memeorandum: ‘Cathy’ comic strip to end after 34 years (Melissa Gray/CNN)

2:45 PM ET, August 12, 2010

Top Items:

Dem group launches ‘F*ck Tea’ campaign — Last summer, Democrats argued that the Tea Party movement was the astroturf creation of corporate groups. Now that the grassroots conservative resurgence has emerged as a clear force on the right, the left is making a different case: That tea parties are simply the enemy.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Political Byline, Left Coast Rebel, Da Techguy's Blog, Confederate Yankee, Another Black Conservative, Questions and Observations, iOwnTheWorld.com, Weasel Zippers, Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Pat Dollard, Riehl World View, The Mahablog, Gawker, Wake up America and JammieWearingFool

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Public favors Tea Party over top Dems — The American public has a more positive view of the Tea Party movement than both leaders of the majority party in Congress, according to a poll released Wednesday. — An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 30 percent view the grassroots conservative groups …

Discussion: CNN, The Politico, Outside the Beltway, NRSC, Weasel Zippers and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Wall Street Journal:

Grim Voter Mood Turns Grimmer — Pessimism Rises on Economy and War; Bad Reviews for Both Democrats and GOP — Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy and the war in Afghanistan, and are losing faith that Democrats have better solutions than Republicans, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Hot Air, The Caucus, Liberty Pundits Blog, msnbc.com, Washington Wire, Think Progress, Another Black Conservative, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, Commentary, The Washington Independent, Pundit & Pundette, Politics Daily, Gallup, FrumForum, Pollster.com All Content and The Page

CNN:
TRENDING: CNN Poll shows big similarities between 2010, 1994

Discussion: The Hill and Ballot Box

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

GOP plan to extend tax cuts for rich adds $36 billion to deficit, panel finds — A Republican plan to extend tax cuts for the rich would add more than $36 billion to the federal deficit next year — and transfer the bulk of that cash into the pockets of the nation's millionaires …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, theblogprof, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, TalkLeft, Washington Monthly, Newshoggers.com, AMERICAblog News, Gateway Pundit and Beat the Press

Ezra Klein: The Bush tax plan vs. the Obama tax plan in one chart

Tim Fernholz / American Prospect:

But It's Awesome Broccoli for the Rich! — Matt Bai writes about the Paul Ryan's budget plan ... without writing about Paul Ryan's budget plan: … Unless, of course, you're wealthy, because the plan cuts upper-income tax brackets by 10 percent, so that “households with incomes …

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Matt Bai / New York Times:
Waiting in the Wings to Be Chief G.O.P. Dealmaker

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Paul Krugman, Weekly Standard, The New Republic, Balloon Juice, American Spectator, TPMDC and New York Times

Michael Barbaro / New York Times:

Congressman Rangel's Party a Display of Defiance — It was a dramatic but fitting start to an evening that brimmed with political defiance. About 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, as guests began strolling into the Plaza Hotel to celebrate Representative Charles B. Rangel's 80th birthday …

Discussion: WNYC News, Michelle Malkin, The Politico, NY Daily News, Gothamist, Wonkette, New York Magazine, The Political Carnival, Wall Street Journal, PostPartisan, The Nation, City Room, Weasel Zippers, Gawker, Salon, The Page and FrumForum

City Room:
Dinkins Offers the Finger, and Everybody's Talking

Discussion: TPMMuckraker

Chicago Breaking News:

Durbin has cancerous tumor removed from stomach — WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin today underwent surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center to have a small, cancerous mass removed from his stomach, aides said. — The mass was described as a gastro-intestinal stromal tumor, or GIST.

Discussion: The Swamp

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Durbin undergoes surgery to remove stomach tumor

Discussion: CNN

Megan Carpentier / TPMMuckraker:

‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Imam Was A Bush-Era Partner For Mideast Peace — Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf — best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan …

Discussion: The Plum Line, Little Green Footballs, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, ParaPundit, American Prospect, The New Republic, Washington Monthly and Christian Science Monitor

Clifford D. May / National Review:
The Taboo of the Intellectuals

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Commentary and Power Line

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage Appears to Shift at Accelerated Pace — In April, 2009, when we last took a survey of gay marriage polls, we found that support for it had converged somewhere into the area of 41 or 42 percent of the country. Now, it appears to have risen by several points …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, The Eye, Raw Story, New York Magazine, CNN and Hot Air

ABCNEWS:

Civil Unrest: The Death of Decorum in Washington? — Has Civility Reached an Historic Low in Congress? — There was an extraordinary moment during the final senate debate on Elena Kagan's Supreme Court confirmation. While Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delivered remarks, Senator Al Franken …

Discussion: Stop The ACLU

Timothy Egan / Opinionator:
The Mirthless Senate — Senator Al Franken at the hearing …

Discussion: Althouse

Michelle Malkin:

The vulgarity of liberal female “comedians” — Left-wing female comedians are proving that they can be as crude and stupid as their male counterparts. Who knew that striving for gender equality meant pursuing the dream that one day, someday, liberal women would be able to mock …

Discussion: The Radio Equalizer, Wonkette and Gateway Pundit

Paul Krugman:

In The Matter Of Robert L. Gibbs — There he goes again. What gets me is how unprofessional the whole thing is. — Look, if you're a public figure of any kind, you're going to face a lot of criticism. Much of it will seem unfair to you; some of the unfair criticism will come from people …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Confluence, Sister Toldjah, MyDD, The Daily Caller, Wake up America, Prairie Weather, Suburban Guerrilla, Open Left, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Democratic Strategist, Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway and Taylor Marsh

