Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Debt-Limit Harakiri — Mitch McConnell isn't selling out Republicans. — Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday he's concluded that no deal to raise the debt ceiling in return for serious spending restraint is possible with President Obama, and who can blame him?
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, The Moderate Voice, TPMDC, Washington Monthly, Democracy in America, Wonkette, Hit & Run, Politics, Hot Air, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Associated Press, RedState, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN, TalkLeft, And So it Goes in Shreveport, National Review, Gallup, americanthinker.com, Betsy's Page, Shakesville, Daily Kos, The Lonely Conservative, Americans for Tax Reform RSS, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Swampland, justoneminute.typepad.com, CBS News, Roll Call and Commentary Magazine
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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
As Easy as ABC — Moving on from Mitch McConnell. — Mitch McConnell's plan, as Eric Cantor and Jim DeMint said tonight, is “going nowhere.” Which is where it deserved to go. It was too clever by half, transparently cynical, probably unconstitutional, and Rube Goldberg-like in its incomprehensibility.
Discussion:
JustOneMinute
Mark Tapscott / Washington Examiner:
BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — Washington gets $200 billion a month …
BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — Washington gets $200 billion a month …
Discussion:
MarketWatch, CBS News, Moonbattery, Pundit & Pundette, Betsy's Page, Spartanburg Tea Party and Weekly Standard
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
McConnell Warns of Risk to Party, and Country, of Default
McConnell Warns of Risk to Party, and Country, of Default
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
Scott Wong / The Politico:
Harry Reid commends Mitch McConnell's debt plan
Harry Reid commends Mitch McConnell's debt plan
Discussion:
New York Times, NewsBusters.org, The Note, Weasel Zippers, Washington Monthly and The Gateway Pundit
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
DNC chairwoman: Republicans acting almost like ‘spoiled children’ on debt ceiling
DNC chairwoman: Republicans acting almost like ‘spoiled children’ on debt ceiling
Discussion:
Jack & Jill Politics
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Can President Obama keep paying Social Security benefits even if the debt ceiling is reached?
Can President Obama keep paying Social Security benefits even if the debt ceiling is reached?
Discussion:
National Review, Don Surber and Politics
Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
McConnell Debt Ceiling Strategy: ‘I Refuse To Help Obama Reelection’
McConnell Debt Ceiling Strategy: ‘I Refuse To Help Obama Reelection’
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Hill, The Monkey Cage, The New Republic and Daily Kos
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
McConnell's backup plan
McConnell's backup plan
Discussion:
Fox News, Hot Air and Big Government
Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
McConnell: GOP won't take ‘co-ownership of a bad economy’
McConnell: GOP won't take ‘co-ownership of a bad economy’
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
The McConnell Plan's Pitfalls
The McConnell Plan's Pitfalls
Discussion:
The Politico, UNCOVERAGE.net, The Hill, RedState and Washington Post
Eric Roper / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
One by one, bars get tapped out — Hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores across Minnesota are running out of beer and alcohol and others may soon run out of cigarettes — a subtle and largely unforeseen consequence of a state government shutdown. — In the days leading up to the shutdown …
Discussion:
KSTP-TV, Reuters, Fox News, REPUBLICAN REDEFINED, Politics, Raw Replay, The Impolitic, Ben Smith's Blog, Say Anything and Marginal Revolution
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John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Now It's Getting Serious! — Mark Dayton's shutdown of Minnesota's state government is now in its third week, and so far I've seen no sign of it. I mean that literally: if I hadn't read about the shutdown in the newspapers, I would have no reason to be aware of it.
Discussion:
Say Anything
Eric Roper Updated / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Shutdown forces MillerCoors to pull beer from shelves
NY Daily News:
Body of Leiby Kletzky, missing 8-year-old boy, found dismembered; pieces in Dumpster, refrigerator — The body parts of a missing 8-year-old Brooklyn boy were found Wednesday in a Dumpster and the refrigerator of a man suspected in his disappearance, police said.
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared, Gothamist and New York Sun
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BBC:
Mumbai: Explosions shake India's financial hub — Police told local media that eight people had been killed and more than 100 wounded. — One explosion was reported in the Zaveri Bazaar, another in the Opera House business district and a third in Dadar district.
Discussion:
Times of India, The Moderate Voice, Sydney Morning Herald, Mashable!, Guardian, USA Today, Michelle Malkin, Politics, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch and UN Dispatch
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The Politico:
Obama and DNC raise $86M, more than doubling GOP field - RNC campaign targets four swing states - Mandel brings in $2.3M for Senate bid - Hahn wins in CA-36 - Barbour camp eyes Perry - One month until — (aburns@politico.com) and (jhohmann@politico.com) — 2012 SIREN - OBAMA'S NUMBER …
Discussion:
TPMDC, Hotline On Call, The Note, Taegan Goddard's …, CNN, The Atlantic Online, Taylor Marsh and JammieWearingFool
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Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
President Obama smashes record with $86M haul
President Obama smashes record with $86M haul
Discussion:
Ballot Box, CNN and The BLT
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Mitch McConnell: We Must Rewrite The Constitution Because ‘Elections’ Haven't ‘Worked’ — Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered what may be the most concise summary of conservative constitutionalism ever spoken …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, ACS Blog and Booman Tribune
BBC:
Austrian driver's religious headgear strains credulity — Having received his driving licence, Niko Alm now wants to get pastafarianism officially recognised — An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as “religious headgear”.
