Top Items:
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Following Controversy Over Pledge, Family Leader Clarifies Anti-Porn Statement — GOP presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum both signed a candidate pledge by the influential social conservative group THE FAMiLY LEADER which ThinkProgress, ABC, the Washington Post …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Slate and The Hill
RELATED:
Cheryl Contee / Jack & Jill Politics:
Michelle Bachmann Signs Pledge that Says Black Children Better Off During Slavery — In Iowa, there's a social conservative pledge called “The Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family” that is anti-abortion, anti-same sex marriage, anti-divorce etc etc that GOP candidates are being urged to sign.
Discussion:
M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD'S …, Blogcritics, Mediaite, Religion Dispatches, Balloon Juice, Top of the Ticket, Opinionator, The Maddow Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Atlantic Online, Wonkette, Jezebel, Liberal Values, Atlas Shrugs, Pirate's Cove, The Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog, Minnesota Independent, GOP 12 and ThinkProgress
The Note:
Bachmann Signs Pledge for Ban on Porn and Same-Sex Marriage
Bachmann Signs Pledge for Ban on Porn and Same-Sex Marriage
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The American Conservative, ThinkProgress, The Politico and Mediaite
Zack Ford / ThinkProgress:
The FAMiLY Leader's Marriage Pledge Says Unwed Slaves Preferable Parents For African-Americans
The FAMiLY Leader's Marriage Pledge Says Unwed Slaves Preferable Parents For African-Americans
Discussion:
Dump Michele Bachmann
Baratunde / baratunde.com:
Michelle Bachmann is running for president on a pro-slavery, anti-porn platform?
Michelle Bachmann is running for president on a pro-slavery, anti-porn platform?
Discussion:
Truth Wins Out, pandagon.net, Daily Kos, Pharyngula and ThinkProgress
Elizabeth Flock / Washington Post:
Michele Bachmann signs pledge that says homosexuality is a choice
Michele Bachmann signs pledge that says homosexuality is a choice
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah, The Daily Beast, ThinkProgress, Verum Serum, Hot Air, Talk Radio News Service, NY Daily News and Sadly, No!
Susan Crabtree / TPMDC:
Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.
Discussion:
The Sundries Shack, Erick's blog, Taylor Marsh, Harry's Place, Mediaite, The Raw Story and New York Magazine
RELATED:
Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:
Paul Ryan's $350 Bottle of Wine — Remember John Edwards's $400 haircut? That turned out to be quite a problem for him. It looks like Paul Ryan is about have a similar problem on his hands. According to this astounding article (with pictures) at Talking Points Memo, Ryan …
Discussion:
Corrente
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
What did David Plouffe really say about unemployment? — Senior Obama adviser David Plouffe is getting widely pilloried on the right today for claiming that people won't vote in 2012 “based on the unemployment rate.” — Plouffe made the comments to reporters at a Bloomberg breakfast earlier this week.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Althouse, AMERICAblog News, Washington Monthly, Washington Wire, Emptywheel, Runnin' Scared, USA Today, Swampland, CNN, Hot Air, TPMDC, Weasel Zippers and National Review
RELATED:
Julie Mason / Reuters:
Plouffe: It's about vision, not jobs
Plouffe: It's about vision, not jobs
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Hill, Pajamas Media and New York Magazine
Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
What's the White House Doing Today to Create Jobs? …
What's the White House Doing Today to Create Jobs? …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Sky Dancing, Washington Wire, Outside the Beltway and Datechguy's Blog
Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Mitt Romney on jobless numbers: ‘Fire Plouffe’
Mitt Romney on jobless numbers: ‘Fire Plouffe’
Discussion:
CNN, Hot Air, Sky Dancing, New York Magazine, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Right Wing News and The Hill
Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:
Former First Lady Betty Ford Dead at 93 — Betty Ford, wife of former President Gerald Ford and the founder of the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction, has died at age 93. — In public, she was one of the most visible and outspoken first ladies in history.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Hot Air and The Jawa Report
RELATED:
Enid Nemy / New York Times:
Betty Ford, Former First Lady, Dies at 93 — Betty Ford, the outspoken and much-admired wife of President Gerald R. Ford who overcame alcoholism and an addiction to pills and helped found one of the most well-known rehabilitation centers in the nation, has died at 93.
Discussion:
Connecting.the.Dots and FrumForum
Christine Hauser / New York Times:
Job Growth Falters Badly, Clouding Hope for Recovery — The United States economy added a meager 18,000 jobs in June, up from a gain of a revised 25,000 jobs in May, the Department of Labor said on Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent in May, the department said.
