Top Items:
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
The worst excuse ever: The Rhodes memo debacle — The White House damage control on the latest batch of Benghazi emails is not going well. The White House's belated release of the documents at the very least show it has been actively evading legitimate congressional requests for relevant information.
Discussion:
CNN, Fox News, his vorpal sword, Taylor Marsh and Althouse
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Justin Sink / The Hill:
Can Obama get his groove back? — It's been more than a year since President Obama saw his approval rating hit 50 percent, and his still-souring numbers have Democrats fretting about his toxic effect in November. — Party strategists say the solution is for the White House to shake …
Discussion:
CNN, Politico, Weekly Standard, Jammie Wearing Fools and Fox News
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Obama's ‘Blame the Video’ Fraud Started in Cairo, Not Benghazi — The e-mail revelations and the Obama administration's lies — Here is the main point: The rioting at the American embassy in Cairo was not about the anti-Muslim video. As argued here repeatedly (see here and here) …
Discussion:
neo-neocon, protein wisdom and The Gateway Pundit
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Email Suggests White House Strategy on Benghazi — WASHINGTON — A newly released email shows that White House officials sought to shape the way Susan E. Rice, then the ambassador to the United Nations, discussed the Middle East chaos that was the context for the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Post, JustOneMinute and NewsBusters
Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:
Lindsey Graham: White House Officials Are ‘Scumbags’ for Lying About Benghazi — Appearing on Mike Gallagher's radio show Thursday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went after the “scumbags” in the White House who he believes “lied” in the aftermath of the 2012 attacks on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Discussion:
Politico and The Huffington Post
Yahoo! News:
When the White House hates your tweet
When the White House hates your tweet
Discussion:
Politico, Hot Air and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »
Larry O'Connor / Washington Free Beacon:
Brother of CBS News President at Center of Latest Benghazi Bombshell
Brother of CBS News President at Center of Latest Benghazi Bombshell
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and The Heritage Foundation, more at Mediagazer »
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Antonin Scalia's Blunder Is Unprecedented, Legal Experts Say — Justice Antonin Scalia's factual error in a dissenting opinion Tuesday has become the talk of the legal community as experts puzzle over the extraordinary nature of the Reagan-appointed justice's blunder, which the Supreme Court quietly corrected as of Wednesday morning.
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Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Commentary: From the bench to the podium — Commentary — In ways large and small, the idealized expectation that the Supreme Court will stay outside the political arena continues to diminish in a country with polarized partisanship and fragmented cultural values.
ed.gov:
U.S. Department of Education Releases List of Higher Education Institutions with Open Title IX Sexual Violence Investigations — Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov — The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released today a list …
Discussion:
Mashable, The Raw Story, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, WGGB-TV, Business Insider, Feministing, WJLA-TV, CBS DC, NPR, The Week and New York Times
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Obamacare Is Getting the Benghazi Treatment, Courtesy of House Republicans — House Republicans just put out a new report on the Affordable Care Act. You should take is as seriously as you take all reports from House Republicans these days. — In other words, you shouldn't take it seriously.
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Robert Pear / New York Times:
Administration Details Late Surge in Health Enrollments
Administration Details Late Surge in Health Enrollments
Discussion:
Rush Limbaugh and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Report: 67% of Obamacare enrollees have paid so far
Report: 67% of Obamacare enrollees have paid so far
Discussion:
ACASignups.net, CBS DC, American Spectator and The Week
Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast:
John Oliver on ‘Last Week Tonight,’ Turning Down CBS, and ‘Nauseating’ American Politics — The newly minted host of HBO's ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ sat down to discuss his new gig, the strange state of U.S. politics, and more over coffee. — “I'm still getting used to this whole interview thing,” says John Oliver.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Althouse and Yahoo! News
Snapchat:
Putting the Chat into Snapchat — Building Snapchat has taught us a lot about what makes conversation special. When we first started working on an application for sharing disappearing pictures, we had no idea how much we would learn. Our classmates were quick to point out that you could always take a screenshot.
