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:
Crooks and Liars, Mudville Gazette, The Daily Dish, Washington Monthly, FiveThirtyEight, Registan.net, Weekly Standard, Hullabaloo, The Washington Independent, Daily Kos, Danger Room, Think Progress, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, The New Republic, Commentary, MoJo Blog Posts, PoliBlog, Don Surber, Flopping Aces, SWJ Blog, Achenblog, Hot Air, TalkLeft, democracyarsenal.org, Center For Defense Studies, QandO, Jules Crittenden, Christian Science Monitor, Below The Beltway, Swampland, BLACKFIVE, Outside The Beltway, EU Referendum, Taylor Marsh, Wonk Room, The Confluence, The BLT, Political Punch, The Politico, ATTACKERMAN, Weasel Zippers, Prairie Weather, The Page, LewRockwell.com Blog, George's Bottom Line, Eschaton, Truthdig, Associated Press and LiveWire
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New York Times:
General Calls for More U.S. Troops to Avoid Afghan Failure
General Calls for More U.S. Troops to Avoid Afghan Failure
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Donkeylicious, Firedoglake, BBC, MyDD, Matthew Yglesias, DownWithTyranny!, The Faster Times, Guardian, Shakesville, EU Referendum and CNN
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 Moderate Voice, The Raw Story and LiveWire
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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.
Patrick Courrielche / Big Hollywood:
EXPLOSIVE NEW AUDIO Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda — **NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** — Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally?
Discussion:
Big Government, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog, Atlas Shrugs, The washington times Blogs, Doug Ross, National Review Online, QandO and doubleplusundead
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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:
Commentary, Outside The Beltway, Althouse, Sister Toldjah, AmSpecBlog, Riehl World View and ABCNEWS
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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, TVNewser, Chris Floyd, The Politico, Salon, The Caucus, Macsmind, Hold Fast, Personal Democracy Forum blogs, Politics Daily and Washington Post
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Nontax Tax — On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition. — Printer — Friendly — President Obama didn't make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception. The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy …
Discussion:
Fausta's Blog, Conservative Dallas, Betsy's Page, Commentary, YID With LID, Dennis the Peasant, The Caucus and George's Bottom Line
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Jazz Shaw / The Moderate Voice:
Did Barack Obama Read the Baucus Bill?
Did Barack Obama Read the Baucus Bill?
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Greenroom, ABCNEWS, NO QUARTER, Political Punch, Wake up America and Moe Lane
The Politico:
Bill says ‘tax’ when Obama said ‘not’
Bill says ‘tax’ when Obama said ‘not’
Discussion:
Texas on the Potomac, Villainous Company, RedState, Cynthia Tucker and Politico Live's Blog
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 …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Atlantic Business Channel, The Plum Line, Politics Daily, Wake up America and AmSpecBlog
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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:
Taegan Goddard's …, Politics Daily, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Taylor Marsh, The Note, Talking Points Memo and LiveWire
City Room:
Obama Arrives to an Awkward Hug From Paterson — TROY, N.Y. — So what did he say? — President Obama walked down from Air Force One after his plane landed shortly before 11 a.m. Monday. He and Gov. David A. Paterson exchanged a brief greeting. They shook hands.
Discussion:
The Swamp, The Caucus, The New Republic, Raw Story, Washington Wire, Gothamist and LiveWire
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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 …
Darren Samuelsohn / U.S. Senate Committee …:
Boxer readies for bill introduction, mid-October markup (09/21/2009) — Link to Article — The Senate climate debate has largely been in standby mode since June, but Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is ready to kick-start the process with the release next week of a draft bill.
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The New Republic:
Madison Weeps — How healthcare revealed the sickness of our political system. — “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction,” James Madison wrote in Federalist Number 10.
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Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Video of AFSCME's Gerald McEntee: Baucus Bill is “Bulls**t”
Video of AFSCME's Gerald McEntee: Baucus Bill is “Bulls**t”
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Bloomberg:
Fed Rejects Geithner Request for Study of Governance, Structure — Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Board has rejected a request by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a public review of the central bank's structure and governance, three people familiar with the matter said.
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) Chief of Staff: ‘All Pornography Is Homosexual Pornography’ — One of the final events of the Values Voter Summit was a Saturday breakout session on “the new masculinity,” a wide-ranging topic that one speaker used to explain how any and all pornography could lead young people into homosexual lifestyles.
Wall Street Journal:
Hillary's Honduras Obsession — The U.S. is trying to force the country to violate its constitution. — Printer — Friendly — “The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State …
Bill Carter / New York Times:
Letterman Takes Turn Toward the Political — And now, it's Dave's turn. — One week after he watched his old rival Jay Leno return to television as NBC's great prime-time hope, David Letterman will start making a statement of his own. — He will start with the president of the United States.