Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Getting to Crazy — There aren't many positive aspects to the looming possibility of a U.S. debt default. But there has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Call Obama's bluff — President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won't sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?” — How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission's recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The New Republic, AmSpecBlog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Daily Kos
Wall Street Journal:
Plan B Emerges on Debt — Sens. Reid, McConnell Quietly Discuss Way to Keep Government From Default — A backup plan to cut the federal deficit and keep the U.S. government from default gained momentum Thursday even as President Barack Obama and congressional leaders paused their negotiations to determine if they can reach a deal.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, New York Times, CNN, The Politico, Hot Air, The Hill, New York Magazine, Washington Post, FrumForum and Outside the Beltway
Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
GOP Senator: Maybe We Shouldn't Have Tied Debt Vote To Deficit Deal (VIDEO) … WASHINGTON — Some Republicans are starting to have buyer's remorse over their party's insistence that a vote to raise the debt limit be tied to a long-term deficit reduction package.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Sacramento Bee, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh and Balloon Juice
The Hill:
GOP leaders embrace ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ plan as debt solution — House Republican leaders have thrown their support behind the “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan that conservatives are demanding in return for an increase in the federal debt ceiling. — According to lawmakers who attended an 8 …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
National Review:
Cantor: ‘Not a Game’ — A couple of hours before Thursday's debt-limit negotiations, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor huddles with aides and reviews budget numbers. Across the rotunda, one of his fellow White House conferees, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, chastises Cantor for allegedly acting …
Discussion:
Political Punch, Weasel Zippers and Pundit & Pundette
New York Times:
‘Decision Time’ on Budget, Obama Tells Leaders
Discussion:
The Politico, Washington Monthly, The Caucus, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Jared Bernstein and FrumForum
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
House GOP plans meeting to discuss faltering negotiations over debt deal
Discussion:
The Politico
Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County — “Why aren't you seeing Harry Potter?” an usher said to the reporter sitting alone in the audience — When the clock struck 12:01 am today, AMC theaters in select cities were permitted to start showing “The Undefeated,” a feature length documentary about Sarah Palin.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Ben Smith's Blog, ThinkProgress, TBogg, GOP 12, The Impolitic and FrumForum
John Bingham / Telegraph:
Phone Hacking: Rupert Murdoch's daughter in ‘furious’ attack on Rebekah Brooks — Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth has made a “furious” attack on Rebekah Brooks's handling of the phone hacking scandal at News International, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. — Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Time, New York Times, Guardian, The Lede, The Daily Dish, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Guy Fawkes' blog, more at Mediagazer »
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BBC:
Phone hacking: News International chief Brooks quits — Media analyst Steve Hewlett: ‘News International appears to be on the run’ — Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, has resigned, the company has confirmed. — Her departure follows days of increasing pressure to step down as the phone hacking crisis grew.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and No More Mister Nice Blog
Tony Kennedy / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Marcus Bachmann says his clinics not anti-gay — Therapists will oblige if patients ask for counseling to become heterosexual, but they don't force treatment, he said. — The husband of Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann has come forward to defend his family-owned Christian …
Discussion:
USA Today, The Note, Ben Smith's Blog, ThinkProgress, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, La Daily Musto, TPMDC, Mediaite, msnbc.com, Truth Wins Out, Towleroad News #gay and Politics
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June Thomas / Slate:
Dan Savage, Bully
Discussion:
FrumForum, Outside the Beltway, The Moderate Voice and Althouse
Wall Street Journal:
The Obama Downgrade — The real reason the U.S. could lose its AAA rating. — So the credit-rating agencies that helped to create the financial crisis that led to a deep recession are now warning that the U.S. could lose the AAA rating it has had since 1917.
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Betsy's Page, Questions and Observations and The Lonely Conservative
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Robert Reich / Wall Street Journal:
Can Obama Pull a ‘Clinton’ on the GOP? — He's following the budget-showdown script Bill Clinton used to win re-election. But the economy added 434,000 new jobs in February 1996. — After a bruising midterm election, the president moves to the political center. He distances himself from his Democratic base.
Discussion:
Pajamas Media
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Alex Altman / Swampland:
With Debt Talks Stalled, Democrats Try to Divide and Conquer the GOP
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg and Reuters
Walter Shapiro / The New Republic:
The Tragedy of Tim Pawlenty — He did everything right. And that was the problem. — At almost precisely the minute that Michele Bachmann was declaring her presidential candidacy in Iowa at the end of June, I was interviewing Tim Pawlenty in a borrowed conference room in a midtown Manhattan financial firm.
Discussion:
Swampland
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Patrick O'Connor / Washington Wire:
Pawlenty Ends Quarter With $1.4 Million
Discussion:
CNN, Ballot Box, msnbc.com, GOP 12 and Ben Smith's Blog
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
McConnell proposal would force major review of entitlements — Larry Kudlow, who's plugged in with Congressional Republicans, scoops a key new detail about the emerging Mitch McConnell proposal to transfer control of the debt ceiling to the president:
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh
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Larry Kudlow / National Review:
McConnell's Uber-Clever Debt-Deal Stratagem
Discussion:
The New Republic
Paul Krugman:
It Was Debt What Did It — Never mind William Galston's strange belief that debt-deleveraging is a new theory, unknown to Keynesian economics; Mian and Sufi are in fact doing terrific work. They have been testing the effects of household leverage by looking at cross-sectional evidence, in particular county-level US data.
Discussion:
Grasping Reality … and Rortybomb
Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Bachmann raises $2 million in two weeks to start campaign — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) raised more than $2 million in the two and a half weeks since she announced her candidacy and has $4 million cash on hand after a $2 million transfer from her House account, according to CBS News.
Discussion:
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Chris Geidner / Poliglot:
DOJ Tells Court It “Continues to Defend” DADT, Seeks Reinstatement of Law “By the Close of Business Tomorrow” — The Department of Justice filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Ciruit in the Log Cabin Republicans v. United States case today, asking the court for “emergency” …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Runnin' Scared, Advocate, Towleroad News #gay and Metro Weekly
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Phil Reese / Washington Blade:
BREAKING: DOJ seeks emergency stop to DADT injunction as Pentagon finalizes repeal
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay and Pam's House Blend
Associated Press:
U.S. Formally Recognizes Libya Rebels — ISTANBUL (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Obama administration has decided to formally recognize Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate government. The move gives foes of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi a major financial and credibility boost.
Discussion:
The Politico, CBS News and ThinkProgress
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William Wan / Washington Post:
U.S. to recognize Libyan rebels as legitimate government
Discussion:
Reuters, The Gateway Pundit, FrumForum, The Page and Global Spin
Mark Joyella / Mediaite:
Eric Bolling: 'I'll Never Forget 9/11, But Thank You, Liberals, For Reminding Me How Petty You Can Be' — In an emotional statement on Fox's The Five Thursday, Eric Bolling shot back at the “radical liberal left” that “pounced” on him after he said on the program Wednesday that “America was certainly safe between 2000 and 2008.
Discussion:
Wonkette and ThinkProgress
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Go Ahead, GOP, Make Obama's Day — So how can the GOP get something it wants out of the sodden mess of our debt negotiations? Here's my answer: pass a short-term debt-ceiling increase. It seems pretty clear to me that there's no time or common ground for a grand bargain before August 2nd, so pass a short-term increase.
Discussion:
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