Top Items:
CBS News:
Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3 — President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Washington Wire, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Enterprise Blog, No More Mister Nice Blog, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, The Lonely Conservative, Talking Points Memo, Swampland, Weasel Zippers, AmSpecBlog, Say Anything, The Impolitic, JammieWearingFool, New York Magazine, TPMDC, Don Surber, National Review and Politics
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The Politico:
Senate GOP mulls new debt strategy — Trying to get out of the political box which they have helped to create, Senate Republicans are actively discussing a new plan under which the debt ceiling would grow in three increments over the remainder of this Congress unless lawmakers approve a veto proof resolution of disapproval.
Zeke Miller / Politics:
Boehner Says The Debt Limit Increase Is Obama's Problem — Speaker of the House John Boehner introduced a new argument to the debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks Tuesday, saying raising the borrowing limit is Republicans' concession in the negotiations. — “This debt limit increase is [Obama's] problem,” he said.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Little Green Footballs, Sky Dancing and msnbc.com
Erik Wasson / Healthwatch:
Cantor outlines $353B in Medicare, Medicaid savings during debt talks — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Monday proposed changes to Medicare and Medicaid he said would save $353 billion over the next decade. — Cantor made the proposal in talks at the White House.
Discussion:
The Note, The Politico and ThinkProgress
Damian Paletta / Washington Wire:
470 Business Leaders Urge Congress, White House to Act on Debt
470 Business Leaders Urge Congress, White House to Act on Debt
Discussion:
Politics, Washington Monthly and MyFox Philadelphia
Corey Boles / Wall Street Journal:
McConnell Says ‘Real Deal’ Not Possible With Obama
McConnell Says ‘Real Deal’ Not Possible With Obama
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Wizbang and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
The Big Blink? McConnell Proposes Giving Obama Authority To Raise Debt Limit Alone
The Big Blink? McConnell Proposes Giving Obama Authority To Raise Debt Limit Alone
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and The New Republic
The Politico:
Angry John Boehner rallies GOP troops on debt limit
Angry John Boehner rallies GOP troops on debt limit
Discussion:
USA Today, Firedoglake, The Note, Washington Post and Gawker
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Boehner: avoidable economic crash isn't my problem
Boehner: avoidable economic crash isn't my problem
Discussion:
Washington Post and Daily Kos
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
EXCLUSIVE: McConnell to Obama: Eat your own darn peas
EXCLUSIVE: McConnell to Obama: Eat your own darn peas
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Pajamas Media, REPUBLICAN REDEFINED and The Maddow Blog
Rep. Allen West / Fox News:
Boehner Assures Republicans He Won't Cave on Tax Hikes
Boehner Assures Republicans He Won't Cave on Tax Hikes
Discussion:
White House Dossier
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Boehner: 'This Debt Limit Increase Is Obama's Problem'
Boehner: 'This Debt Limit Increase Is Obama's Problem'
Discussion:
Booman Tribune
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Obama warns Social Security checks might not be sent Aug. 3
Obama warns Social Security checks might not be sent Aug. 3
Discussion:
CNN
Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
Wonkbook: Why liberals should thank Eric Cantor — (KAREN BLEIER - AFP/GETTY IMAGES) I knew the White House wanted a compromise on the debt ceiling. I just didn't expect them to do quite so much, well, compromising. — Here's what appears to have been in the $4 trillion deal they offered …
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David Brooks / New York Times:
The Magic Lever — The world economy is a complex, unknowable organism. Most of us try to diversify our investments and balance risk and security to protect against the unexpected. — But a few years ago a group of bankers thought they had the magic tool to help them master financial trends and predict the future.
Jay Newton-Small / Swampland:
Cantor in a Box — House Speaker John Boehner assigned his No. 2 …
Cantor in a Box — House Speaker John Boehner assigned his No. 2 …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Hullabaloo, New York Magazine and Washington Post
John Tompkins / Brazosport Facts:
Ron Paul won't seek congressional term in 2012 — LAKE JACKSON — After serving almost 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul told The Facts this morning he will not be seeking another term for the District 14 seat. — Paul, 75, will instead focus on his quest for the presidency in 2012.
Discussion:
The Politico, The Moderate Voice, Washington Wire, The Atlantic Online, The Note, CNN, Wonkette, REPUBLICAN REDEFINED, New York Magazine, Real Time Economics, Gawker, Pajamas Media, The American Independent, Outside the Beltway, Greg's Opinion, Hot Air, GOP 12, Hit & Run, The Raw Story, TPMDC, Hotline On Call, Politics and AmSpecBlog
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Rep. Ron Paul won't seek reelection
Rep. Ron Paul won't seek reelection
Discussion:
The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Ben Smith's Blog, Weasel Zippers and MarketBeat
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Fresh doubt cast on Obama's health care story — During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama often discussed his mother's struggle with cancer. Ann Dunham spent the months before her death in 1995, Obama said, fighting with insurance companies that sought to deny her the coverage she needed to pay for treatment.
New York Times:
Half Brother of Afghan President Is Killed in Kandahar — By ALISSA J. RUBIN, CARLOTTA GALL and RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK — KABUL, Afghanistan — The powerful half brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was shot dead on Tuesday by a close family associate, according to Karzai family friends who were nearby.
