Top Items:
Bloomberg:
Debt Panel Membership to Send Signal on Chances for Tax Overhaul — Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — The push to reduce the U.S. debt is shifting to the makeup of the special congressional panel charged with finding further spending cuts and whether its 12 members can consider rewriting the tax code.
Discussion:
The Reaction
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Deficit Battle Shifts to Panel
Deficit Battle Shifts to Panel
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Econbrowser, The Lonely Conservative, Metropolis and The Politico
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Pelosi: My Deficit Committee Members Will Oppose All Entitlement Benefit Cuts
Pelosi: My Deficit Committee Members Will Oppose All Entitlement Benefit Cuts
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Sen. McCain: Sen. Portman would be good for Super Committee
Sen. McCain: Sen. Portman would be good for Super Committee
Discussion:
The Politico, Reuters and Daily Kos
Paul Ryan / Wall Street Journal:
Where's Your Budget, Mr. President? — Ever since they fudged the numbers to pass ObamaCare, Democrats have abandoned credible spending plans. — During the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, President Obama reportedly warned Republican leaders not to call his bluff by sending him a bill without tax increases.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Gateway Pundit, Taegan Goddard's …, Man Are We Screwed and The New Republic
JammieWearingFool:
'Maybe He Hasn't Noticed or Doesn't Care, But the Country is Giving Up On Him' — I'm not of the mind that Barack Obama doesn't care about his fortunes in the wake of the debt deal hammered out this week. He obviously cares since he's now jetting off for his biggest fundraisers of his re-election campaign.
RELATED:
New York Post:
Scapegoater-in-chief — That was fast. Mounting his shrinking soapbox soon after the Senate passed the debt-ceiling bill, President Obama took less than a minute to lapse into his class-warfare shtick. — It's always us-against-them with him, but yesterday was especially off-key.
Discussion:
Questions and Observations
Alan Colmes' Liberaland:
Republicans Attack Obama For Having A Birthday Party — Apparently, you're not allowed to do anything other than create jobs, if you're Barack Obama (Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs?). The right wing is going apoplectic because there is a star-studded Chicago fund-raiser in conjunction with his 50th birthday.
Discussion:
The Impolitic and Political Punch
RELATED:
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Palin says she has no respect for Romney's debt-ceiling stance — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) joined the attacks against Mitt Romney's handling of the debt-ceiling debate, saying she has no respect for how the GOP presidential front-runner handled the issue.
Discussion:
Washington Wire and CNN
RELATED:
The Right Scoop:
Palin: If we were terrorists Obama would be wanting to pal around with us — Sarah Palin says that she isn't just going to roll over and say to the left “hit me baby one more time, call me a terrorist again, call me a racist”, but rather she's going to call them out on their hypocrisy.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Cold Fury and nation.foxnews.com
Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
McConnell: ‘The debt ceiling will not be clean anymore’ — (GETTY IMAGES) The most honest man in Washington did some more truth-telling on CNBC last night. Speaking to Larry Kudlow, Mitch McConnell made perfectly clear that the hostage situation we just went through wasn't a one-shot deal.
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Hullabaloo, Stinque, The Reality-Based Community, Jared Bernstein and The Political Carnival
RELATED:
Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
Can the Debt Ceiling Genie Be Put Back in the Bottle?
Can the Debt Ceiling Genie Be Put Back in the Bottle?
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The Politico, Connecting.the.Dots and American Prospect
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Romney Advisor Robert Bork: Civil Rights Act Is ‘Unsurpassed Ugliness,’ But Contraception and Porn Bans Are Fine — Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) announced his presidential campaign's “Justice Advisory Committee,” along with its co-chair Robert Bork.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
New York Times:
Syria Sends In Tanks to Storm Center of a Rebellious City — BEIRUT, Lebanon — Ignoring global condemnation, Syria ordered its military to storm through the rebellious city of Hama on Wednesday after three days of shelling. Activists and residents there said that tanks …
RELATED:
Elliott Abrams / Wall Street Journal:
Preventing Civil War in Syria
Preventing Civil War in Syria
Discussion:
CNN, Eunomia, Lebanon news, Foreign Policy and ThinkProgress
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Report on ‘Operation Shady RAT’ identifies widespread cyber-spying — A leading computer security firm has used logs produced by a single server to trace the hacking of more than 70 corporations and government organizations over many months, and experts familiar with the analysis say the snooping probably originated in China.
