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Meredith Woerner / io9:
George W. Bush's decapitated head appeared on Game of Thrones [Updated] — There's one hell of a dragon egg hidden in Game of Thrones season one. Turns out one of the many heads on a spike decorating King's Landing belonged to ex-president George Bush. — If you keep your eyes peeled …
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Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Bush decapitated in ‘Game of Thrones’ — In the “Game of Thrones,” you win or you die, and George W. Bush did the latter in the HBO series — by decapitation. — That is, a prop head of the former president appears in the TV show, according to series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss …
Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:
TPMDC — Senators Fawn Over JPMorgan CEO After Massive Trading Debacle — The long-shot big hope for Wall Street reformers Wednesday was that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon would trip up before the Senate Banking Committee and expose the need for tighter rules governing big banks.
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Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:
TPMDC — Jeff Merkley Scolds JPMorgan CEO: ‘This Is Not Your Hearing’ (VIDEO)
TPMDC — Jeff Merkley Scolds JPMorgan CEO: ‘This Is Not Your Hearing’ (VIDEO)
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Esquire, The Moderate Voice and OpenSecrets.org
John Schwartz / New York Times:
John Edwards Charges Dismissed — The Department of Justice said on Wednesday that it would not retry John Edwards, the former United States senator whose six-week trial on corruption charges ended earlier this month with an acquittal on one count and a mistrial on five others.
Discussion:
New York Magazine
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Carrie Johnson / NPR:
Justice Department Is Dropping Case Against Edwards
Justice Department Is Dropping Case Against Edwards
Discussion:
Business Insider
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
Perjury charge against Shellie Zimmerman raises more questions of prosecutorial overreaching (Update: Prosecution misleadingly edited transcript) — Florida prosecutor Angela Corey has come under withering criticism from Alan Dershowitz for overcharging and leaving out important details …
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com and EBL
Elizabeth Flock / US News:
AFL-CIO Pulling Funds From Obama Campaign — The AFL-CIO has told Washington Whispers it will redeploy funds away from political candidates smack dab in the middle of election season, the latest sign that the largest federation of unions in the country could be becoming increasingly disillusioned with President Obama.
Discussion:
Conservative Hideout 2.0, “The Lid”, Weasel Zippers and Race 4 2012
Tara Palmeri / New York Post:
A blue man ‘dupe’: Parent panic at 32G ‘progressive’ school — The Blue School is one big play date in desperate need of adult supervision. — Parents are yanking their kids out of the “progressive,” $32,000 per-year private school founded by the Blue Man Group — which has no books and no tests …
Kate Sheppard / Mother Jones:
House GOP Blocking Abortion Access for Raped Soldiers — Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) wants to expand access to abortion for servicewomen who are raped. Only a few Republicans are willing to help. — Republican Senators John McCain, Scott Brown, and Susan Collins all support an effort …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, Indecision Forever, ThinkProgress and The Reality-Based Community
Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:
Obama Trade Document Leaked, Revealing New Corporate Powers And Broken Campaign Promises … REACT: — FOLLOW: — 2012, Elections 2012, Barack Obama , Mitt Romney, Economy, Careers, Barack Obama , Politics, Video, November Election, November Elections, Trans-Pacific Partnership …
Discussion:
naked capitalism, Firedoglake, Mediaite, Hot Air, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and The PJ Tatler
BuzzFeed:
Study: Liberal Anti-Mormonism On The Rise — The left have turned against the faith since 2008, according to a new study, spurred by Romney and same-sex marriage. — Americans' aversion to voting for Mormons has spiked since Mitt Romney's first presidential bid in 2007 …
Discussion:
Ross Douthat, Hot Air, The Daily Dish, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Mediaite, GOP 12, Fire Andrea Mitchell! and The Spectacle Blog
Alicia Mundy / Washington Wire:
Adelson Gives $10 Million to Pro-Romney Super PAC — Billionaire conservative casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who helped keep Newt Gingrich's failed presidential campaign alive during the Republican primaries, is giving $10 million to the super PAC supporting the presumptive GOP nominee …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Mother Jones, Booman Tribune, Hullabaloo, Politico, ABCNEWS, The New Republic, WBUR, Guardian, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Taylor Marsh and Mondoweiss
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Joe Klein / Swampland:
Krauthammer and Reagan — A break from the road trip for one small quibble with Charles Krauthammer: he has now completely abandoned any intellectual integrity he may have had and joined the cult of Reagan mythmaking. Reagan did some fine things as president, like challenging and then negotiating with the “Evil Empire.”
