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 …
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 …
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:
Washington Wire, The Atlantic Online, CNN, ABCNEWS, Guardian, pandagon.net, Weasel Zippers, The Hill, Gateway Pundit, American Power and Conservatives4Palin.com
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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
Stanley Crouch / NY Daily News:
Is NAACP blind to Farrakhan & Co.? The Nation of Islam is built on racism and lies — I do not think that the NAACP was out of order in asking the Tea Party movement to separate itself from the racists in its midst, but the famous civil rights organization ought to start by following the same suggestion.
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool
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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, First Draft, Gawker, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice and CBS News
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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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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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.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Charleston Daily Mail, Online NewsHour, The Caucus, Commentary and The Corner on National …
Think Progress:
Sen. Cornyn: 'I Think A Lot Of People Are Looking Back With More Fondness On President Bush's Administration' — When Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) made an appearance on C-SPAN's “Newsmakers” yesterday, a host asked him whether Republicans plan to embrace the Bush legacy, and Cornyn suggested that they wholeheartedly would.
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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.
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 …
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
GOP candidates stiff mainstream press — Some of the most conservative and combative Republicans running for Congress are convinced that the media have it in for them. — But these candidates seem to regard it as an affront when reporters challenge them on their past statements and inconsistencies …
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org
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.
Stan Cox / Los Angeles Times:
AC: It's not as cool as you think — Artificial cooling has had a profound effect on how, and where, we live and work. — When a national group of urban planning historians was asked to rank the most important influences on the American metropolis in the last half of the 20th century …
Discussion:
Right Wing News
Financial Times:
The great austerity debate — Over the next week some of the world's leading policymakers and economists will be addressing in the FT the all-consuming contemporary economic debate: austerity versus stimulus. The writers, including Larry Summers, Jean-Claude Trichet and the FT's Martin Wolf …