Discussion:
Re/code, Washington Post, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, ThinkProgress and Mashable
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Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Real talk: the new Snapchat brilliantly mixes video and texting
Real talk: the new Snapchat brilliantly mixes video and texting
Discussion:
New York Times, Business Insider, Gigaom, PandoDaily, The Week and Globe and Mail
Royson James Toronto / Toronto Star:
Rob Ford is out of time and must resign: James — Toronto mayor's descent so long and dark it may be too late for redemption — Jennifer Gordon, whose back is to the camera, and friends spotted Mayor Rob Ford “stumbling” down the street near the Esplanade on St. Patrick's Day 2012.
Discussion:
VodkaPundit and The Daily Caller
RELATED:
Frank Gunn / Toronto Star:
Rob Ford did cocaine on wild night, witnesses say
Rob Ford did cocaine on wild night, witnesses say
Discussion:
Boing Boing, The Daily Caller, Blazing Cat Fur, Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun and Mashable
The Lead with Jake Tapper:
Biking with Bush: Former president opens up about veterans, Jeb 2016 — Crawford, Texas (CNN) - It is not an easy ride. — The rugged 100-kilometer mountain bike ride cuts through the Texas hill country and was designed to keep a fitness freak on his toes.
Discussion:
OnPolitics, The Week and CNN
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Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Fox News Brands Scientific American Editor A ‘Coward’ (VIDEO) — A Scientific American editor must have struck a nerve over at Fox News this week when he tweeted about having a “Fox & Friends” producer shoot down his idea to talk about the impacts of climate change on the show.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Raw Story, The Moderate Voice, Scientific American …, The Huffington Post and Mediaite
Politico:
What Is Hillary Clinton Afraid Of? — Over the 25 years Hillary Clinton has spent in the national spotlight, she's been smeared and stereotyped, the subject of dozens of over-hyped or downright fictional stories and books alleging, among other things, that she is a lesbian …
Discussion:
American Prospect, Associated Press, NewsBusters, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Week, Hullabaloo and National Review
Olga Khazan / The Atlantic Online:
This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist — The question Cliven Bundy put to his audience last week—Was the black family better off as property?—is as immoral as it unoriginal. As both Adam Serwer and Jamelle Bouie point out, the roster of conservative theorists who imply that black people …
Discussion:
Deadspin, The PJ Tatler and SBNation.com
Oren Dorell / Associated Press:
General: Military should've tried to rescue Benghazi Americans — WASHINGTON — U.S. military personnel knew early on that the Benghazi attack was a “hostile action” and not a protest gone awry, according to a retired general who served at U.S. Africa Command's headquarters in Germany during the attack.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Townhall.com, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, Armed Services Republicans and Washington Free Beacon
ThinkProgress:
Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S. — Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the coming years under a deal brokered by Mayor Ed Murray and blessed by labor and business groups alike, city leaders announced Thursday afternoon.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Seattle Times blogs and SEIU Healthcare 775NW
Henry Chu / Los Angeles Times:
Vatican to debate teachings on divorce, birth control, gay unions — Pope Francis meets with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, left, at the Vatican. On the pontiff's orders, the Vatican will convene a meeting of senior clerics this fall to reexamine church teachings that touch the most intimate aspects of people's lives.
Discussion:
The New Civil Rights Movement, susiemadrak.com and Hot Air
John Podesta / White House.gov Blog:
Findings of the Big Data and Privacy Working Group Review — Over the past several days, severe storms have battered Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and other states. Dozens of people have been killed and entire neighborhoods turned to rubble and debris as tornadoes have touched down across the region.
Discussion:
Guardian, ABC News, The Daily Caller and Civilrights.org Latest Posts
George F. Will / Washington Post:
The heavy hand of the IRS seizes innocent Americans' assets — Earnest moralists lament Americans' distrust of government. What really is regrettable is that government does much to earn distrust, as Terry Dehko, 70, and his daughter Sandy Thomas, 41, understand.
Discussion:
VodkaPundit
New York Times:
De Blasio Announces Contract Deal With Teachers' Union — Mayor Bill de Blasio, confronting a key challenge of his first year in office, announced what he called a “landmark” labor deal on Thursday with New York City's largest teachers' union that officials said would provide a framework …
Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
The Minimal Class Divide in American Politics — Why Growing Economic Inequality Does Not Explain Partisan Polarization — How deep is the class divide in American politics today? According to some scholars and pundits, it is very deep indeed. In a recent post on the Washington Post's …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and Democratic Strategist