Top Items:
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:
Blogcritics, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, Opinionator, Top of the Ticket, Religion Dispatches, Balloon Juice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Maddow Blog, The Atlantic Online, Wonkette, Jezebel, Liberal Values, Pirate's Cove, Atlas Shrugs, Minnesota Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Raw Story, GOP 12, Alas, a Blog and Pam's House Blend
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The Note:
Bachmann Signs Pledge for Ban on Porn and Same-Sex Marriage — ABC News' Russell Goldman (@GoldmanRussell) reports: — Michele Bachmann became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge, vowing to support a constitutional amendment that defines marriage between a man and a woman, and which calls for a ban on all pornography.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The American Conservative, The Politico and ThinkProgress
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 and Towleroad News #gay
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Following Controversy Over Pledge, Family Leader Clarifies Anti-Porn Statement
Following Controversy Over Pledge, Family Leader Clarifies Anti-Porn Statement
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Slate and The Hill
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:
pandagon.net, Daily Kos, Pharyngula, ThinkProgress and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
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:
The Daily Beast, Sister Toldjah, ThinkProgress, Talk Radio News Service, Mediaite, Sadly, No!, Verum Serum, Hot Air and NY Daily News
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.
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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:
Washington Wire, Hot Air, Sky Dancing, Outside the Beltway and Datechguy's Blog
Julie Mason / Reuters:
Plouffe: It's about vision, not jobs
Plouffe: It's about vision, not jobs
Discussion:
The Hill, Hot Air and Pajamas Media
Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Mitt Romney on jobless numbers: ‘Fire Plouffe’
Mitt Romney on jobless numbers: ‘Fire Plouffe’
Discussion:
CNN, Hot Air, New York Magazine, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Right Wing News and The Hill
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:
Hot Air, Calculated Risk, Economix, Money & Company, FiveThirtyEight, The Huffington Post, Crooked Timber, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Speaker, The Heritage Foundation, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Lynn Sweet, Free exchange, The Atlantic Online, AmSpecBlog, BizzyBlog, No More Mister Nice Blog, New Deal 2.0, Washington Post, Freakonomics, Emptywheel, GayPatriot, Booman Tribune, Oliver Willis, ThinkProgress, Economist's View, Washington Monthly, Gothamist, Corrente, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Truthdig, AMERICAblog News, Shakesville, Scared Monkeys, The Western Experience, Online NewsHour, FrumForum and Lawyers, Guns & Money
RELATED:
Austan Goolsbee / White House.gov Blog:
The Employment Situation in June
The Employment Situation in June
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Wire, Hot Air, Iowa Caucuses and Political Punch
Mark Landler / New York Times:
Jobs Report Reinforces Parties in Deficit Talks
Jobs Report Reinforces Parties in Deficit Talks
Discussion:
The Other McCain, National Review, FrumForum and TPMDC
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:
Harry's Place, Mediaite, Erick's blog, The Raw Story and New York Magazine
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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
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, Firedoglake, Washington Wire, Gawker, New York Magazine, Balkinization, TPMDC and Talking Points Memo
RELATED:
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 …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Hit & Run, AlterNet and A plain blog about politics
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Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
The High Price Of Austerity
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
What's In A Name? Dems Support Social Security Benefit Cut — By Calling It Something Else — Social Security benefit cuts may be a bridge too far for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). But what if Republicans and Democrats alike just agreed to refer to a benefit cut by another name.
RELATED:
The Politico:
Entitlements talk spooks Dems
Entitlements talk spooks Dems
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Note and Daily Kos
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 …
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
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Dave Mosher / Wired Science:
The Last Space Shuttle Launches Safely Into Orbit
The Last Space Shuttle Launches Safely Into Orbit
Discussion:
Mashable!, GigaOM, AMERICAN DIGEST, 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
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Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
CHART: Over 500,000 Government Jobs Lost Since Obama's Inauguration — So should we blame today's bad jobs numbers on Barack Obama's big government policies? Again, I doubt it. What we continue to see are decent—though not great—private sector job numbers offset by tumbling public sector employment:
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, PERRspectives, Swampland and Jezebel
RELATED:
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.
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:
Weasel Zippers, Wonkette and KochFacts.com
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
What Obama Wants — On Thursday, President Obama met with Republicans to discuss a debt deal. We don't know exactly what was proposed, but news reports before the meeting suggested that Mr. Obama is offering huge spending cuts, possibly including cuts to Social Security and an end …
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:
Modeled Behavior
Archbishop Dolan / The Gospel in the Digital Age:
Some Afterthoughts — Almost two weeks ago — hauntingly, on the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, whom King Herod would behead because the saint dared to defend the God-given truth about marriage — our state sadly attempted a re-definition of marriage. Is there anything left to say?
Discussion:
New York Magazine, ThinkProgress and PolitickerNY
Andrew Tilghman / Army Times:
Pentagon suspends DADT in wake of court ruling — The Pentagon has ordered a halt to all separations of gay troops under “don't ask, don't tell” and will begin accepting applications from prospective recruits who identify themselves as homosexuals. — The moratorium issued Friday came …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Washington Blade, Taylor Marsh, Poliglot, The Raw Story, Towleroad News #gay and Shakesville