Top Items:
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, FiveThirtyEight, ABCNEWS, Washington Post, The Nation, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, Calculated Risk, New Deal 2.0, Booman Tribune, Freakonomics, Oliver Willis, Economist's View, Economix, Free exchange, AmSpecBlog, Gothamist, Speaker, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Lynn Sweet, Shakesville, JustOneMinute, Emptywheel, Corrente, ThinkProgress, Truthdig, AMERICAblog News, FrumForum and Lawyers, Guns & Money
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Ian Swanson / The Hill:
Top Obama adviser says unemployment won't be key in 2012 — President Obama's senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won't vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate. — Plouffe should probably hope that's the case, since dismal job figures aren't expected …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Huffington Post, Big Government, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys, AMERICAblog News, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Taylor Marsh, The Note, Pajamas Media, Outside the Beltway, The Hill, NetRight Daily, The Western Experience, National Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, americanthinker.com, The Lonely Conservative, msnbc.com and FrumForum
CNBC:
Jobs Picture Gets Even Worse as Rate Swells to 9.2% — U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest number of workers in nine months, dampening hopes the economy was on the cusp of regaining momentum after stumbling in recent months.
Austan Goolsbee / White House.gov Blog:
The Employment Situation in June
The Employment Situation in June
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Wire, Iowa Caucuses and Political Punch
The Politico:
Obama: ‘A long way to go’ — President Barack Obama acknowledged …
Obama: ‘A long way to go’ — President Barack Obama acknowledged …
Discussion:
The Note, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, CNN, Don Surber and Sister Toldjah
Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Mitt Romney on jobless numbers: ‘Fire Plouffe’
Mitt Romney on jobless numbers: ‘Fire Plouffe’
Discussion:
Hot Air, New York Magazine and Bloomberg
Lucia Mutikani / Reuters:
Jobs growth stalls, setting back recovery hopes
Jobs growth stalls, setting back recovery hopes
Discussion:
Just-A-Small-Town-Country-Boy
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:
The Atlantic Online, Religion Dispatches, Mediaite and The Raw Story
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Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
BREAKING: Bachmann pledges to ban pornography — Tonight, Michele Bachmann became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge created by THE FAMiLY LEADER, an influential social-conservative group in Iowa. By signing the pledge Bachmann “vows” to “uphold the institution of marriage …
William Petroski / Iowa Caucuses:
Bachmann is first to sign Family Leader's pro-marriage pledge — The Family Leader, a prominent Iowa group that promotes Christian conservative social values, said Thursday it is asking all presidential candidates to sign a pledge regarding their personal convictions on traditional marriage.
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama weak in Pennsylvania — Pennsylvania is looking more and more like it could be a tough hold for Barack Obama in 2012. His approval rating in the state continues to be under water at 46/48. More voters have expressed disapproval than happiness with Obama on all three polls PPP has done in the state so far in 2011.
Discussion:
GOP 12
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John Whitesides / Reuters:
Texas Governor Perry likely to run in 2012
Texas Governor Perry likely to run in 2012
Discussion:
NationalJournal.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Texas on the Potomac
Jennifer Jacobs / Iowa Caucuses:
Pawlenty says he just started earnest campaigning in Iowa this week
Pawlenty says he just started earnest campaigning in Iowa this week
Discussion:
GOP 12, Washington Wire, msnbc.com, The Daily Caller, Hotline On Call and FrumForum
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.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, AmSpecBlog, The Other McCain, The Atlantic Online, Eschaton and Daily Kos
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Laurence H. Tribe / New York Times:
A Ceiling We Can't Wish Away — ON May 16, the United States hit its legal debt limit of $14.3 trillion. Unless that limit is raised, the Treasury will, on Aug. 2, be unable to pay its bills. It will then have to either stop spending money on government programs, or default on paying the nation's creditors.
Rose Garden / The White House:
Remarks by the President on the Monthly Jobs Report — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Obviously, over the last couple of days, the debate here in Washington has been dominated by issues of debt limit, but what matters most to Americans, and what matters most to me as President …
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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 …
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:
ThinkProgress, Poliglot and The Raw Story
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.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, JONATHAN TURLEY, Hit & Run, Pajamas Media and The Lonely Conservative
Paul Krugman:
Falling Wages — Ugh. That was a seriously ugly jobs report (pdf). Almost no job creation, with slow private-sector growth offset by falling public-sector employment; a falling employment-population ratio; and (I don't know how many people have picked this up), an actual decline in wages, albeit a small one.
Discussion:
MarketBeat, Don Surber, AMERICAblog News and Grasping Reality …
Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
Bachmann: ‘I Hope’ Higher Unemployment Will Help My Campaign — Appearing on CNBC this morning, presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was asked about this morning's dismal jobs report and whether higher unemployment rates might help her chances of winning in 2012.
Discussion:
CNNMoney.com, CNN and Daily Kos
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:
Rortybomb, Washington Monthly, Swampland and Jezebel
KochFacts.com:
Letter to Senator Patty Murray, Chair Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — Dear Senator Murray: — For many months now, your colleagues in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee leadership have engaged in a series of disparagements …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Gawker, Ben Smith's Blog, New York Magazine, Erick's blog, Big Government, Wonkette, Hot Air, RedState, TPMDC, Nice Deb, Ricochet Conversation Feed, Weasel Zippers, American Glob, Sister Toldjah, GayPatriot, The Lonely Conservative, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Pajamas Media and Taegan Goddard's …
The Daily Beast:
Why ‘Obamacare’ May Live — The once-fervent Republican effort to repeal Obama's signature legislation is running out of gas. Jill Lawrence on why the GOP's top target may survive intact. — What happened to the health-care frenzy that turned town-hall meetings into fiery …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
Confederate Yankee:
It's a Trap! — I've seen several claims in the past 24 hours that “prove” that Attorney General Eric Holder, or Congress, or the President, or the Pope, knew about Gunwalker/Fast and Furious because of a speech someone made, or because of legislation being proposed or because of a line item in the Stimulus bill.
Discussion:
Fausta's Blog
Andrew Frye / Bloomberg:
Buffett Bets ‘Heavily’ Against Double Dip — Billionaire Warren Buffett said he is wagering on continued economic expansion and doesn't expect a second recession. — “I would bet very heavily against that,” Buffett told Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu on the “In the Loop” program today after data showed slowing U.S. job growth.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and Ricochet Conversation Feed
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Mexican Citizen Is Executed as Justices Refuse to Step In — WASHINGTON — In a 5-to-4 decision that split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Thursday evening rebuffed a request from the Obama administration that it stay the execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas.
Gary Strauss / USA Today:
CEOs reap huge payouts in 2011, corporate filings show — If 2010 was a banner year for CEO pay gains, 2011 could provide even bigger windfalls. — A USA TODAY analysis of corporate filings through early July shows CEOs reaping huge 2011 payouts, largely due to stock option valuations up sharply from pre-recession levels.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
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:
Washington Monthly, AlterNet, Hit & Run and A plain blog about politics