memeorandum: Cracks Appear in Republican Unity on Health Law Repeal (Jonathan Weisman/New York Times)

11:25 AM ET, July 10, 2012

Top Items:

President Obama, Mitt Romney deadlocked in race, poll finds — AP - A pair of tepid jobs reports, landmark Supreme Court decisions on health-care and immigration laws, and an unprecedented barrage of negative ads have shaped the opening months of the fall presidential campaign.

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Wire, Taegan Goddard's …, Guardian, NewsBusters.org, theGrio, Hot Air, ThinkProgress and Riehl World View

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

Obama Trails Romney Again in Battle for Campaign Cash — In the battle for political cash, President Obama is finding himself in an unaccustomed place during the final months of the 2012 campaign: he is losing. — Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee easily outraised …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Suburban Guerrilla, The Caucus, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

CNN:

Indiana abortion law ruled illegal — (CNN) - A controversial Indiana law that would keep low-income women from using federal Medicaid benefits to receive any kind of reproductive medical care from Planned Parenthood is unacceptable because it denies women the freedom to choose their health care providers …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Washington Post:

Obama's record on outsourcing draws criticism from the left — Barack Obama promised voters four years ago that he would work to slow the outflow of American jobs to other countries, proposing to revamp a federal tax code that encourages companies to maintain overseas operations.

Discussion: CNN, ABCNEWS, The Reaction, Power Line, Taylor Marsh and BuzzFeed

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Romney knocks Obama tax plan as ‘kick in the gut to the middle class in America’ — Mitt Romney blasted President Barack Obama's renewed push to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts on incomes over $250,000 per year in a radio interview Tuesday morning, calling the proposal “another kick in the gut to the middle class in America.”

Discussion: Politico

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill: Senior Obama adviser: Romney backers trying to ‘purchase’ election

Alexander Burns / Politico:
Chicago keeps up Romney tax attacks

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, CNN and The Maddow Blog

Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:
TPMDC — One Chart That Shows What The Bush Tax Cut Battle Is All About

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, Booman Tribune and Politico

The White House:
Remarks by the President on Extending Tax Cuts for Middle-Class Families

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Mediaite, The Heritage Foundation, Los Angeles Times, Washington Examiner, The Huffington Post and AEIdeas

WMUR:
Obama calls for extending middle-class tax cuts

Discussion: The Hill, New York Times, Teamster Nation, ABCNEWS and Business Insider

CNN:
Barbour: If in Romney's position, I would release tax docs

Discussion: Politico, Michelle Malkin and The Page

CNN:
RNC chairman to ‘bracket’ Obama Iowa visit

Discussion: Politico, The Hope For America and Politicker

Jack Minor / WND:

BRAD PITT'S MOM IN FEAR AFTER SLAMMING OBAMA — Quaking after being attacked for opposing same-sex marriage — Jane Pitt, mother of actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is …

Discussion: Althouse, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View, Towleroad News #gay, The Lonely Conservative and Pass The Doucheys …

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

Cracks Appear in Republican Unity on Health Law Repeal — WASHINGTON — A House vote to fully repeal President Obama's health care law was supposed to be the coup de grâce for “Obamacare,” a final sweeping away of a law that Republicans thought the Supreme Court would gut and leave for dead.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Balkinization and Washington Examiner

Associated Press:

As homicides spike, Chicago mayor defends tactics — CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago's mayor and police superintendent publicly defended their new gang-fighting strategy Monday amid growing criticism that the changes are failing and a big reason why the city's homicide rate has soared this year.

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY

Susan Jones / CNSNews:
Chicago Mayor Appeals to Gangsters' ‘Values’: ‘Get Away From That Kid’

Discussion: New York Magazine and Riehl World View

Sally Nelson / The Daily Caller:

Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare — Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama's health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, No More Mister Nice Blog, Scared Monkeys, Right Wing News, americanthinker.com, Conservatives4Palin, Power Line, UrbanGrounds and The Lonely Conservative

Bloomberg:

Fed Harms Itself by Missing Goals — Ben S. Bernanke has made transparency one of the defining themes of his time at the helm of the Federal Reserve. The virtue of this transparency is that it's easy to evaluate how well the Fed is conducting monetary policy.

Rochelle Olson / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Scorned Cottage Grove mom sets self ablaze — Police say the Cottage Grove woman, described as “vodka mom” on TV, was despondent over the asphyxiation death of her infant son. — A 29-year-old Cottage Grove woman set herself afire and died just weeks after being ridiculed as “vodka mom” …

Discussion: Wizbang

Sam Baker / The Hill:

Repealing health law would mean more benefits for members of Congress — Repealing President Obama's healthcare law would let members of Congress keep their government-subsidized insurance coverage after they retire — a benefit they lost under the health law.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Erin Durkin / NY Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg launches contest to stir development of tiny 300-square-foot apartments for singles — Larger than a jail cell, but smaller than mobile home, ministudios will reflect city's changing demographics. They'll be big enough for bathroom, kitchen, sleeping and dining areas

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Perdido Street School

Wall Street Journal:

Political Spending by Unions Far Exceeds Direct Donations — Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked.

Discussion: Ricochet Conversations Feed, Weasel Zippers, Washington Examiner and The Lonely Conservative

Politico:

Embattled Dems buck President Obama on taxes — President Barack Obama's renewed push to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 is facing some strong head winds: Democrats running for Congress in 2012. — Several Democrats in critical House and Senate races say they prefer raising taxes …

Discussion: Swampland, The Maddow Blog and Wonkette

Thomas E. Ricks / New York Times:

Let's Draft Our Kids — IN late June, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the former commander of international forces in Afghanistan, called for reinstating the draft. “I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk,” he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Felix Salmon:

How economists get tripped up by statistics — Look at this scatter chart. There will be a quiz. Another dot is going to be added to this chart, in line with the distribution you see here. You get to choose what the X value of the dot is — and your aim is to get a Y value of greater than zero.

Martin Fackler / New York Times:

Kim Jong-un Appears With Disney Characters on North Korean TV — TOKYO — After a failed missile launching, aborted diplomacy with Washington, and continuing international pressure over the country's nuclear program, North Korea's untested young leader has tried once again to take a dramatic step …

Discussion: Daniel W. Drezner and BBC

Reuters:

Quarter Of Wall Street Executives See Wrongdoing As Key To Success: Survey … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Video, Labaton Sucharow, Reuters, Wall Street Executives, Wall Street Illegal, Wall Street Unethical, Wall Street Wrongdoing, Wall Street Wrongdoing Survey, Business News

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Agonist and Wall Street Journal

Christopher Andersen / NY Daily News:

Mick Jagger's affair with David Bowie revealed in new book: They ‘were really sexually obsessed with each other’ — Bowie's wife found them in bed, backup singer and Playboy model claimed to share their bed — David Bowie's “Ziggy Stardust” era had Jagger wondering if this was the future.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Scared Monkeys, ABCNEWS, The Daily Caller and Althouse

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

A Reality Series Intrudes on Silicon Valley, and Finds It Cringing — SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley is finally getting the treatment once reserved for rowdy housewives and excitable chefs: its own Bravo reality series. But the tech world is not quite ready for its close-up.

Discussion: New York Magazine