Discussion:
BBC, The Atlantic Online, REPUBLICAN REDEFINED, Scared Monkeys, Swampland, Gawker, Taylor Marsh and New York Magazine
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Joshua Partlow / Washington Post:
Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan president, killed by trusted confidant
Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan president, killed by trusted confidant
Discussion:
FP Passport, Guardian, Global Public Square, Newshoggers.com, JustOneMinute, Atlas Shrugs and Truthdig
Mirwais Khan / Associated Press:
Afghan president's half brother killed in south
Afghan president's half brother killed in south
Discussion:
Aljazeera, BLACKFIVE, The Politico, msnbc.com, The Long War Journal and National Review
Marc Caputo / MiamiHerald.com:
Police reports show different side of Michele Bachmann — From complaining about her house being egged to filing a report that she was being held “against my will” in a public restroom, Michele Bachmann has left a trail of police reports showing a seldom-seen side of a presidential candidate.
Discussion:
Mediaite, iOwnTheWorld.com, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Blotter, The Raw Story and Politics
Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Bachmann: I'm ‘Very Proud’ Of Husband's Ex-Gay Therapy Clinics — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) refused to comment on her husband's Christian counseling clinics, dodging a question from a local ABC News reporter in Iowa about new video evidence showing one counselor telling a gay patient …
blue cheddar:
“Right to Life” robocalls from D.C. tell Wisconsin recall voters to stay home — If you get a robocall informing you that you should not vote in a recall election in Wisconsin today, please double check. You need to go to the polls between the hours of 7AM and 8PM in 6 recall districts and vote in person as usual.
Discussion:
Jezebel, Wonkette, The Raw Story and Daily Kos
RELATED:
Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Wisconsin recall elections underway
Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:
N.Y. clerk quits over gay marriage — A rural New York town clerk has resigned her post rather than grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. — “I would be compromising my moral conscience by participating in licensing same-sex couples,” Laura Fotusky, the clerk of the Town of Barker, told POLITICO.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Towleroad News #gay, The Raw Story and Capital Tonight
Jeremy Scahill / The Nation:
The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia — Nestled in a back corner of Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport is a sprawling walled compound run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Set on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the facility looks like a small gated community, with more than a dozen …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Weasel Zippers, Information Dissemination and Emptywheel
Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:
Proud Of Being Ignorant — This is the dumbest story ever written in all of human history. … Note that this was under “Politics and Policy.” It's as if the purveyors of Beltway-ism and fen-fen joined forces and hatched a diabolical plot. — Adam expounds: … The worst part is there no actual hypocrisy.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Adam Serwer, Gawker and Balloon Juice
Jonathon M. Seidl / Breaking news and opinion …:
Education Omaha Schools Spend $130,000 in Stimulus Money to Buy 8,000 ‘Social Justice’ Diversity Manuals — If I told you that your tax dollars (130,000 of them) went to buying a “diversity” manual that asserts the government and other institutions create advantages that …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Omaha World-Herald, Moonbattery, Weasel Zippers, Doug Ross and Moe Lane
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Thinks We're Still in the Bush Era — Another day, another chart from the “non-partisan” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on what “accounts” for the public debt. At some level, these exercises are silly: all prior legislation could be equally said to …
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog
Jake Sherman / The Politico:
Darrell Issa questions White House's 2012 actions — House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is probing what he sees as signs of an unseemly overlap between President Barack Obama's official and political activities. — In what could be considered the committee's sharpest probe …
Discussion:
Washington Post, UrbanGrounds, Weasel Zippers, White House Dossier and Taegan Goddard's …
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Gingrich Leaps On The Court Stripping Bandwagon, Claiming ‘There Is No Supreme Court In The American Constitution’ — ThinkProgress filed this report from Pella, Iowa. — At an Iowa campaign stop, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) offered a truly bizarre explanation …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Star-Ledger Guest / NJ Voices Guest blog:
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer shows progressive streak — By David E. Bernstein and Josh Blackman — Since John Paul Stevens' retirement in 2010, Stephen Breyer seems poised to become the leader of the Supreme Court's liberal wing. In the nine cases that split 5-4 along ideological lines …
Discussion:
Concurring Opinions and The Volokh Conspiracy
Patrick O'Connor / Washington Wire:
Fiorina Joins Senate GOP Campaign Arm — Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina will help Senate Republicans raise money ahead of next year's election to do what she couldn't in the last one: win seats held by Democrats. — Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who chairs the Republicans' Senate campaign arm …
Discussion:
Ballot Box, MyFox Philadelphia and Moe Lane
Carl Campanile / New York Post:
Blow against O in Weiner race — In “a shot across President Obama's bow,” Democratic former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday urged voters in Queens and Brooklyn to make “history” by voting for the Republican candidate to replace randy ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner in the Sept. 13 special election …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Israel Matzav and JammieWearingFool
Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
The Future Deficit Can Inherently Exists In The Future — Kicking the can down the road is generally understood to be a bad thing. But it's crucial to note that in the context of discussion of America's long-term structural deficit, the can in question inherently exists in the future.
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE and Eschaton
John Leland / New York Times:
Returning Jeter's Big Hit: No Good Deed Goes Untaxed (Perhaps) — Here is the fan's fantasy: You go to the ballpark and under a picture-perfect sky not only do the Yankees win, but in recognition of your exemplary behavior, the team also showers you with free season tickets …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Heritage Foundation, The Consumerist, This Just In, Gothamist and American Morning