Top Items:
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 …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, Hullabaloo, Washington Monthly and Balloon Juice
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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 Politico, The Note and ThinkProgress
Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
'C'mon, Man!' Exclaims VP in Deficit Meeting. 'Let's Get Real!' — Officials familiar with the negotiations say today's meeting began with President Obama asking House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to lay out what was agreed upon in the deficit reduction talks led by Vice President Biden.
Los Angeles Times:
Boehner-Cantor rivalry affecting debt talks
Boehner-Cantor rivalry affecting debt talks
Discussion:
Roll Call, The Hill, The Hill, Washington Post, Booman Tribune, Washington Monthly, Prairie Weather, Connecting.the.Dots and The Politico
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Magic Lever — The world economy is a complex, unknowable organism.
The Magic Lever — The world economy is a complex, unknowable organism.
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, Hullabaloo, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, New York Magazine and Washington Post
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
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Boehner: avoidable economic crash isn't my problem
Boehner: avoidable economic crash isn't my problem
Discussion:
TPMDC, Washington Post and Daily Kos
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.
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Rep. Ron Paul won't seek reelection — Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Tuesday that he won't seek reelection in 2012. — Paul posted to his official Twitter account a message had he had “decided not to seek re-election to Congress,” along with a link to a website, The Facts, on which he explained his decision.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, Ben Smith's Blog, Weasel Zippers and MarketBeat
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, Newshoggers.com, Guardian, JustOneMinute, Truthdig and Atlas Shrugs
Mirwais Khan / Associated Press:
Afghan president's half brother killed in south
Afghan president's half brother killed in south
Discussion:
BLACKFIVE, msnbc.com, The Politico, The Long War Journal and National Review
Aljazeera:
Karzai's brother shot dead in Kandahar
Karzai's brother shot dead in Kandahar
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Global Public Square and Politics
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:
ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Say Anything, JammieWearingFool, TPMDC and Politics
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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 and msnbc.com
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.
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 …
Discussion:
TPMDC, The American Independent, Daily Kos, Mediaite, AlterNet, Towleroad News #gay, WQAD-TV and Wonkette
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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:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mediaite, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Raw Story, Politics and The Blotter
Jim Davenport / The Post and Courier, Charleston SC:
Utah's Huntsman passes on S.C. senator's pledge — GREER — Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who would like to be the Republican nominee in the White House race, said Tuesday he's not about to sign the spending limit pledge that a South Carolina senator has turned into a threshold test for 2012 presidential hopefuls seeking his support.
Discussion:
GOP 12, Taylor Marsh, The Note, Balloon Juice and Ben Smith's Blog
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Lauraklairmont / CNN:
Huntsman goes on offense against Romney
Huntsman goes on offense against Romney
Discussion:
The Note, Washington Monthly, The Politico, GOP 12 and Outside the Beltway
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:
Doug Ross and Weasel Zippers
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Isabel Kershner / New York Times:
Israel Bans Boycotts Against the State — JERUSALEM — The Israeli Parliament on Monday passed contentious legislation that effectively bans any public call for a boycott against the state of Israel or its West Bank settlements, making such action a punishable offense.
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and Mondoweiss
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Mark Weiss / Telegraph:
Israel parliament passes anti-boycott bill
Israel parliament passes anti-boycott bill
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and Taylor Marsh
Mike Waterhouse / WEWS-TV:
Unruly passenger on flight diverted to Cleveland faces federal charges — Passenger helps flight crew restrain suspect — Last Updated: 14 hours and 16 minutes ago — CLEVELAND - The unruly passenger who caused a commercial jet flying from Chicago to Germany to divert to Cleveland Friday is facing federal charges.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The Jawa Report and Atlas Shrugs
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, Taegan Goddard's … and White House Dossier
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
Fred Lucas / CNSNews:
Obama: Job Losses Prove Stimulus Worked — (CNSNews.com) - Three days after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the national unemployment rate had ticked up from 9.1 percent in May to 9.2 percent in June, President Barack Obama said that the loss of jobs in the public sector is …
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
New York Times:
Gordon Brown Says Newspaper Hired ‘Known Criminals’ — LONDON — Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown brought new and alarming charges on Tuesday to the broadening scandal enveloping Rupert Murdoch's media empire in Britain, accusing one of the most prestigious newspapers in the group of employing …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Bachmann opens door to raising debt limit — if it repeals healthcare bill — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) opened the door to voting to raise the debt ceiling on Monday — in the extraordinarily unlikely instance that it's tied to a repeal of President Obama's healthcare law.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, GOP 12, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, Weasel Zippers, The Maddow Blog, Politics and News Hounds
Cameron Joseph / The Hill:
GOP looks for special-election upset — Republicans are hopeful they can pick off a Los Angeles-based House seat long held by Democrats in Tuesday's special election. — The odds are against their candidate, businessman Craig Huey, but he's surprised observers on both sides of the aisle by making the race closer than expected.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, CNN and msnbc.com
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
Cindy Adams / New York Post:
Not over 'til ex-first lady sings — Michelle Paterson, former governor David Paterson's wife, is writing a book. — “It's about getting thrown into being first lady. How the press treated us. About those who served David and who didn't. All from my own perspective. I don't include anyone else's thinking.
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared, Gothamist and New York Magazine
John Schwartz / New York Times:
Polygamist, Under Scrutiny in Utah, Plans Suit to Challenge Law — Kody Brown is a proud polygamist, and a relatively famous one. Now Mr. Brown, his four wives and 16 children and stepchildren are going to court to keep from being punished for it. — The family is the focus of a reality TV show …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Datechguy's Blog, The Camp Of The Saints, Althouse and The Other McCain