Discussion:
AlterNet, Economix, FiveThirtyEight, White House.gov Blog, Money & Company, Calculated Risk, Speaker, Crooked Timber, AmSpecBlog, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog, Lynn Sweet, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, BizzyBlog, GayPatriot, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, Emptywheel, New Deal 2.0, Freakonomics, Washington Post, Booman Tribune, Corrente, Oliver Willis, ThinkProgress, Gothamist, Economist's View, Truthdig, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Shakesville, Scared Monkeys, The Western Experience, Online NewsHour, FrumForum, The Lonely Conservative and Lawyers, Guns & Money
RELATED:
Calculated Risk:
June Employment Report: 18,000 Jobs, 9.2% Unemployment Rate
June Employment Report: 18,000 Jobs, 9.2% Unemployment Rate
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Post, Free exchange, LaborUnionReport.com, The Heritage Foundation and The Maddow Blog
Mark Landler / New York Times:
Jobs Report Reinforces Parties in Deficit Talks
Jobs Report Reinforces Parties in Deficit Talks
Discussion:
CNN, The Other McCain, National Review and FrumForum
David Leonhardt / Economix:
The Cost of Austerity — The main problem with the job market is the lack of hiring by private employers. Above all, they aren't sure what the future will bring. — Financial crises have long hangovers, and this one is no exception. Home sales and car sales remain depressed …
RELATED:
Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
CHART: Over 500,000 Government Jobs Lost Since Obama's Inauguration
CHART: Over 500,000 Government Jobs Lost Since Obama's Inauguration
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, PERRspectives, Washington Monthly, Swampland and Jezebel
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
House liberals launch organizing drive against entitlements cuts — House liberals are launching an organizing drive inside the Democatic caucus, in an effort to line up Democrats and get them to commit to opposing any final deficit deal that contains any cuts to entitlements benefits, according to a letter I've obtained.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
RELATED:
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
What's In A Name? Dems Support Social Security Benefit Cut — By Calling It Something Else
What's In A Name? Dems Support Social Security Benefit Cut — By Calling It Something Else
Seung Min Kim / The Politico:
Nancy Pelosi: No entitlement cuts
The Politico:
Entitlements talk spooks Dems
Entitlements talk spooks Dems
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, The Note, Daily Kos and Weasel Zippers
Erika Gudmundson / U.S. Department of the Treasury:
FACT CHECK: Treasury General Counsel George Madison Responds to New York Times Op-Ed on 14th Amendment — Treasury's General Counsel George Madison submitted to the New York Times today the following letter to the editor: — 620 Eighth Avenue — New York, NY 10018 — To the Editor:
Discussion:
Washington Post, Balkinization, Washington Wire, Firedoglake, Gawker, TPMDC, New York Magazine and Talking Points Memo
RELATED:
Dan Amira / New York Magazine:
President Obama Receiving Sycophantic Laughter — While President Obama certainly has an above-average sense of humor for a politician — easy-going, self-effacing, maybe a little corny at times — he's not known as one of the planet's foremost comedians. Yet photographic evidence compiled …
Discussion:
Pajamas Media
Rand Simberg / Popular Mechanics:
6 False Lessons Of The Space Shuttle — With the final flight of shuttle Atlantis sparking inspired debate over where NASA should go from here, PM contributor Rand Simberg warns against some of the conclusions that observers are drawing from 30 years of shuttle flights. — The last space shuttle flight has now launched.
Discussion:
National Review
RELATED:
Dave Mosher / Wired Science:
The Last Space Shuttle Launches Safely Into Orbit
The Last Space Shuttle Launches Safely Into Orbit
Discussion:
Mashable!, AMERICAN DIGEST, GigaOM, Washington Post and Towleroad News #gay
Paul Tough / New York Times:
No, Seriously: No Excuses — In the early days of the education-reform movement, a decade or so ago, you'd often hear from reformers a powerful rallying cry: “No excuses.” For too long, they said, poverty had been used as an excuse by complacent educators and bureaucrats who refused …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and ThinkProgress
RELATED:
John M. Becker / Truth Wins Out:
I Received ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy at Marcus Bachmann's Clinic — TWO Exclusive Investigative Report by John M. Becker — The date was Thursday, June 30, 2011. I turned on the television and listened half-heartedly to the commercials as I busied about doing other things.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Dump Michele Bachmann
Byron Tau / Ben Smith's Blog:
DSCC fires back at Koch brothers — The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, after soliciting funds from the Koch Brothers, have decided that they're a much better foil. DSCC executive director Guy Cecil writes a letter in response, blaming the DSCC campaign solicitation on a staff error:
Discussion:
Power Line, Weasel Zippers and Wonkette
Matthew Hendley / The Daily Pulp:
TSA Agent Caught With Passenger's iPad in His Pants; Allegedly Took $50,000 in Other Goods, Cops Say — While most Transportation Security Administration employees are busy groping people or taking naked pictures of them, the cops say one of those employees was putting fliers' electronics down his pants.
Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
What Really Matters — I don't want to take it too seriously, but I think this Gallup data on who is and isn't expressing satisfaction with their lives helps us understand which dimensions of economic inequality in America do and don't matter: — What you're seeing here is that being unemployed or being seriously poor is terrible.
Discussion:
TheMoneyIllusion and Modeled Behavior