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McConnell: I Won't Agree To Raise The Debt Limit Without Medicare Cuts — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says substantial Medicare cuts must be part of a spending and deficit cut package to get his support to raise the debt limit. — In a Capitol briefing with reporters Friday …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway and The Raw Story
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Medicare Survival Guide — Sometime this summer, the Democrats and the Republicans will go toe-to-toe over whether to raise the debt ceiling. At the height of the confrontation, President Obama may well address the country and say that even though he has offered the Republicans …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, The New Republic and DailyHowler.com

McConnell: Saying Medicare is off the table is ‘silly talk’ and ‘nonsense’ — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that Medicare reform must be part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, despite indications that changing the entitlement will be politically unpopular.

Medicare and Mediscares — Yes, Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is a sore loser. Why do you ask? — To be sure, Mr. Ryan had reason to be upset after Tuesday's special election in New York's 26th Congressional District. It's a very conservative district …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org, The Confluence, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Prairie Weather

A Cornered Animal Is A Dangerous Animal — Public polling, the NY-26 outcome, and other objective indicators make it clear Republicans have boxed themselves into a political corner with their plan to end Medicare. It's a big problem for them politically, and there's no easy way out …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and Booman Tribune


Mediscare: The Surprising Truth — Republicans are being portrayed as Medicare Grinches, but ObamaCare already has seniors' health care slated for draconian cuts. — The Obama administration has repeatedly claimed that the health-reform bill it passed last year improved Medicare's finances.
Discussion:
JSOnline, Wonk Room, National Review, Pajamas Media and Doug Ross

McConnell puts Medicare in the ransom note
Discussion:
Balloon Juice

Are Dems drawing hard line on Medicare after all?
Discussion:
Daily Kos

Mitch McConnell agrees with Bill Clinton on Medicare
Discussion:
TalkLeft


Bachmann's Debacle — “This is a disaster,” said one prominent Polk County Republican. An elected official called it “an embarrassment”. The embarrassing disaster was the result of Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann's last minute cancellation of her appearance at the Polk County GOP's Robb Kelley Dinner.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Mediaite
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What Obama did to Israel — Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace …
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Judge strikes down corporate donations ban — A federal court in Alexandria, Va. on Thursday struck down a federal ban on corporate campaign contributions, in a case with potentially dramatic ramifications for a campaign finance regulatory system under siege by legal and regulatory attacks.
Discussion:
Election Law Blog, Moe Lane and Gawker
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BREAKING: Republican Judge Strikes Down Ban On Corporate Contributions Directly To Candidates — Reagan-appointed federal Judge James Cacheris just ruled that corporations have a constitutional right to contribute money directly to political candidates:
Discussion:
Associated Press, Crooks and Liars, OpenSecrets.org, Daily Kos and Taegan Goddard's …


ROBAMA: Is It OK for a President to Autopen a Bill Into Law? — With the Patriot Act set to expire last night, President Obama signed legislation extending it — from France — as first reported by ABC News. — How did he do that? Using an autopen, of course. — Is that allowed?
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Obama Uses Autopen to Sign Patriot Act Extension
Discussion:
New York Times, Cato @ Liberty, Blog of Rights, The New Republic, Hot Air, Gawker, Danger Room and Battleland

Obama Won't Personally Sign Patriot Act Extension
Discussion:
The Hill, Boing Boing, The Daily Caller, The Volokh Conspiracy, Top of the Ticket, The Politico, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Odd Clauses Watch, Josh Blackman's Blog, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Moderate Voice, rubber hose, Michelle Malkin and New York Magazine


This Time Lapse Video of the Very Large Telescope At Work is the Coolest Thing You'll See Today — Your Universe (As Seen From the Home Planet) ESO/Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado — There's very little we can write to preface the imagery below, so we'll just set the scene and get out of the way.
Discussion:
Yourish.com and Questions and Observations

Soquel High School Students Suspended for Wearing White T Shirts (They're Signs of “White Supremacy") — Soquel, California — on the Central Coast: — Several high school seniors wore white t shirts to their class's group picture last Wednesday and were suspended for doing so.
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel and Five Feet of Fury
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Soquel Students Suspended for White Supremacy Claims
Discussion:
Wake up America, Moonbattery and The Daily Caller

CNN Poll: GOP 2012 field still up in the air — Washington (CNN) - Call it a sign of how unsettled the GOP presidential field remains: Two of the three people at the top of new national poll in the battle for the Republican nomination may not even run for the White House.