Discussion:
RedState, Conservatives4Palin, The Daily Caller and RealClearPolitics Video Log
Jonah Lehrer / Frontal Cortex:
Why Smart People Are Stupid — Here's a simple arithmetic question: A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? — The vast majority of people respond quickly and confidently, insisting the ball costs ten cents.
Discussion:
Boing Boing and Vox Popoli
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama up 6 in Nevada — Barack Obama continues to be favored to win Nevada again in 2012, but his position there is a good deal weaker than it was in 2008. Obama leads Romney 48-42. That's down a touch from our last poll in late March when he was ahead 51-43.
Discussion:
Ballot Box
Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
CNN Is Ending John King's Political Show — The ailing cable news channel CNN on Wednesday abruptly ended “John King, USA,” its 6 p.m. political news program. — The program will be replaced at the end of the month by “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” which will expand from two hours long to three hours.
Luke Funk / myfoxny.com:
Health panel talks about wider food ban — MYFOXNY.COM - — The board hand-picked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that must approve his ban of selling large sugar-filled drinks at restaurants might be looking at other targets. — The New York City Board of Health showed support for limiting sizes …
ICANN New gTLDs:
You are here — Enter the terms you wish to search for. — ICANN developed the New generic Top-Level Domain Program to increase competition and choice by introducing new gTLDs into the Internet's addressing system. What is a gTLD? It is an Internet domain name extension such as the familiar .com, .net, or .org.
Discussion:
Gawker, TechCrunch, WBUR, Media Decoder, Mashable!, AllThingsD, TPM IdeaLab, Poynter, Engadget, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
Heritage Foundation:
Auto Bailout or UAW Bailout? Taxpayer Losses Came from Subsidizing Union Compensation — Abstract: The U.S. government will lose about $23 billion on the 2008-2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. President Obama emphatically defends his decision to subsidize the automakers …
Discussion:
Doug Ross, The Heritage Foundation, Race 4 2012, Cafe Hayek and The Daily Caller
John Avlon / CNN:
Jeb vs. Grover: Battle for GOP's soul — Editor's note: John Avlon is a CNN contributor and senior political columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is co-editor of the book “Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns.” He is a regular contributor to “Erin Burnett OutFront” …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and ABCNEWS
Rasmussen Reports:
Wisconsin: Romney 47%, Obama 44% — Mitt Romney now leads President Obama for the first time in Wisconsin where the president's support has fallen to its lowest level to date. — The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Romney with 47% of the vote to Obama's 44%.
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Romney Touts Presidential Salary Plan That Was Literally A Saturday Night Live Skit — Apparent Romney policy adviser Dana Carvey in 1992 — In an interview with conservative radio host Neal Boortz, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney floated an unusual profit-making opportunity …
Discussion:
Wonkette, Sky Dancing, Mediaite, CNNMoney.com and Indecision Forever
Howard Amos / Guardian:
Lenin's sojourn as curio corpse may be over — No political leader has yet dared to put the founding father of Russian communism six feet under. Will Vladimir Putin? — When the writer and former dissident Yuri Khariyakin told the Soviet parliament in 1989 that Lenin had expressed a wish …
Discussion:
Truthdig and FP Passport
Paul Krugman:
Guess Who's Emerging From the Crisis? — FT Alphaville: … From Statistics Iceland: — GDP is still below previous peak, but I think one could argue, much more so than in say America, that a significant part of that peak involved a Ponzi financial sector that isn't coming back.
Discussion:
FT Alphaville, DownWithTyranny! and Mother Jones
John Avlon / The Daily Beast:
Romney Writes Off His Home States — The Republican with roots in three blue states gives up on all of them, writes John Avlon. — There are a lot of things different about this presidential campaign: an African-American incumbent running against a Mormon, most obviously.
Discussion:
Indecision Forever
Betsy Woodruff / National Review:
The FDA Chomps Down on Cigars — By proposing a ban on large sodas in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg made himself a competitive candidate for Chairman of the Anti-Fun Committee. But the FDA just might have him beat: They've moved to regulate cigars as they already do cigarettes.
Discussion:
The Lonely Conservative, Maggie's Farm and Jammie Wearing Fools
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Yup: Romney's plan would indeed cut billions from cops, firefighters and teachers — Yesterday Mitt Romney claimed that it was “ completely absurd” of the Obama campaign to argue that he favors cutbacks in cops, firefighters and teachers. “The federal government doesn't pay for teachers …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine and Daily Kos