memeorandum: 31 Americans Killed Including 25 SEALs in Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan (Martha Raddatz/ABCNEWS)

1:50 PM ET, August 6, 2011

Top Items:

S&P and the USA — OK, so Standard and Poors has gone ahead with the threatened downgrade. It's a strange situation. — On one hand, there is a case to be made that the madness of the right has made America a fundamentally unsound nation. And yes, it is the madness of the right …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Oliver Willis, Weasel Zippers, Politics, Guardian, HousingWire, The Mahablog, Hullabaloo and Suburban Guerrilla

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

Standard & Poor's has been wrong before. But they're right now. — Standard Poor's decision to downgrade the United States has led to a lot of criticism of Standard Poor's. The White House called their performance, which included a miscalculation of about $2 trillion, “amateur hour.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Reality-Based Community and The Politico

Damian Paletta / Wall Street Journal:

Math Error Fuels Fight Over Rating — A mathematical error discovered late Friday by Treasury Department officials threw into limbo, at least temporarily, plans by ratings firm Standard & Poor's to downgrade the top-notch AAA credit rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Atlantic Online, ABCNEWS, Riehl World View, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Outside the Beltway, JammieWearingFool, Booman Tribune, Crooks and Liars, Truthdig, Politics and Tim Blair

New York Times:

S.&P. Downgrades Debt Rating of U.S. For the First Time — WASHINGTON — Standard & Poor's removed the United States government from its list of risk-free borrowers for the first time on Friday night, a downgrade that is freighted with symbolic significance but carries few clear financial implications.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, UrbanGrounds, NewsBusters.org, Washington Post, Runnin' Scared, Gawker, Swampland, Mogulite, Online NewsHour and New York Magazine

standardandpoors.com:

United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To ‘AA+’ Due To Political Risks, Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative … TORONTO (Standard & Poor's) Aug. 5, 2011—Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Nice Deb, Libertarian Republican, The Gateway Pundit, DealBook and NewsBusters.org

Kevinliptak / CNN:

TRENDING: GOP candidates slam Obama after downgrade — Washington (CNN) - Republican presidential candidates issued harsh criticism of President Barack Obama Friday after the credit rating agency Standard and Poor's announced it was downgrading America's long-term debt status.

Discussion: The Politico, AMERICAN FUTURE and Towleroad News #gay

Robert Reich:

Why S&P Has No Business Downgrading the U.S. — Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's debt couldn't come at a worse time. The result is likely to be higher borrowing costs for the government at all levels, and higher interest on your variable-rate mortgage, your auto loan, your credit card loans, and every other penny you borrow.

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Wall Street Journal:
S&P Strips U.S. of Top Credit Rating

Discussion: Guardian, Firedoglake, Swampland and Corrente

MarketBeat:
S&P Downgrades U.S. Debt Rating — Press Release

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Free exchange, NO QUARTER, Prairie Weather, The Gateway Pundit, RedState and The Raw Story

Walter Brandimarte / Reuters:
United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P

Discussion: Hot Air, Firedoglake, UPI, Dow Jones Newswires, Pajamas Media, ThinkProgress, Conservatives4Palin, CBS News, Outside the Beltway, The Reality-Based Community, National Review, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, TalkLeft, blogs.abcnews.com, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Agonist and The Right Scoop

Washington Post:
S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time

Discussion: FT Alphaville, The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers, theblogprof, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Conservatives4Palin, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Hit & Run, AmSpecBlog, Scared Monkeys, Connecting.the.Dots, Shakesville and Newshoggers.com

Political Punch:
Govt Officials: US Expecting S&P Downgrade — Based on ‘Serious Mistake’ in Analysis*

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
Boehner's Folly Leads To S&P Downgrade of US Debt

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and HotAirPundit

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Reid: S&P downgrade backs Dems' call for more revenue

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

Felix Salmon:
Why the S&P downgrade was delayed

Discussion: Daniel W. Drezner, Mother Jones, Balloon Juice, FT Alphaville and Politics

John Detrixhe / Bloomberg:
S&P Cuts U.S. Rating for First Time on Deficit Reduction Pact

Discussion: naked capitalism, Wizbang, Discourse.net, The New Civil Rights Movement, Gothamist, The Huffington Post and Pajamas Media

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
Five thoughts on the potential S&P downgrade

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars and The Atlantic Online

Tyler Durden / zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml:
S&P Downgrades US To AA+, Outlook Negative - Full Text

Discussion: Doug Ross, FrumForum, Sky Dancing, Hot Air, Atlas Shrugs, Pajamas Media and ECHIDNE of the snakes

New York Times:

31 Americans Killed as Taliban Shoot Down a Copter — KABUL, Afghanistan — In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 31 Americans and 7 Afghan commandos on board, American and Afghan officials said.

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, Hot Air, msnbc.com, The Gateway Pundit, New York Magazine, Politics, emptywheel, The Agonist and americanthinker.com

Martha Raddatz / ABCNEWS:

31 Americans Killed Including 25 SEALs in Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan — A helicopter crash in Afghanistan killed 31 Americans, including as many as 25 Navy SEALs in one of the worst single-day U.S. losses of life since the war began, a senior military official told ABC News early this morning.

Discussion: The Long War Journal and Gawker

Kevin Sieff / Washington Post:

NATO copter shot down; dozens of U.S. troops killed — KABUL — A NATO helicopter was shot down during an overnight operation against the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. The crash appeared to be the deadliest incident for the coalition in the nearly 10-year-old war …

Discussion: BBC, The Moderate Voice, Guardian, Outside the Beltway and HotAirPundit

Solomon Moore / Associated Press:
31 Americans, 7 Afghans killed in helicopter crash

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Scared Monkeys, Wizbang and Weasel Zippers

Reuters:

China tells U.S. “good old days” of borrowing are over — (Reuters) - China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the “good old days” of borrowing were over. — Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. long-term credit rating …

Discussion: BBC, The Moderate Voice, Sydney Morning Herald, americanthinker.com and The Political Carnival

CNN:
Questions abound after agency downgrades U.S. credit rating

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Poynter

David Barboza / New York Times:
China Tells U.S. It Must ‘Cure Its Addiction to Debt’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Balkinization, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and China Digital Times

Thomas W. Lippman / Washington Post:
Washington's uneasy alliance with Bahrain

Discussion: Eunomia and The Daily Dish

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

The Tea Party, Take Two — In the four months since I began writing an Op-Ed column, the thing that has most surprised me is how darned liberal I sound sometimes. I know that seems like a strange thing to say, so let me explain. — Growing up in heavily Democratic Providence, R.I. …

Discussion: Riehl World View, NewsBusters.org, JammieWearingFool, Daily Kos, Washington Post, Crooks and Liars and Wake up America

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

Widener Law School goes Soviet, demands law professor undergo psychiatric evaluation — Lawrence Connell is a tenured law professor at Widener Law School in Delaware. I have noted in prior posts that Connell was accused of a wide range of racist and sexist conduct directed at students …

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy

Joseph Rago / Wall Street Journal:

Obama and the Narcissism of Big Differences — ‘He becomes visibly agitated. . . . He does not like to be challenged on policy grounds,’ says the House majority leader of the president. — New York — Whatever the rhetoric that preceded this week's deal, the debt-ceiling debate was never really about the debt at all.

Discussion: Power Line, PoliPundit.com and Hot Air

Michael O'Brien / Ballot Box:

Perry's prayer gathering sets stage for national attention — Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) high-profile prayer gathering Saturday is set to pave the way for his possible but increasingly likely late entry into the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Discussion: The Note