Perry says he will consider White House run — Gov. Rick Perry today gave his strongest indication yet that he may run for president. — “I'm going to think about it” after the legislative session ends Monday, Perry said. — For years, Perry has said that he would not run for president and that he had no interest.

Amazon.com Reveals the Most Well-Read Cities in America — Cambridge, Mass., tops the list with the most books, magazines and newspapers purchased per capita of any city in the United States — (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Just in time for the summer reading season, Amazon.com announced its list of the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in America.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and The New Editor

No Ideas — Ezra Klein points us to the House GOP's rather pitiful jobs manifesto. Ezra describes it as “now more than ever”: the GOP's response to the employment crisis is to demand exactly the same things it demands when the economy is doing well. — Actually, the same is true of the Ryan plan …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and Daily Kos
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Rolling Thunder Riders Praise Sarah Palin's Participation in Rally — ABC News' Sheila Marikar [@sheilaym] reports: For the riders of Rolling Thunder, the news that Sarah Palin will participate in their national rally on Sunday came as a surprise. A welcome surprise.
Discussion:
Fox Nation, Ben Smith's Blog, Weasel Zippers and Mediaite

Marshfield man charged in circuit court with attempt to kill abortion doctor — IMAGE (7) — The Marshfield man who drove to Madison to kill an abortion doctor told police that he was next going to go to an abortion clinic in Milwaukee, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Crooks and Liars


Inside Meghan McCain's Bachelorette Pad — The famous daughter of the famous senator shows off her 1,100-square-foot bachelorette home in West Hollywood. — LEAST-REPUBLICAN PIECE OF CLOTHING: My black studded Christian Louboutin heels. They are hard-core. My friend nicknamed them my dominatrix heels.
Discussion:
The Other McCain, The Lonely Conservative, Wonkette and Gawker


America's Forgotten Liberal — JANUARY was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey's birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, A plain blog about politics, Hullabaloo and Daily Kos

Mitt Romney Supports Ethanol Subsidies, Opposes Tim Pawlenty's ‘Hard Truth’ — ABC News' Emily Friedman (@emilyabc) & Matthew Jaffe (@jaffematt) report: — Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are at odds on one of the biggest issues to voters in Iowa, home of the nation's first presidential caucuses.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Wire, Ballot Box, Pajamas Media, GOP 12 and Outside the Beltway


Tyler Cowen, America's Hottest Economist — The George Mason University professor has written a bestseller, The Great Stagnation, keeps an influential blog, and reads way too many books — Tyler Cowen sits with a cranberry juice and a pile of books he no longer intends to read.
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Outside the Beltway and The Moderate Voice


Larry Flynt Calls Trig Palin “Brain Dead Virtual Vegetable” — Sarah Palin's son Trig is in the news again following the liberal blog Wonkette bashing her and saying her son, who has Down Syndrome, is “retarded” and “somewhat alive.” Now Hustler published Larry Flynt has gotten in on the attacks.
Discussion:
The Independent, The Jawa Report, Big Journalism and Big Hollywood


Spotlight takes toll on first lady's staff — Less than three years into the job, first lady Michelle Obama is on her third chief of staff and third social secretary. She is on her second communications director, the White House chief usher recently departed, and her press secretary's last day is Friday.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers

Breaking: Several Jewish Dems in Congress back Obama on Israel, characterize his stance accurately — Since it's being widely reported that many leading Democrats in Congress are criticizing Obama's stance on the pre-1967 lines, it's perhaps also worth mentioning that a few Jewish Congressional Dems have stepped forward to defend him.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and New York Times

Karl Rove: Sarah Palin Doesn't Seem To Think ‘Rules Apply To Her’ (VIDEO) … During an appearance on Fox News' “On the Record” on Thursday night, Karl Rove weighed in on the political ambitions of Sarah Palin as signs emerge that the former Alaska governor may be laying the groundwork …
Discussion:
Guardian, Washington Post, Mediaite, Sister Toldjah and The Moderate Voice

New York's 26th is not Alone — Republican leaders and conservative pundits have spun Democrat Kathy Hochul's upset win in New York's 26th Congressional District as exceptional - with peculiar ballot lines, Tea Party independents, quality of the candidates, and Democratic message discipline.