Discussion:
Lean Left, Weasel Zippers, Pharyngula, Boing Boing and Mediaite
New York Post:
Palin nemesis goes nude — GOP presidential hopeful Sarah Palin and her family are the subjects of a profile by George Gurley in the September issue of Playboy, according to sources. Insiders say the story will run next to a four-page nude pictorial of Mercede Johnston, the sister of Bristol Palin's estranged baby daddy, Levi.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Liberal Values, Outside the Beltway and New York Magazine
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
Gracious In Defeat — The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is charged with getting Republicans elected to the House and keeping them there, sent out a press email overnight on the results of the CA-36 special election titled “Statement on Janice Hahn's Entry Into Democrats' Swamp of Corruption”:
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, The Moderate Voice and The Mahablog
RELATED:
David Catanese / The Politico:
California special election: Hahn cruises to solid victory
California special election: Hahn cruises to solid victory
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, CNN, UNCOVERAGE.net, Pajamas Media, PolitiCal, The Other McCain, The Lonely Conservative and American Power
Justin Elliott / Salon:
Rick Perry's Confederate past — Rick Perry made national headlines in 2009 when, during a speech to a Tea Party group, he floated the possibility that Texas could secede from the union. But the governor's substantive ties to the neo-Confederate movement may be deeper than previously known.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and The Other McCain
The Politico:
No yelling at Obama today — Carney reminded journalists, “I used to be where you are, and I used to ask questions.” — AP Photo — A long-running tiff between the White House press corps and the West Wing over presidential access flared anew today when press secretary Jay Carney faced off …
Discussion:
Say Anything and Weasel Zippers
Elias Groll / The Politico:
9/11 families call for U.S. probe of Murdoch — Angry family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks on Wednesday called for a U.S. investigation into allegations that journalists at the British News of the World tabloid sought to hack the phones of their lost love ones.
Adam Serwer / Washington Post:
Laughably bogus poll tries to ‘prove’ Obama is losing Jewish support — Republicans are touting yet another poll that purports to predict the end of the Jewish allegiance to the Democratic Party. Citing a new poll by Republican John McLaughlin and Pat Caddell, the GOP's favorite “Democrat …
Eliot Spitzer / Slate Magazine:
Prosecute News Corp. — The U.S. government should go after Murdoch's media company for its corrupt practices and revoke its TV licenses if it's found guilty. — Bribery, illegal wiretapping, interference in a murder investigation, political blackmail, and rampant disregard for both the truth and basic decency.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Balloon Juice, ThinkProgress, No More Mister Nice Blog and Guardian
Tennessean.com:
Police charge mother in Nashville airport altercation — Woman refused to let officers screen daughter — A 41-year-old Clarksville woman was arrested after Nashville airport authorities say she was belligerent and verbally abusive to security officers, refusing for her daughter to be patted down at a security checkpoint.
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog, The Raw Story, Say Anything and Hit & Run
John Whitesides / Reuters:
Pessimism deepens as economic concerns rise: Reuters/Ipsos poll — (Reuters) - Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future as economic concerns rise and White House talks on raising the U.S. debt limit sputter, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
Discussion:
The Politico, Indecision Forever and The Page
Craig Pittman / St. Petersburg Times:
Tea party members tackle a new issue: manatees — Everybody knows what the tea party members oppose. High taxes. Big government. Obama's health care plan. High-speed rail. — Now, for at least some local tea party members, there's one more to add: manatee protection.
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, ThinkProgress, Gawker and Wonkette
JSOnline:
6 fake Democrats fall, setting stage for GOP recalls — Six fake Democratic candidates put up by the Republican Party to buy time for Republican state senators subject to recalls accomplished that job Tuesday, but none of them did the unexpected and knocked off a real Democrat.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, The Atlantic Online, The Awl and Althouse
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Business community to Congress: Enough — It wasn't too long ago that 62 leading U.S. business groups, including the American Gas Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association, and the National Association of Manufacturers, all pleaded with Congress to end the standoff and raise the debt ceiling.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Caucus, The Huffington Post, The New Republic and Connecting.the.Dots
Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Settled in Albany, Gay Marriage Draws Opposition — Laura L. Fotusky, the town clerk in Barker, N.Y., a small community north of Binghamton, looked at the calendar, looked at her Bible and knew what she had to do. — She drafted a letter to the Town Board and said she would resign on July 21 …
Discussion:
Good As You, AMERICAblog Gay and Towleroad News #gay
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Top Dem suggests Boehner and Cantor have weak relationship — A House Democratic leader on Wednesday suggested House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) don't enjoy a good relationship. — “If they've got a good relationship, I don't want to see a bad one …
Discussion:
The Note, Washington Monthly, Politics and The Hill