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Robert Gibbs keeps jabbing the left

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Firedoglake

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

George W. Bush makes surprise visit to U.S. troops — Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, made a surprise visit to U.S. troops this afternoon. — They showed up at the USO in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. There they mingled with the returning soldiers, thanked them …

Discussion: The Swamp, Michelle Malkin, AMERICAN DIGEST, Political Byline, Power Line, Wizbang and Shakesville

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Senate approves $600M border security bill — The Senate passed a $600 million border security bill during a rare recess session Thursday, sending it to President Obama for his signature. — Because Republicans and Democrats agreed to pass the legislation by unanimous consent …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Note, FrumForum and Facing South

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Senate passes $600M border bill

Discussion: Gawker, Wonk Room and The Page

Stan Collender / NiemanWatchdog.org:

Six essential questions about the deficit, Wall Street and Washington — Fiscal expert Stan Collender points out that the bond market is not demanding deficit reduction — in fact, quite the opposite. So where is the Washington establishment's obsession with the deficit coming from?

Discussion: Ezra Klein and Hullabaloo

Nile Gardiner / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:

The stunning decline of Barack Obama: 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in meltdown — The last few weeks have been a nightmare for President Obama, in a summer of discontent in the United States which has deeply unsettled the ruling liberal elites, so much so that even the Left has begun to turn against the White House.

Discussion: Nice Deb, Scared Monkeys, Wizbang, Liberty Pundits Blog, NY Daily News, Macsmind and Conservatives4Palin.com

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Borrowers Refuse to Pay Billions in Home Equity Loans — PHOENIX — During the great housing boom, homeowners nationwide borrowed a trillion dollars from banks, using the soaring value of their houses as security. Now the money has been spent and struggling borrowers are unable or unwilling to pay it back.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Felix Salmon, Clusterstock and naked capitalism

Peter Baker / New York Times:

The First Wave of Weary Aides Heads for the Exits — WASHINGTON — Linda Douglass slept nearly 12 hours the day after she left her job as a communications aide at the White House. And the day after that and the day after that. It took two weeks until she finally felt rested.

Discussion: Daniel W. Drezner, Outside the Beltway, National Review, Federal Eye and New York Times

Christina Hoff Sommers / AMERICAN.COM:

Take Back the Sports Page? — The political wing of the women's sports movement is in trouble. These activists are accustomed to challenging timid bureaucrats and university administrators. But in taking on TV sports coverage, they are challenging the market itself.

Discussion: protein wisdom

Jonathan Martin / Seattle Times:

Senate hopeful Dino Rossi sticks to economic message — SPOKANE — Dino Rossi has been a star of the state Republican Party for nearly a decade, but when his campaign for U.S. Senate stopped in Spokane last week, he got little star treatment. — At a breakfast hosted by the Spokane GOP …

Discussion: The Plum Line, The Political Carnival and Daily Kos

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Marco Rubio hedges on Fla. immigration bill — Marco Rubio declined to take a firm stance on a bill that would require immigrants to carry ID. AP — Florida GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio on Thursday declined to take a firm stance on a newly proposed bill in the state that would require immigrants …

Alexander Burns / The Politico:

Will its offbeat candidates hurt GOP? — A former professional wrestling executive, a libertarian ophthalmologist and a man who thinks bicycle use could empower the United Nations filed to run in elections. That's not the start of a joke: that's a sampling of the deeply unusual pool of candidates running …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Don Surber, New York Times, Washington Wire, msnbc.com and Ballot Box

Christopher S. Rugaber / Associated Press:

New claims for unemployment aid reach 484K — New applications for jobless benefits rise to highest since February as layoffs continue — Companies: — Related Quotes — SymbolPriceChange — CFN — 22.70 — WASHINGTON (AP) — The employment picture is looking bleaker …

Discussion: Hit & Run, protein wisdom, Weasel Zippers, Another Black Conservative and Scared Monkeys

Brett Michael Dykes / Yahoo! News:

Cringe-inducing typo outside N.C. school — Well, here's something to make your old English teacher gasp in horror: A road contractor hired to paint the word “school” on a freshly paved stretch of road near Southern Guilford High School in North Carolina rendered the traffic area in question a “shcool” zone.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, theblogprof, The TrogloPundit and Pajamas Media

Sarah Ostman / The Blago Blog:

Jury unanimous on only two counts; has not yet deliberated on 11 wire fraud counts — Reporting with Natasha Korecki, Dave McKinney and Abdon Pallash — The Blagojevich jury has reached a unanimous decision on only two of counts before them — and they have not yet started deliberating on what could be a big chunk of work for them.

Discussion: TalkLeft and TPMMuckraker

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Netanyahu, the anti-Obama — Two photographs adorn the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Together they illuminate a portentous fact: No two leaders of democracies are less alike — in life experiences, temperaments and political philosophies — than Netanyahu …

Discussion: Wonk Room, Commentary, Soccer Dad and Israel Matzav

Jonathan Schwarz / A Tiny Revolution:

Jeffrey Goldberg Still America's Preeminent Propagandist — I'M GOING TO KEEP YELLING AT EVERYONE COMING HERE UNTIL $2000 HAS BEEN DONATED BY YOU ALL TO CONSORTIUM NEWS, THE WEBSITE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, ROBERT PARRY. MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO'VE GIVEN ALREADY—ABOUT $1,400 HAS BEEN DONATED SO FAR.

Discussion: Salon, Democratic Strategist and Pajamas Media