memeorandum: Sen. Heitkamp flying back to Washington to cast decisive vote on ATF nominee (Ramsey Cox/The Hill)

8:05 PM ET, July 31, 2013

Top Items:

Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:

Whither the GOP? Republicans Want Change, But Split over Party's Direction — Ryan Has Broader Appeal in GOP than Paul, Rubio or Christie — OVERVIEW — Coming off of two consecutive presidential election defeats, most Republican voters believe that their party must address major problems to be more competitive in the future.

Discussion: New Republic, CNN, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, Politico, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, Rush Limbaugh, Taking Note, The Caucus, TheBlaze.com, Hot Air, Mediaite and Taegan Goddard's …

Politico:

Ted Cruz taunts fellow Republicans in Obamacare fight — Ted Cruz is taking his hardball tactics to a whole new level. — The Texas freshman senator and his senior aides are unleashing a barrage of attacks on their fellow Republicans for refusing to support their plan to choke off Obamacare as a condition for funding the government.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Post Politics, USA Today, Trail Blazers Blog, FreedomWorks blogs, No More Mister Nice Blog, Booman Tribune, Wonkblog, Power Line and The Raw Story

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:
VIDEO: Paul Ryan Wants Boehner To Bring Immigration Reform To A Vote Even If Most GOPers Don't Support It

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Ted Cruz: I didn't say ‘surrender caucus’

Discussion: Mediaite and Hot Air

Jake Sherman / Politico:
John Boehner outlines new House Obamacare votes

Discussion: CNN and Daily Kos

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’ — • XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data — • NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches — • Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

U.S. Outlines N.S.A.'s Culling of Data for All Domestic Calls — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday released formerly classified documents outlining a once-secret program of the National Security Agency that is collecting records of all domestic phone calls in the United States …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Washington Post, Yahoo! News, Reuters, Guardian, NYT Bits, The Democratic Daily, ViralRead, Lawfare and Crooks and Liars

Lisa Desjardins / CNN:

Source: Obama was ‘rude and dismissive’ in exchange with Democrat — Washington (CNN) - During a question and answer session Wednesday with Democrats on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama offered what Democratic sources said was a testy response to a question about a federal loan guarantee program …

Discussion: Politico, Wonkblog, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Caller

Bernie Becker / The Hill:
Obama defends Summers, tells Dems 'Don't believe HuffPost'

Discussion: The Raw Story and Weasel Zippers

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Obama's no-Congress strategy

Discussion: CNN, American Prospect, Talking Points Memo, Roll Call, Firedoglake, Right Wing News, NationalJournal.com, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkblog and Wall Street Journal

Richard McGregor / Financial Times:
Obama defends Larry Summers to Democrats

Discussion: Business Insider and Guardian

TMZ.com:

George Zimmerman DASHCAM VIDEO — Stopped By Cops for Speeding ... Gun in Car — DASHCAM VIDEO — Stopped By Cops, Packing Heat — EXCLUSIVE DETAILS — 1:55 PM PT — We've obtained the police dashcam video of the stop ... in which George Zimmerman informs the cop he has a firearm in his glove box.

Discussion: Hot Air, Gawker, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, National Review and The Hinterland Gazette

Ktvtdeborah / CBS Dallas:
George Zimmerman Stopped For Speeding In North Texas

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Raw Story, The Black Sphere and Gawker

Isaac Chotiner / New Republic:

John McCain, Undecided 2016 Voter — Interview: McCain on Fox News Schizophrenia, Tea Party Nihilism, and Choosing Between Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul in 2016 — It has been difficult to follow politics over the past several months without sensing the presence of a new John McCain. (Again.)

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:
McCain strolls into Dem caucus meeting

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Weasel Zippers and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Appropriations chief lashes out at GOP after spending bill is pulled — The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee sharply criticized his party on Wednesday after Republican leaders abruptly pulled an appropriations bill from the floor. — In a blistering statement, Rep. Hal Rogers …

Discussion: Politico and PoliticusUSA

David Rogers / Politico:

THUD pulled as GOP budget frays — With support collapsing, a $44.1 billion transportation and housing bill was pulled abruptly from the House floor Wednesday, and top Republicans conceded it was a further sign that the party's budget strategy is unraveling.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and Daily Kos

Dorsey Shaw / BuzzFeed:

