussion:
Althouse, Sister Toldjah, Commentary, Outside The Beltway, ABCNEWS, AmSpecBlog and Riehl World View
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Alessandra Stanley / New York Times:
For President, Five Programs, One Message — No one shifted an armchair, moved a flower arrangement or asked an unexpected question. — President Obama gave five back-to-back television interviews broadcast on Sunday that were as tightly choreographed — and eerily similar …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Salon, Personal Democracy Forum blogs, The Politico, Hold Fast, Macsmind, Washington Post and Politics Daily
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Taxes and Mandates — On ABC News yesterday, George Stephanopoulos tried to get Barack Obama to agree than an individual mandate to buy health insurance is a kind of tax increase. Obama disagreed: … Not being a politicians, I can just note that we generally speak the English language …
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Frank Newport / Gallup:
Americans More Likely to Say Government Doing Too Much — Belief that government is over-regulating business is at high for decade — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are more likely today than in the recent past to believe that government is taking on too much responsibility for solving …
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Byron York / Washington Examiner:
New poll: Majority believe government is doing too much — A new Gallup poll shows that the number of people who believe government has its hand in too many areas of American life has reached its highest point in more than a decade. — The question asked by Gallup was …
Scott / Power Line:
Sliming James O'Keefe: A case study — James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles are the young activists who have blown the lid off the criminal left-wing enterprise known as ACORN. If they were left-wingers exposing some conservative or religious organization, government-funded or not …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Obama open to newspaper bailout bill — The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses. — “I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them …
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Reform or Bust — In the grim period that followed Lehman's failure, it seemed inconceivable that bankers would, just a few months later, be going right back to the practices that brought the world's financial system to the edge of collapse. At the very least, one might have thought …
Big Hollywood:
Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call — On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood's Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: … The email invite came directly from Yosi Sergant, then-Director of Communications …
Susan Page / USA Today:
Secret interviews add insight to Clinton presidency — BALTIMORE — The call from the White House usually would come in late afternoon. President Clinton had a few hours open in the evening. Could he come over? — Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and civil rights historian …
Discussion:
Glenn Thrush's Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, Politics Daily, The Note, Talking Points Memo and LiveWire
Jacob Weisberg / Slate:
First They Came for the Marlboros — The hazards of Michael Bloomberg's paternalist utopia. — Last Monday dawned clear and bright in the nanny state of New York City. The newspaper brought word that the city's new health commissioner was working on ways to get residents to exercise more.
Discussion:
Politics Daily
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David Remnick / New Yorker:
BLAGO SPEAKS. AGAIN. — The American political memoir comes in many forms—the magisterial catalogue of heroic achievement, the backward glance at modest beginnings—but none of these sub-genres have thrived with more repetition and variation than the cri de coeur of the indicted-but-not-yet-convicted office-holding grandee.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Video of AFSCME's Gerald McEntee: Baucus Bill is “Bulls**t” — Last week at the AFL-CIO convention, it was reported that AFSCME President Gerald McEntee led the crowd in a derogatory chant about Max Baucus's Senate Finance Committee bill. But the video was nowhere to be found. — We found it:
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog