Top Items:
New York Times:
Obama Rules Out Large Reduction in Afghan Force — WASHINGTON — President Obama told Congressional leaders on Tuesday that he would not substantially reduce American forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to just hunting terrorists there, but he indicated that he remained undecided …
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Scott Wilson / Washington Post:Afghan Strategy Divides Lawmakers
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Wall Street Journal, CNN, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Hot Air, BLACKFIVE, Raw Story, The Majlis, Guardian, Capitol Briefing and The Note
Fred Kaplan / Slate:Should Gen. McChrystal stop speaking publicly about Afghan war strategy?
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American Spectator, THE WEEK News & Opinion, marbury, Abu Muqawama, The Opinionator, Washington Post and ATTACKERMAN
Anne / BackyardConservative:
Bill Ayers No Dream — There I was, sitting in Reagan National Monday morning, sipping a Starbucks by the United counter before going through security. I had a little time, so I was browsing through the news. Some military guys had borrowed a chair from my table.
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Examiner:
Bill Ayers admits writing ‘Dreams’ to conservative blogger — Last Friday we posted an article on these pages asserting Bill Ayers' authorship of President Barack Obama's ‘Dreams From My Father,’ based on claims made by Obama biographer Christopher Andersen.
Discussion:
The Washington Independent, Serr8d's Cutting Edge, BackyardConservative and protein wisdom
Washington Post:
White House Gets Republican Backing for Bipartisan Reform — Urged by the White House, Republicans Speak Up for Bipartisan Health Fix — Seeking to provide fresh evidence of bipartisan support for health-care reform, the White House is orchestrating a series of endorsements from GOP heavyweights around the country.
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Democratic Strategist, Daily Kos, Prescriptions, SFGate, Blog entry, TPMDC, The Note, Hit & Run and New York Times
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Michael Scherer / Swampland:
The Cup of Coffee: White House's David Axelrod Meets With Fox News' Roger Ailes — On a recent visit to New York, White House adviser David Axelrod met over coffee with Roger Ailes, the president of the Fox News network, which President Obama has described as a “television station …
Wall Street Journal:
State-Run Health Plans Garner Support — WASHINGTON — Some influential centrist Democrats in the Senate are warming to a compromise that envisions health-insurance plans run by state governments, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added his voice Tuesday to a small group …
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Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, Politics Daily, tmccarthy0's Blog, Blog entry, The New Republic and Prescriptions
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Frank Newport / Gallup:
Approval of U.S. Congress Falls to 21%, Driven by Democrats — Lowest rating for Congress since January — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' approval of the job Congress is doing is at 21% this month, down significantly from last month's 31% and from the recent high of 39% in March.
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Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Parties Nearly Tied for Congress in 2010 — Voter preferences for Congress split 46% Democratic vs. 44% Republican — PRINCETON, NJ — Roughly a year before the 2010 midterm elections, Gallup finds the Republican and Democratic Parties nearly tied in the congressional ballot preferences of registered voters.
Neil King Jr / Wall Street Journal:Jobless Rate Is Key to Fate of Democrats in 2010
Discussion:
QandO
Wall Street Journal:
Fed Frets Over Commercial Real Estate — With Banks Slow to Take Losses, Fears of a Residential-Bust Repeat; ‘More Pain Likely Lies Ahead’ — Banks in the U.S. “are slow” to take losses on their commercial real-estate loans being battered by slumping property values and rental payments …
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Jenny Anderson / New York Times:Paralysis in the Debt Markets Is Deepening the Credit Drought
Discussion:
Paul Krugman, Felix Salmon, The Baseline Scenario, Not Tucker Carlson, naked capitalism and The Big Picture
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Deeds points finger at Washington — Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds said in an interview that he was lagging in the polls entering the final weeks of the campaign in part because of voter concerns over his national party's agenda. — “Frankly, a lot of what's …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, msnbc.com, Washington Post, The Fix, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Hotline On Call, Commentary and Virginia Politics
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William Saletan / Human Nature:
The Beauty of Artificial Virginity — If you're a woman in a conservative Muslim country, you had better bleed on your wedding night. If you don't, your husband or his family will know you aren't a virgin. For that, you could be beaten or killed. — If you're a man, on the other hand …
Mark Preston / CNN:
First on the Ticker: Obama enlists Hollywood in new ad — WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama is turning to a handful of Hollywood stars to judge a contest that asks grassroots supporters to create a television commercial promoting health care reform. — Musician Will.I.Am, actor John Cho …
Discussion:
TPMDC
John McCormick / Bloomberg:
Chicago Violence Haunts Obama as Gun-Control Backers Left Cold — Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) — At least 47 school-age children in Chicago have been killed in homicides, mostly by guns, since the month President Barack Obama took office. — The latest youth homicide in his adopted hometown …
Catherine Rampell / New York Times:
Support Builds for Tax Credit to Encourage Hiring — The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials grappling with the highest unemployment in a generation.
Discussion:
Greg Mankiw's Blog, DailyFinance, Clusterstock, Calculated Risk, Economist's View and Marginal Revolution
Lee Fang / Think Progress:
Rep. Louie Gohmert: Hate crimes bill will lead to Nazism, legalization of necrophilia, pedophilia, and bestiality. — Led by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) last night, lawmakers convened for a special session of floor speeches urging a repeal of Don't Act Don't Tell.
Discussion:
Law Dork
Michael B. Oren / The New Republic:
Deep Denial — Toughened by their frontier ethos, steeled by serial wars, Israelis are not prone to flattery. Most, in fact, eschew using the closest equivalent to the Hebrew word for flattery—chanupa— in favor of the derisive Yiddish-derivative, firgun.
Bob Gough / QuincyNews.org:
Durbin's office blacklists STARadio stations — A spokesman for U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) says the senator's office will no longer send media information to Quincy's oldest radio station because the station decided to let the public know he was coming to town.
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see! — Last month, Xeni blogged about the photoshop disaster that is this Ralph Lauren advertisement, in which a model's proportions appear to have been altered to give her an impossibly skinny body ("Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis").
Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
Weak himself, Obama draws strength from Bush — Senior Political Analyst — In trying to understand what is happening in the nation and world, we all employ narratives — story lines that indicate where things are going and what is likely to happen next.
Discussion:
Townhall.com
Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Dem: House GOP is “80 percent male, 100 percent white” — The National Republican Congressional Committee is urging Gen. Stanley McChrystal to put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in her place” for weighing in on Afghanistan — prompting one female Pelosi ally to blast the House GOP as …
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