Top Items:
Kirk Victor / Hotline On Call:
Romer To Leave White House — Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans. — Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.
RELATED:
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Christina Romer, chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, to resign — Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, has resigned her post to return to her old job as an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, the White House said Thursday.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Bloomberg, Matthew Yglesias, Reuters, Ezra Klein, Wonk Room, The New Republic and Greg Mankiw's Blog
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Top Obama Adviser on Economics to Step Down — WASHINGTON — Christina D. Romer is resigning as the chairwoman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, the White House announced on Thursday night. She will be the second member this summer to leave an economic team that has steered …
Discussion:
Free exchange and National Review
CNN:
Republicans slam White House over new jobs report — Washington (CNN) - Congressional Republicans are using the release of July's jobs report to criticize the Obama administration's economic policies. — The Labor Department reports Friday that the unemployment rate stayed steady …
Discussion:
The Politico
Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box:
Boehner: Dem ethics troubles won't have big impact on elections
Motoko Rich / New York Times:
Private Growth Is Tepid as U.S. Economy Sheds Jobs Overall — With the American economic recovery hanging in the balance, private employers added 71,000 jobs in July, up from a downwardly revised 31,000 in June but below the consensus forecast of 90,000. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.5 percent.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Calculated Risk, The Moderate Voice, BBC, Bloomberg, Economix, Guardian, Free exchange, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway and Left Coast Rebel
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Employers Shed Jobs — Unemployment Rate Held Steady at 9.5% in July — WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy shed more jobs than expected in July while the unemployment rate held steady at 9.5%, a further sign the economic recovery may be losing momentum.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Real Time Economics and Don Surber
CNBC:
Jobs Picture Worsens With 131,000 Losses; 9.5% Rate — U.S. employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery. — Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Townhall.com, Scared Monkeys and New York Magazine
Christopher S. Rugaber / Associated Press:
Companies hire at slow pace for 3rd straight month
Companies hire at slow pace for 3rd straight month
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Flimflam Man — One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans. You might have thought, given past experience, that D.C. insiders would be on their guard against conservatives with grandiose plans.
Discussion:
Clusterstock, Paul Krugman, TalkLeft, AmSpecBlog, Daily Kos, Prairie Weather, Hullabaloo, Economist's View and Balloon Juice
Manu Raju / The Politico:
McConnell to Franken: This isn't ‘SNL’ — When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid out his opposition to Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination, someone in the chamber appeared to be moving around in his chair, gasping and rolling his eyes. — It was Sen. Al Franken.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Doug Ross, The Note, USA Today, New York Magazine and Don Surber
RELATED:
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell scolds Franken for making faces from dais during his speech — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) scolded Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on the Senate floor Thursday for allegedly mocking him while he delivered a solemn speech on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Discussion:
Power Line, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Politico, The Caucus, WHAS and Wall Street Journal
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
HEADS THEY WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE.... Time will tell what the Senate …
HEADS THEY WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE.... Time will tell what the Senate …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and The Plum Line
Gretchen Morgenson / New York Times:
Exotic Deals Put Denver Schools Deeper in Debt — In the spring of 2008, the Denver public school system needed to plug a $400 million hole in its pension fund. Bankers at JPMorgan Chase offered what seemed to be a perfect solution. — The bankers said that the school system …
Discussion:
The Fix, The Spot, The Washington Independent, Open Left, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Hotline On Call
James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
Scalia Was Right — Why the same-sex marriage ruling will stand. — For the first time, a federal judge has held that the Constitution mandates the legal redefinition of marriage. The California Supreme Court had reached a similar conclusion in 2008, and voters responded by amending …
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, American Spectator, neo-neocon, The BLT, RedState and Althouse
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Oleoleolson / AlterNet Blogs:
Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered — A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives.
Paul Krugman:
Bending The Curve — The new Medicare Trustees Report is out. Comparing Table IIIA-2 in this year's report and last year's report, we get this: — Medicare Trustees — In other words, the Medicare actuaries believe that the cost-saving provisions in the Obama health reform …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute and Grasping Reality …
RELATED:
Richard E. Cohen / The Politico:
State aid bill a gamble for Dems — Vunerable lawmakers fear voting for more spending, but they don't want to cross the speaker. John Shinkle — When the House returns next week to rubber-stamp the Senate's $26 billion state-aid package, Democrats will take a political crapshoot.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and The Page
RELATED:
Walter Alarkon / The Hill:
Old Washington hands break with GOP leaders on Bush-era tax cuts — A number of old Republican hands warning of a deficit crisis have split with the GOP leadership over extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts. — Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), President Reagan's budget chief David Stockman …
Discussion:
The Politico
Kenzaburo Oe / New York Times:
Hiroshima and the Art of Outrage — THE Futenma Marine Corps Air Station on Okinawa, one of the largest United States military bases in East Asia, is in the center of a crowded city. The American and Japanese governments acknowledge the dangers of this situation, and they agreed nearly 15 years ago …
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Questions and Observations and American Power
Aaron Blake / The Fix:
Bill Haslam wins GOP nomination for governor in Tennessee — Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam ran away with the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee on Thursday, beating a field that included Rep. Zach Wamp and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. — With 6 percent of precincts reporting, Haslam led second-place Wamp 52 percent to 27 percent.
Discussion:
CNN, Scared Monkeys and The Page
RELATED:
Sean J. Miller / Ballot Box:
Rep. Wamp loses gov. primary to Mayor Haslam
Rep. Wamp loses gov. primary to Mayor Haslam
Discussion:
The Politico and MyDD
Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:
2 Top Economists Differ Sharply on Risk of Deflation — When the latest unemployment figures are announced on Friday, all of Wall Street will be watching. But for Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley and Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs, the results will be more than just another marker in an avalanche of data.
Discussion:
Vox Popoli
David Catanese / The Politico:
Norton wins inaugural AUL nod — The nation's oldest anti-abortion group is lending its first-ever political endorsement to Colorado Senate candidate Jane Norton less than a week before the Republican primary. AP — The nation's oldest anti-abortion group is lending its first-ever political endorsement …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and National Review
CNN:
Hearing set for soldier in Obama birth certificate case — (CNN) — A court hearing is scheduled for Friday in the case of an Army officer who has refused to deploy to Afghanistan because, in his view, President Barack Obama has not proven that he was born in the United States and is therefore ineligible to be president.
Discussion:
Washington Post
U.S. Department of State:
Country Reports on Terrorism 2009 — U.S. law requires the Secretary of State to provide Congress, by April 30 of each year, a full and complete report on terrorism with regard to those countries and groups meeting criteria set forth in the legislation. This annual report is entitled Country Reports on Terrorism.
Discussion:
The Long War Journal, National Review, Weekly Standard and CNN
BBC:
Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show — The government took the threat of UFOs so seriously in the 1950s that UK intelligence chiefs met to discuss the issue, newly-released files show. — Ministers even went on to commission weekly reports on UFO sightings from a committee of intelligence experts.
Discussion:
The Awl, FP Passport, Truthdig and Telegraph