Discussion:
The Politico and New York Times, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Michael Joseph Gross / Vanity Fair:
Exclusive: Operation Shady rat—Unprecedented Cyber-espionage Campaign and Intellectual-Property Bonanza
Exclusive: Operation Shady rat—Unprecedented Cyber-espionage Campaign and Intellectual-Property Bonanza
Discussion:
Mashable!, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
Private sector added 114,000 jobs in July — (Reuters) - Private employers added more jobs than expected in July, though less than in June, but planned layoffs rose to a 16-month high, according to separate surveys on Wednesday. — The data comes ahead of the U.S. government's key jobs report on Friday …
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
Edward Wyatt / New York Times:
Stalemate in Senate Leaves 4,000 Out of Work at F.A.A. — WASHINGTON — After dealing with the debt crisis, Senate negotiators tried and failed on Tuesday to end a stalemate over temporary financing for the Federal Aviation Administration, leaving 4,000 agency employees out of work and relying …
Discussion:
p m carpenter's commentary, Wonkette, The Raw Story, The Consumerist and Associated Press
RELATED:
Keith Laing / The Hill:
LaHood's effort fails to end FAA furloughs
Daniel Markovits / Los Angeles Times:
How the GOP lost on the debt deal — The deal reached by Congress eliminates the leverage that would have been created by another imminent default until after the next election, where it will be exercised by new and possibly differently constituted players.
Discussion:
normblog
Daily Mail:
Another politician forced to resign after sending naked pictures to woman he had online relationship with — A politician who emailed a woman nude photos of himself that were posted on a GOP activist's website has resigned and said he will consider all legal options to have the pictures taken down.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Mediaite and Ricochet Conversation Feed
Peter Wallsten / Washington Post:
Moderate Senate Dems prepare a balanced budget amendment — One of the big victories by tea-party Republicans in the debt-ceiling measure signed into law Tuesday was securing a requirement that Congress vote later this year on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Politics and Daily Kos
RELATED:
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
President Obama signs debt-limit bill into law
President Obama signs debt-limit bill into law
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Heritage Foundation and Man Are We Screwed
Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
One shot on taxes: Don't blow it, Democrats — There are now two sides in the American tax debate: the Republican Party, which refuses to have a serious conversation about taxes, and the Democratic Party, which . . . refuses to have a serious conversation about taxes.
Discussion:
UrbanGrounds and Daily Kos
Richard Lawson / Gawker:
Matt Damon Gives Libertarian Reporter a Satisfying Smackdown — A reporter from libertarian rag Reason interviewed notorious Massachusetts liberal actor Matt Damon at this year's Save Our Schools March and she tried to throw some business at him about teacher tenure and Ayn Randy incentive stuff and he wasn't having it.
Discussion:
Sky Dancing and The Wire
Pierre Thomas / ABCNEWS:
D.B. Cooper Mystery: Alleged Niece Comes Forward — A woman claiming to be the niece of infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper has spoken to ABC News in an exclusive interview about her role in the recently re-ignited 40-year-old cold case that has haunted the FBI for years.
Discussion:
The Lede, Mediaite and New York Times
Anna Palmer / The Politico:
K Street eyes super committee — K Street wasted little time putting clients on notice about the next phase of the debt ceiling debate with a simple message: Nobody is safe from the super committee. — Lobby shops say a much-broader-than-expected range of budget cuts and tax provisions could be in play …
Discussion:
Man Are We Screwed, Citizens for Legitimate … and Sky Dancing
New York Times:
Hiding Behind the Budget Act — The Budget Control Act of 2011, which President Obama signed on Tuesday after Congress passed it by wide margins, is as contrived as the artificial crisis that spawned it. The bill, like a tired opera production, is full of clumsy staging and failed gimmicks left over from previous decades.
Discussion:
AMERICAN FUTURE
Voice of Russia, News:
Russia's Post issues stamps to mark Obama's 50th birthday — Russia's Post Office has issued a collection of stamps and envelopes to mark the 50th jubilee of the US President Barack Obama. — The US leader is celebrating his birthday on the 4th of August.
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and Doug Ross