Top Items:
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
McConnell: Medicare recess appointment is ‘truly outrageous’ — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday blasted the White House for its plan to sidestep Congress in appointing Donald Berwick to lead Medicare. — “As if shoving a trillion-dollar government takeover …
Discussion:
CNN, The Politico, White House.gov Blog Feed, Pat Dollard, Matthew Yglesias, Liberty Pundits Blog, Wonk Room, theblogprof and Daily Kos
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Joseph Rago / Wall Street Journal:
The Massachusetts Health-Care ‘Train Wreck’ — The future of ObamaCare is unfolding here: runaway spending, price controls, even limits on care and medical licensing. — President Obama said earlier this year that the health-care bill that Congress passed three months ago is …
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Obama Bypassing Congress to Appoint Chief of Medicare and Medicaid — WASHINGTON — President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday. — Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director …
Discussion:
The New Ledger, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hot Air, The Foundry, Erick's blog, Swampland, Political Punch, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Reality-Based Community, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mother Jones, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Verum Serum, PERRspectives, Washington Monthly, Jules Crittenden, Think Progress, Moe Lane, Hit & Run, Open Congress, Right Wing News, NewsBusters.org, Sister Toldjah, Adrienne's Corner, New York Magazine and NewsReal Blog
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Baucus blasts White House for recess appointment of Berwick — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration for sidestepping Congress to install Donald Berwick atop the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama Job Approval Rating Down to 38% Among Independents — Overall job ratings for the president continue to be below majority level — PRINCETON, NJ — Thirty-eight percent of independents approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, the first time independent approval of Obama …
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Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Crucial independent voters abandoning Obama, now under 40%, lowest ever — Two new polls this morning augur ill for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats who control Congress. — The worst — from Gallup — finds that for the first time since Obama took the oath …
Discussion:
view.sales.harrisinteractive …, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys and The Moderate Voice
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Something Is Happening In Palinland — From Mercede Johnston's blog: … That's a very good question. So is the question of how Palin finally put the screws on Levi. In Palinland, no one knows what's really going on. But I wonder if this is a somewhat panicked response …
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People.com:
Levi Johnston Apologizes to Palin Family for ‘Youthful Indiscretion’ — Levi Johnston isn't just getting past his differences with Bristol Palin - he's also hoping to make amends with her famous mom. — “Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry.
Discussion:
Hot Air, NewsBusters.org, Little Green Footballs, The Other McCain, The Powers That Be, Big Journalism, The Daily Dish, Indecision Forever, No Sheeples Here, The Atlantic Online, Power Line, The EM Network, Flopping Aces, HillBuzz, Riehl World View, Bookworm Room, No More Mister Nice Blog, Jules Crittenden, CNN, Hollywood Life, NewsReal Blog, Moonbattery, Politics Daily, Gawker, The Page, The Rhetorican, New York Magazine, The Greenroom, American Glob, protein wisdom and Don Surber
Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
America's most unlikely politician — Last month, an unknown, unemployed former soldier astonished America by becoming the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's upcoming senate election. How on earth did he do it? — The journey to the home of one of the most enigmatic figures to emerge …
Louis Uchitelle / New York Times:
A New Generation, an Elusive American Dream — GRAFTON, Mass. — After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room. He had placed it on a small table that his mother …
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Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Democrats digging harder than ever for dirt on Republicans — The Democratic Party is moving faster and more aggressively than in previous election years to dig up unflattering details about Republican challengers. In House races from New Jersey to Ohio to California …
Discussion:
Wonkette, Weasel Zippers, Liberal Values, Pat Dollard, NewsBusters.org, National Review, Pundit & Pundette and The Eye
Mark Leibovich / New York Times:
Darrell Issa Emerges as Obama's Annoyer-in-Chief — WASHINGTON — As a sign of the pride Representative Darrell Issa takes in annoying the Obama administration, consider his account of a recent exchange with Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman and now the White House chief of staff.
Discussion:
The Page
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Retirement Age Follies — John Boehner wants to cut my Social Security benefits while leaving his benefits intact. — Brian Beutler has a good reported piece on growing enthusiasm on Capitol Hill for cutting Social Security via the mechanism of raising the retirement age for younger workers.
Discussion:
TPMDC
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Terry Savage / Chicago Sun Times:
There is no ‘free’ lemonade — In giving drink away, girls ignore rules of economics — and sum up what's wrong with U.S. — This column is a true story — every word of it. And I think it very appropriate to consider around the Fourth of July, Independence Day spirit.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Wonkette, Stop The ACLU, First Draft, Gawker, Indecision Forever and AMERICAblog News
Danette M. Watt / The Telegraph:
Mob shoots fireworks at police, firefighters — ALTON - First responders from the Alton Fire Department and five officers from the Alton Police Department were attacked by a crowd of several hundred people in the Oakwood Housing Complex who shot large bottle rockets at them.
