Top Items:
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:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Michelle Malkin, The New Republic, AmSpecBlog and Daily Kos
RELATED:
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:
Hullabaloo
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:
New York Times, The Atlantic Online, CNN, The Politico, The Hill, New York Magazine, Washington Post, FrumForum and Outside the Beltway
The Hill:
Republican leaders embrace ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ plan; vote set for next week — 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.
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
GOP Senator: Maybe We Shouldn't Have Tied Debt Vote To Deficit Deal (VIDEO)
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Sacramento Bee, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh and Balloon Juice
Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
DeMint pledges to stop McConnell plan
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Hot Air
National Review:
Cantor: ‘Not a Game’ — A couple of hours before Thursday's …
Discussion:
Political Punch, Weasel Zippers and Pundit & Pundette
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Kaine: Cantor shouldn't be pushed out of debt negotiations
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, The Hill and TPMDC
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Go Ahead, GOP, Make Obama's Day
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and Instapundit
Larry Kudlow / National Review:
McConnell's Uber-Clever Debt-Deal Stratagem
Discussion:
The New Republic and Taylor Marsh
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, Riehl World View, GOP 12, TBogg, The Impolitic and FrumForum
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.
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:
CNN, USA Today, The Note, Ben Smith's Blog, ThinkProgress, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, La Daily Musto, TPMDC, Truth Wins Out, msnbc.com, Mediaite, AMERICAblog Gay, Towleroad News #gay and Politics
RELATED:
June Thomas / Slate:
Dan Savage, Bully
Discussion:
FrumForum, Outside the Beltway, The Moderate Voice and Althouse
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
RELATED:
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
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 and Via Meadia
RELATED:
Alex Altman / Swampland:
With Debt Talks Stalled, Democrats Try to Divide and Conquer the GOP
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Reuters and Bloomberg
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
RELATED:
Patrick O'Connor / Washington Wire:
Pawlenty Ends Quarter With $1.4 Million
Discussion:
Ballot Box, CNN, msnbc.com, Ben Smith's Blog and GOP 12
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, Reuters, CBS News, Outside the Beltway and ThinkProgress
RELATED:
William Wan / Washington Post:
U.S. to recognize Libyan rebels as legitimate government
Discussion:
Eunomia, The Gateway Pundit, FrumForum, The Page and Global Spin
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
David Brooks / New York Times:
Death and Budgets — I hope you had the chance to read and reread Dudley Clendinen's splendid essay, “The Good Short Life,” in The Times's Sunday Review section. Clendinen is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S. If he uses all the available medical technology, it will leave him …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute and National Review
Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
GOP light bulb amendment likely to pass Friday after earlier defeat — The House appears likely on Friday to accept an amendment to the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act that would deny funding for the implementation of funds to implement a 2007 law that Republicans say will ban incandescent light bulbs.
Discussion:
The Politico, ThinkProgress and Pajamas Media
CBS News:
Source: Bachmann raised $4 million in second quarter — A source close to GOP presidential aspirant Rep. Michele Bachmann has told CBS News that Bachmann will report a little less than $4 million raised for her campaign in the second quarter. Bachmann, who kicked off her campaign in Waterloo …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Conservatives4Palin and The Page
RELATED:
Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Bachmann raises $2 million in two weeks to start campaign
Discussion:
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
Internet Use Affects Memory, Study Finds — The widespread use of search engines and online databases has affected the way people remember information, researchers are reporting. — The scientists, led by Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia …
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
Accounting Specialist Editor, Remote US — 
Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — 
Asia Credit Reporter, Seoul — 
Senior Editor, DC — 
Senior Social Media Specialist, NC — 
Associate Editor - Aviation, TN — 
Assistant Editor - Digital, NC — 
Video Producer - YouTube, NY — 
Senior Managing Ed. - Daily Desk — 
Content Managing Editor — 
Editor, MA — 
Team Editor - Breaking News, ON — 
Senior Reporter & Event Host, NY/CA — 
Associate Editor, Remote — 
Retail Reporter, MN — 
Senior Data Editor, DC — 
Managing Ed. - Berks County, PA — 
News Editor - UK, Remote — 
Staff Writer, TX — 
Multimedia Journalist, PA — 
Service Journalism Editor, CA — 
Content Director, Remote — 
Sports Reporter, ME — 
Los Angeles Issues Reporter, CA — 
Reporter - Middle East — 
Executive Editor, OR — 
California Playbook Writer, CA — 
Senior Media Editor — 
National Investigative Reporter, NY — 
Lexington County Reporter, SC — 
Reporter - Offshore Wind — 
General Assignment Reporter, FL — 
Staff Reporter, CA — 
Data Editor, NY — 
