Top Items:
Politico:
House GOP's immigration playbook — Circle July 10 with red ink: It's now the most important day for immigration reform. — That Wednesday is when a hobbled, divided and raucous House Republican Conference will meet in the Capitol basement to figure out how to address the Senate-passed bill.
Discussion:
Booman Tribune and First Read
RELATED:
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Know who wants Republicans to pass immigration reform? Major Republican donors. — The Senate — with the help of 14 Republicans — passed an immigration reform plan on Thursday. The Republican-controlled House has pledged not to even take that proposal up, opting instead for the possibility …
Discussion:
Right Turn, BuzzFeed, Twitchy and Post Politics
First Read:
Does immigration reform stand a chance?
Does immigration reform stand a chance?
Discussion:
Wonkblog, The Week, The Week Magazine, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Reaction
Jonathan Strong / National Review:
Comprehensive Rejection — Perhaps the one thing that's certain …
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate votes 68-32 to end debate on immigration; 4 p.m. final vote
Senate votes 68-32 to end debate on immigration; 4 p.m. final vote
Discussion:
Politico, BREITBART.COM, The Hill, The Plum Line, Michelle Malkin and National Review
Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:
Boehner Significantly Narrows Path To Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Boehner Significantly Narrows Path To Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Discussion:
Quartz, Washington Monthly and Daily Kos
Culture Desk:
Cover Story: Bert and Ernie's “Moment of Joy” — “It's amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime,” said Jack Hunter, the artist behind next week's cover, “Moment of Joy.” Hunter, who originally submitted his image, unsolicited, to a Tumblr, continued …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, BuzzFeed, Post Politics, Gawker, Business Insider and Towleroad News #gay
Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
Hank Johnson: Clarence Thomas ‘Worse’ Than Edward Snowden For Gutting Voting Rights Act — WASHINGTON — Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said Wednesday that the fact that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas voted this week to gut the Voting Rights Act — the 1965 law aimed at protecting disenfranchised voters …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, PoliticusUSA and The Hinterland Gazette
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Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Roberts Pulls Supreme Court to the Right Step by Step — WASHINGTON — Viewed in isolation, the Supreme Court term that just ended had elements of modesty. The court declined to do away with affirmative action, gave Congress another shot at salvaging the Voting Rights Act and refused to find …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The BLT and Prairie Weather
George Stark / Daily Mail:
Alec Baldwin's pregnant wife Hilaria TWEETS about Rachael Ray and anniversary gifts during James Gandolfini's funeral — She later insisted: 'I don't believe in bringing phones into a funeral and I never did and I never would' — It may not be considered funeral etiquette …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, RYOT News, CNN, NewsBusters, The Other McCain, Mediaite, Twitchy, ABC News, Poynter, Speakeasy, New York Magazine, Ed Driscoll, Taylor Marsh, Gawker, The Raw Story, National Review and The Daily Caller
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / Wall Street Journal:
What's Really ‘Immoral’ About Student Loans — It's not so much the interest rates charged. It is, rather, the principal of the thing. — Unless Congress acts, interest rates for government subsidized student loans will double to 6.8% from 3.4% on July 1.
RELATED:
Meredith Shiner / The World's Greatest …:
Democrats' Split on Student Loans Breaks Into the Open
Michael Isikoff / Investigations:
Ex-Pentagon general target of leak investigation, sources say — Retired Marine Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright was the second-highest ranking member of the U.S. military, and a key Obama adviser who served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Legal sources tell NBC News Cartwright …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Mashable, Guardian, Outside the Beltway, New York Times, Gawker, Informed Comment, BBC, The Verge and NPR, more at Mediagazer »
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Susan Page / USA Today:
Pelosi: Dems are coalescing behind Hillary for 2016 — In this clip from Capital Download, USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief asks Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton running for the Presidency in 2016. Pelosi says Democrats are optimistic about it.
Discussion:
The Hill, Politico, Taylor Marsh, First Read, CNN and Tucson Citizen
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Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Jeb Bush Will Present Liberty Medal To Hillary Clinton
Jeb Bush Will Present Liberty Medal To Hillary Clinton
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and Constitution Daily
Katie Glueck / Politico:
Wendy Davis strikes back against Rick Perry — Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis on Friday took Gov. Rick Perry to task over highly personal comments he made about her the day before. — “I would say to him, that I had the privilege of making a choice about the path I chose for my life,” …
Discussion:
CNN
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Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Real Problem With Rick Perry's Comments About Wendy Davis
The Real Problem With Rick Perry's Comments About Wendy Davis
Discussion:
Shakesville, Taylor Marsh, Not the Singularity, Off the Kuff, Hot Air, NewsHounds blog, msnbc.com, National Review, The Mahablog, BOR, Sister Toldjah and WFAA-TV
Phillip Molnar / Monterey County Herald:
Restricted web access to The Guardian is Armywide, officials say — The Army admitted Thursday to not only restricting access to The Guardian news website at the Presidio of Monterey, as reported in Thursday's Herald, but Armywide. — Presidio employees said the site had been blocked since …
Discussion:
Politico, No More Mister Nice Blog, Prairie Weather, U.S. News and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Kevin Gosztola / Firedoglake:
Defense Department Blocks Access to Guardian News Website to Prevent Viewing of NSA Leaks
Defense Department Blocks Access to Guardian News Website to Prevent Viewing of NSA Leaks
Discussion:
Monterey County Herald
New York Times:
The Criminal N.S.A. — THE twin revelations that telecom carriers have been secretly giving the National Security Agency information about Americans' phone calls, and that the N.S.A. has been capturing e-mail and other private communications from Internet companies as part of a secret program called Prism …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:
The most unfortunate anti-gay logo and slogan in the history of politics — In one of the most unfortunate moves in American politics since Republicans kept referring to the Tea Party “teabagging,” the anti-gay Family Research Council, which has been officially designated a “hate group,” …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Dish and Balloon Juice
Shane Goldmacher / NationalJournal.com:
Nearly One in Five Members of Congress Gets Paid Twice — They draw government pensions from previous work in addition to their congressional salary. The practice is called “double-dipping.” — To solve the debt crisis, Americans—who are already suffering in these tough economic times …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Remember the Obama Scandals? That Used to Be a Thing — Sifting through the Republican responses to President Obama's climate speech Tuesday, an odd omission could be found — or, at least, it would have seemed odd as recently as a week or two ago. The various Republican statements churned …
Discussion:
Paul Krugman, NewsHounds blog, Balloon Juice, Reuters and National Review
Andrew Branca / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
Zimmerman Trial Day 4 - End-of-Day Analysis & Video of State's Witnesses — Once again, it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute