Top Items:
Washington Post:
Iraqi military facing ‘psychological collapse’ after losses, desertions — Iraqis prepare to fight militants — After militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took Mosul and other Iraqi cities, the government issued a call for volunteers to join the army. Many Iraqis answered.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Guardian, Hullabaloo and Eschaton
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Dexter Filkins / New Yorker:
CHOICES AT THE TOP — President Obama won the White House in part by promising to end the war in Iraq, and since then he placed his faith in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to help him do so. It was Maliki who would hold together the state that the Americans had helped build.
Discussion:
Fox News
New York Times:
Iraq's Military Seen as Unlikely to Turn the Tide — BAGHDAD — As Iraqi Army forces try to rally on the outskirts of Baghdad after two weeks of retreat, it has become increasingly clear to Western officials that the army will continue to suffer losses in its fight with Sunni militants and will not soon retake the ground it has ceded.
Discussion:
emptywheel, The Week, American Power, The Hugh Hewitt Show and Reuters
Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
Kerry in Baghdad to Urge Iraqis to Form New, Inclusive Government
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Week
Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:
QUESTIONS MOUNT ABOUT EFFORT TO DRIVE DEMOCRAT VOTES FOR COCHRAN — CLEVELAND, Mississippi — “I still think the slaves should get their 40 acres and a mule,” LeeRoy Carter, a black preacher who's working to get out the vote among black Democrats for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) for the GOP primary runoff, told Breitbart News on Thursday.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Chism Strategies and The Daily Caller
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Ben Terris / Washington Post:
In Mississippi, Jenny Beth Martin and Tea Party Patriots try to prove their worth — Never mind that it's 92 degrees and nearing the end of the day: Jenny Beth Martin has started jogging between houses. — “I've gotta get my steps,” she calls back to the rented Suburban with the Florida license plates …
Discussion:
New York Times and Mediaite
New York Times:
Conservatives Plan to Use Poll Watchers in Mississippi — WASHINGTON — As Senator Thad Cochran, the veteran Republican, fights for his political life in Mississippi by taking the unexpected step of courting black Democrats, conservative organizations working to defeat him are planning …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Political Insider blog and Gawker
Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Here are the 12 most competitive Senate races in the country
Discussion:
Hot Air
Drudge Report:
BOOK: HILLARY HAS BAD HEART — A new provocative work by bestselling author Ed Klein claims Hillary Clinton's health problems are much more severe than she has publicly revealed! — “She had managed to keep her medical history secret out of fear that, should it become public …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Ed Driscoll, Power Line and New York Post
RELATED:
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Some Democrats fear Clinton's wealth and ‘imperial image’ could be damaging in 2016
Discussion:
CNN, Weasel Zippers, ABC News, Betsy's Page, Hot Air and Mediaite
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Conservatives and Climate Change — On Sunday Henry Paulson, the former Treasury secretary and a lifelong Republican, had an Op-Ed article about climate policy in The New York Times. In the article, he declared that man-made climate change is “the challenge of our time,” …
Discussion:
Gawker, AMERICAblog News, Bloomberg View, Marginal REVOLUTION, naked capitalism, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress and Weasel Zippers
Jedediah Purdy / The Daily Beast:
God Save the United States From This Anti-Democratic Court — Operating on elitism and mystique, America's highest court is increasingly a threat to our ideal of self-government—leading to an important debate about how to fix it. — Should a self-respecting democracy have a Supreme Court like ours …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune
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Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy may be the middleman in the gun-rights debate
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and SCOTUSblog
Abby W. Schachter / Greensburg Tribune-Review:
Your bedroom instead of a dorm room — President Obama gets points for properly assessing the problem with student loan debt. He acknowledges that too many students earning a bachelor's degree (71 percent) graduate with debt that is so burdensome (averaging $29,400) that many delay important milestones …
Discussion:
Moe Lane
CBS News:
Poll: Many Americans wary of U.S. role in Iraq — Shares - — NEW YORK — Fifty percent of Americans think the U.S. doesn't have a responsibility to do something about the recent violence in Iraq, while fewer - 42 percent — think the U.S. does, a CBS News/New York Times poll reveals.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Politico
Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:
Inside the vast liberal conspiracy — Picture this: millionaires and billionaires gathering under tight security in fancy hotels with powerful politicians and operatives to plot how their network of secret-money groups can engineer a permanent realignment of American politics. — Only, it's not the Koch brothers.
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
THE ABSOLUTIST … - ARCHIVE - WORLD CUP - DAILY COMMENT - AMY DAVIDSON - ANDY BOROWITZ - JOHN CASSIDY - MARIA KONNIKOVA - RICHARD BRODY - SHOP
Discussion:
Business Insider
Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:
Al-Jazeera journalists jailed for seven years in Egypt — Peter Greste, Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed of Al-Jazeera English sentenced on terrorism-related charges — An Egyptian court has convicted three journalists from Al-Jazeera English and sentenced them to seven years in prison each …
RELATED:
Philip Oltermann / Guardian:
US student is rescued from giant vagina sculpture in Germany — More than 20 firefighters free exchange student from the artwork Chacán-Pi (Making Love) by Fernando de la Jara in Tübingen — In the space of 24 hours last week, two spectacular rescue operations were carried out in southern Germany.
Discussion:
Mediaite and The Raw Story
Elliott Abrams / Politico:
The Man Who Broke the Middle East — There's always Tunisia. Amid the smoking ruins of the Middle East, there is that one encouraging success story. But unfortunately for the Obama narratives, the president had about as much as to do with Tunisia's turn toward democracy as he did with the World Cup rankings.
Discussion:
The Daily Banter and Instapundit
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