Top Items:
Dana Priest / Washington Post:
A short video from PBS's FRONTLINE on The Post's two-year investigation. An hour-long documentary film will run in October. Watch the trailer » — Investigative reporter Dana Priest has been The Washington Post's intelligence, Pentagon and health-care reporter.
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Washington Post:
A hidden world, growing beyond control — The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Daniel W. Drezner, New York Magazine, Shakesville, Taylor Marsh, Emptywheel, The Daily Caller and Raw Story
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Pundit Delusion — The latest hot political topic is the “Obama paradox” — the supposedly mysterious disconnect between the president's achievements and his numbers. The line goes like this: The administration has had multiple big victories in Congress, most notably on health reform …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Paul Krugman, The Monkey Cage, Prairie Weather, Daily Kos and Balloon Juice
Patrick / palingates:
How much stupid can Governor Dumbass of Backasswards Sarah Palin fit into 140 characters? - Palin refudiates Shakespeare's language on twitter — Half-term Governor Sarah Palin apparently still has unsupervised access to her twitter account. My prediction is that this situation will have no future.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, techPresident, The Moderate Voice, Big Brass Blog, The Political Carnival and Firedoglake
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Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Palin sparks Twitter fight on mosque — Sarah Palin, who waded into a New York political fight by endorsing Ann Marie Buerkle in NY-25, is drifting into a decidedly higher-charged battle: The fray over a planned mosque near Ground Zero. — “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand …
Discussion:
CNN, ABCNEWS, Guardian, pandagon.net, Weasel Zippers, The Hill, Gateway Pundit, American Power and Conservatives4Palin.com
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Poll: D.C. elites a world apart — In their opinions on policy and politicians ranging from President Barack Obama to Sarah Palin, elites in Washington have a strikingly divergent outlook from the rest of the nation, according to a new POLITICO poll released Monday.
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Andy Barr / The Politico:
Tea party federation boots Williams — The National Tea Party Federation has expelled activist Mark Williams over his attacks on the NAACP. — A spokesman for the federation, which is seeking to become a national umbrella organization, said Sunday on CBS's “Face the Nation” …
Discussion:
CNN
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Mark Williams / MarkTalk.com News & Commentary:
Tea Party Federation outburst sets us all back
Tea Party Federation outburst sets us all back
Discussion:
Think Progress, TPMDC, The Reid Report, Gawker, First Draft, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Hill, Balloon Juice and CBS News
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Senate Forecast, 7/18: Republican Outlook Improves with Focus on Likely Voter Polls — Our latest Senate simulation has the chamber convening in 2011 with an average of 53.4 Democrats (counting Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders), 46.1 Republicans, and 0.5 Charlie Crists.
Naftali Bendavid / Wall Street Journal:
GOP Sees Path to Control of Senate — WASHINGTON—Democrats for the first time are acknowledging that Republicans could retake the Senate this November if everything falls into place for the GOP, less than two years after Democrats held a daunting 60-seat majority.
Henry Fountain / New York Times:
BP Hopes to Keep Gulf Well Closed, but Seeping Is Detected — After three days of encouraging pressure tests, a senior BP official said Sunday that the company's recently capped well in the Gulf of Mexico was holding up and that BP now hoped to keep the well closed until it could be permanently plugged.
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Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:
Obama Gains Evangelical Allies on Immigration — At a time when the prospects for immigration overhaul seem most dim, supporters have unleashed a secret weapon: a group of influential evangelical Christian leaders. — Normally on the opposite side of political issues backed by the Obama White House …
Discussion:
The Washington Independent, The Reality-Based Community, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Truthdig
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama's Highest Half-Year Approval Ratings in D.C., Hawaii — Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and West Virginia residents were least likely to approve — PRINCETON, NJ — During the first half of 2010, residents of Hawaii and the District of Columbia were most likely to approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Shocking True Tales of Austerity: Bleak Growth Outlook Leads to Loss of Investor Confidence in Irish Debt — As you can see from Ireland, budget austerity doesn't reassure financial markets if austerity doesn't lead to growth: … To be clear, I don't blame Irish policymakers.
Discussion:
Associated Press
Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
If you want a preview of President Obama's health-care “reform,” take a look at Massachusetts. In 2006, it enacted a “reform” that became a model for Obama. What's happened since isn't encouraging. The state did the easy part: expanding state-subsidized insurance coverage.
Andy Dolan / Daily Mail:
Muslim bus drivers refuse to let guide dogs on board — Blind passengers are being ordered off buses or refused taxi rides because Muslim drivers or passengers object to their ‘unclean’ guide dogs. — One pensioner, a cancer sufferer, told how had twice been confronted by drivers and asked …
John / Power Line:
Union Goons In Action — This footage was shot at a pro-Democratic Party union rally in California. If those shirts were brown instead of pink, the video would have a disturbingly retro feel: — It's funny how the political class is always wringing its hands about the potential for violence …
The Huffington Post:
Mike Pence Explains Why America Can Afford Tax Cuts For The Rich But Not Jobless Aid — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The unsavory task of explaining why America apparently can't afford to help the unemployed but can afford tax cuts for the rich fell to Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on Sunday.
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Robert Gibbs / msnbc.com:
July 18: Cornyn, Menendez, Sessions, Van Hollen — MR. DAVID GREGORY: This Sunday: The balance of power in Washington and the political shockwaves from news made right here last Sunday when the White House conceded Democrats could indeed lose control of the House.
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Nick Bunkley / New York Times:
TARP Audit Questions Rush to Close Auto Dealers — DETROIT — President Obama's auto task force pressed General Motors and Chrysler to close scores of dealerships without adequately considering the jobs that would be lost or having a firm idea of the cost savings that would be achieved, an audit of the process has concluded.
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Celebrity poll shocker! Fully 1% of Americans see need for more coverage of Mel, Lindsay, Justin et al — A new poll, just out, reveals that fully 1% of Americans think the news media need to focus more attention on celebrities. Too much celebrity news coverage? No, we don't do enough.