Glenn Beck: “I Was Diane Sawyer's Little Bitch” — Beck's radio program goes off the rails and his co-host Stu is left almost speechless. “Don't even think about what you're saying. Just go with it.” — Watch as Beck's radio program descends into chaos. — View Video ›

Discussion: Mediaite, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette

The Hill:

The Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People — Welcome to The Hill's annual 50 Most Beautiful list! — This year marks the 10th anniversary of the list and brings in a slew of new faces as, for the first time, White House and executive branch employees were eligible for consideration.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Yahoo! News, msnbc.com, Jammie Wearing Fools and The BLT

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:
The Hill Reacts To The Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People List

Discussion: Texas on the Potomac, PostPartisan and FishbowlDC

RADAR:

Secret Sex Tape: Monica Lewinsky Caught On Explicit Recording Telling Bill Clinton, ‘I Could Take My Clothes Off...’ — A sex tape that Monica Lewinsky recorded for Bill Clinton at the height of their scandalous affair has leaked, during which the former White House intern is heard planning …

Discussion: Althouse, Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette, The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit

NY Daily News:

Sydney Leathers in talks to create porn flick based on e-fling with Anthony Weiner — Leathers met with Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment, who offered Weiner's former paramour an opportunity to make an X-rated parody of the sexting affair. When shock jock Howard Stern asked Leathers …

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Raw Story, Algemeiner.com, Business Insider, American Power and Hot Air

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Quit Is the Way to Roll — The cruelly misunderstood Anthony Weiner …

Discussion: Politico, Politicker, msnbc.com and Connecting.the.Dots

Maggie Haberman / Politico:
Huma Abedin to take break from job with Hillary Clinton

James Arkin / Politico:

Rick Scott: Jesse Jackson owes Fla. an apology — Republican Gov. Rick Scott wants an apology from the Rev. Jesse Jackson for calling Florida “the Apartheid state,” and the “Selma of our time,” according to reports. — Jackson made the comments Tuesday while on a visit to the Florida Capitol …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Mediaite

MiamiHerald.com:
Rev. Jesse Jackson calls Florida ‘Selma of our time’; Gov. Rick Scott calls for apology

Discussion: theGrio

Steve Coll / News Desk:

How Egypt Will Shake the World — In late 1991, amid the worldwide wave of elections that followed the end of the Cold War, Algeria's military-backed government held a national vote and very reluctantly invited a coalition of previously repressed Islamists to take part.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Daniel Pipes

Ramsey Cox / The Hill:

Sen. Heitkamp flying back to Washington to cast decisive vote on ATF nominee — The Senate is waiting for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) to cast the deciding vote on whether to end debate on President Obama's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Michael Maiello / Esquire:

KENNETH POLLACK: IF ONLY WE COULD REINVADE IRAQ — In the years leading up to the invasion of Iraq, noted Democratic hawk Kenneth M. Pollack played an instrumental role in building bipartisan support for George W. Bush's war of choice. Today, as a Senior Fellow at Brookings …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Kenneth M. Pollack / Brookings Institute: The Fall and Rise and Fall of Iraq

Katherine Heintzelman / PARADE Magazine:

Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker Talk Lee Daniels' The Butler, Racism, and the N-word — “People need to see this movie,” says Oprah of Lee Daniels' The Butler, which raises questions about race in America — In this weekend's issue, Parade features a very personal conversation with Forest Whitaker …

Discussion: Politico, The Hinterland Gazette, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit and TMZ.com

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:

National Income and Product Accounts — Gross Domestic Product, second quarter 2013 (advance estimate); — Comprehensive Revision: 1929 through 1st quarter 2013 — Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Economix, Hawkings Here, Real Time Economics, VodkaPundit, Econbrowser, Forbes, ThinkProgress, PostPartisan, Daily Kos, National Review, FT Alphaville, BBC, Washington Monthly, NewsBusters blogs and Calculated Risk

BuzzFeed:

23 Libertarian Problems — Yes, I do sleep on a copy of Atlas Shrugged . — When someone tells you your “crazy views will never win an election.” — “Is this like your bible?” — When you get a fundraising text from the RNC. — Source: blog.asiantown.net — View Entire List ›

Michael Walsh / National Review:

‘No-Government’ Conservatives and the Meta-Narrative — The key to understanding the Left is knowing that they inhabit a Manichean fantasy world in which history is controlled by roiling, magical forces, in which signs, symbols, and portents are more important than empirical reality …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, American Glob, The Daily Beast and Booman Tribune