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Fred Kaplan / Slate:
Mitt Romney's dumb critique of Obama's New START nuke treaty. — In 35 years of following debates over nuclear arms control, I have never seen anything quite as shabby, misleading and—let's not mince words—thoroughly ignorant as Mitt Romney's attack on the New START treaty in the July 6 Washington Post.
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Sandra Sobieraj Westfall / People.com:
Tipper Gore Isn't Buying Masseuse's Story — According to the tabloids, the last straw in Al and Tipper Gore's 40-year marriage was massage therapist Molly Hagerty's claim the former Vice President demanded sexual favors during a 2006 massage in his Portland, Ore. hotel room.
Wall Street Journal:
Swap Deal Expected in Russia Spy Case — By GREGORY L. WHITE in Moscow and EVAN PEREZ in Washington — In an apparent throwback to the Cold War, Moscow and Washington are discussing a deal to swap the 10 suspected deep-cover Russian agents arrested last month in the U.S. for prisoners held in Russia …
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theblogprof:
Good news: Michigan school district effectively bans white teachers from being hired — UPDATE: On second thought, it is interesting that liberals want to beat conservatives over the head with a legal shovel when it suits their purposes. But when the law is against their ideological goals, they flip it the finger.
Discussion:
The Rhetorican
Paul Krugman:
Why Isn't Investment Higher? — Truly, we live in a time of mass delusion — or maybe make that elite delusion — where there are lots of things that everyone believes, without a shred of evidence to back that belief. Here's one more: everywhere you go, you encounter the claim that businesses …
Discussion:
The New Republic
Alex Seitz-Wald / Think Progress:
Head Of 'World's Largest Interactive Christian Website' Calls Out Beck's ‘Deception’ About His Mormonism — Glenn Beck often speaks about faith on his radio show and Fox News program, but he almost never mentions his own faith — Mormonism. Beck's audience largely consists of conservative Christians …
John M. Broder / New York Times:
Obama Asks Court to Reinstate Ban on Deepwater Drilling — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unprecedented emergency of the BP oil spill.
Discussion:
Law Blog, And So it Goes in Shreveport, American Thinker, Daily Kos and The Daily Caller
Kos / Daily Kos:
Why I am blacklisted by MSNBC — In case you were wondering why you haven't seen me on MSNBC recently, it seems that Joe Scarborough, he of the lowest rated morning show in cableland, has blackballed me. And Phil Griffin, the alleged president of MSNBC, is going along with it.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News
Jana Winter / Fox News:
EXCLUSIVE: Number of Afghans Gone AWOL in U.S. Reaches 46 — LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — A be-on-the-lookout alert issued last month for 17 Afghan military men who walked away from an Air Force base in Texas has turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Stephen Moore / Wall Street Journal:
A Case Study in Teacher Bailouts — Milwaukee shows that unions will keep resisting concessions if Washington rides to the rescue. — Milwaukee — The Obama administration is pressuring Congress to spend $23 billion to rehire the more than 100,000 teachers who have been laid off across the country.
ABCNEWS:
Sen. David Vitter: Case of Violent Aide Old News — Louisiana Senator Brushes Off Questions About His Decision to Retain Staffer After Arrest — Louisiana Sen. David Vitter today offered his first public response to questions about the behavior of his longtime aide, who resigned last month …
Discussion:
Ballot Box
Amie Ferris-Rotman / Yahoo! News:
Russia's Muslim south triples sharia bride price — The price tag on a bride in Russia's Ingushetia province has been tripled by the regional government, in a sign the Muslim North Caucasus region is slipping out of Kremlin control as sharia law eclipses Russian.
Discussion:
Jihad Watch
Jackson West / NBC Bay Area:
San Francisco's Rules for Making Pot Brownies — Department of Public Health has guidelines for edible marijuana treats — You know you're a Californian when you have to ask if the brownies someone brought to a potluck are “special” or not. — But while the casual peddler of edible marijuana …
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
McConnell's Declining Popularity — Mitch McConnell's seen a significant decline in his standing with Republican voters following his ill fated endorsement of Trey Grayson for the party's Senate nomination, and as a result his home state approval numbers are now by far the worst they've ever been in PPP's Kentucky polling.