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Sarah Palin: Why She Resigned — Sarah Palin Talks to ABC News About Why She Resigned — After her bombshell announcement Friday that she was resigning as governor of Alaska 18 months before the end of her first term, and questions about her political future ricocheting from Alaska to Washington D.C. …
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Stanley Fish, The Note, The Mudflats, Pam's House Blend, Associated Press, The Daily Dish, Boston Globe, Ezra Klein, The Reaction, The Confluence, pandagon.net, Emptywheel, Hot Air, Firedoglake, MoJo Blog Posts, TPMCafe, Commentary, The Caucus, Raw Story, The Political Carnival, Weekly Standard, archy, PoliBlog, JONATHAN TURLEY and TBogg
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The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin: A Round-Up — Some readers have asked me to put all the various odd lies of Sarah Palin that the Dish has compiled in one helpful place. So that's what we've done. A couple of months ago, I asked an intern to re-fact-check all of them to make sure new details hadn't emerged that might debunk some.


Palin Blasts Critics, Remains Mum on 2012 Bid — In her first interview since announcing she was stepping down as governor of Alaska, Palin remains coy about her presidential aspirations but criticized both Obama and the Republican Party. — FOXNews.com — Gov. Sarah Palin was coy …

40% of GOP Voters Say Resignation Hurts Palin's Chances in 2012
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Anchorage Daily News, Hot Air, Washington Post, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Plum Line and TPMDC

Many Americans Still See Political Future for Palin
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AmSpecBlog

Obama to Rahm: Shut. Up. — Today's Wall Street Journal: … This forced Obama to interrupt his diplomacy in Russia to release this statement: … What happened here? Rahm likely was blabbering to a reporter and just went with his natural gut instinct — to be weak, and cave to Republicans.
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U.S. House May Include Surtax on Wealthy in Health-Care Package — House Ways and Means Committee members are likely to propose a surtax on high-income Americans to help pay for an overhaul of the health-care system, according to people familiar with the plan.


President Tries To Put Out Fire From Emanuel's Health Care Remarks
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TPMDC, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, Campaign Silo, Wonkette, Liberal Values and Blogometer

Reid to Baucus: Stop Chasing GOP Votes on Health Care — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.
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The Man Who Crashed the World — Almost a year after A.I.G.'s collapse, despite a tidal wave of outrage, there still has been no clear explanation of what toppled the insurance giant. The author decides to ask the people involved—the silent, shell-shocked traders of the A.I.G. Financial Products unit …

Dan Froomkin hired by The Huffington Post — (updated below) — In yet another sign of how online media outlets are strengthening as their older establishment predecessors are struggling to survive, The Huffington Post has hired Dan Froomkin to be its Washington Bureau Chief and regular columnist/blogger.
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, The Daily Dish, DownWithTyranny!, Mediaite, Newshoggers.com, D-Day, TalkLeft, Michael Calderone's Blog and Wonkette

A Congressional Coup Caucus emerges — Support for the coup in Honduras extends beyond the pages of right wing political magazines to the United States Congress. Tomorrow, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen will host a private meeting for her Republican colleagues …
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In Russia, President Obama Explains His Support for Ousted President of Honduras
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Los Angeles Times, Big Hollywood, YID With LID, Nice Deb, Say Anything, Fausta's Blog, Gateway Pundit and Erick's blog

Pope Urges New World Economic Order — VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a “world political authority” to oversee the economy and work for the “common good.”
Discussion:
Washington Post, NewsBusters.org, QandO, Politics Daily, Real Time Economics, Financial Times, Globe and Mail, Guardian, Opinion L.A. and Wonkette
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GOP Ad Paints Franken As Angry Maniac — Using Footage Of Him Talking About Paul Wellstone — The National Republican Senatorial Committee has just released a new Web ad featuring footage of Senator Al Franken that makes him look like an out-of-control, Red Bull-guzzling cross between Jim Carrey and the Hulk.


Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis — Al Gore today compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis. — The former US Vice President said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill …

UPDATED: Alberto Gonzales, former U.S. attorney general, expected to teach at Texas Tech University — Alberto Gonzales, who resigned as the Bush administration's embattled attorney general nearly two years ago, has lined up a fall-semester teaching spot at Texas Tech University, the university confirmed today.

Former Gitmo Inmate Leading Fight Against U.S. in Helmand — As U.S. forces are pushing ahead with the massive Operation Khanjar in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, Mullah Zakir is leading the Taliban fight against them. — FOXNews.com — A former Guantanamo Bay inmate …


Of NICE and Men — Speaking to the American Medical Association last month, President Obama waxed enthusiastic about countries that “spend less” than the U.S. on health care. He's right that many countries do, but what he doesn't want to explain is how they ration care to do it.
Discussion:
Politics Daily, The Lonely Conservative, Townhall.com, Atlas Shrugs, Say Anything and Fausta's Blog


Howard Dean: Private Health Care Is Breaking Our Economy — And the Republicans are all a bunch of liars. And Washington is as scared of change as a cult. And other things you'd expect Howard Dean to say in a hot-button debate. Except, when it comes to this particular hot-button debate …


Big Banks Don't Want California's IOUs — A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California's IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap. — The development is the latest twist in California's struggle to deal with the effects of the recession.
Discussion:
Mish's Global Economic …, Hot Air, Right Pundits, Calitics, Bloomberg and Calculated Risk


Relatives of Soldier Killed in Afghanistan Decry Lack of Coverage Amid Jackson Spectacle — A day before New York Rep. Peter King called Michael Jackson a “pervert” unworthy of nonstop media coverage, the aunt of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan on the same day Jackson died asked …
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The Anchoress, Fausta's Blog, Media Blog, BLACKFIVE, NewsBusters.org, Washington Post and Whiskey Fire

The Cost of Controlling The Press — Barack Obama's White House is spending more than $80,000 a week to staff its old and new media offices. Add the price of speechwriters and the White House communications tab reaches nearly $100,000 a week, or nearly $5 million a year-and that is for salaries alone.

In Search of Dignity — When George Washington was a young man, he copied out a list of 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Some of the rules in his list dealt with the niceties of going to a dinner party or meeting somebody on the street.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Other McCain, JustOneMinute, The Daley Gator, Ideas Special Report and The Daily Dish


The Real Quagmire in the Middle East — The Middle East is a hard place for idealists, especially for the Western liberal variety. My feelings of optimism for the region have been ground down over time like rocks under slow-moving glacial ice. — Last time I visited Israel …

No Safe Zone, Part MMMCCLVIII — You may remember that, last winter, I went on and on about “safe zones” — zones free of politics. I was concentrating on concert halls, where anti-Bush and pro-Obama comments were being made all the time. I mean, from the stage.

George Allen's road back? — A book is often a start on that road, and Regnery announced today that they're publishing one by the former Virginia senator: — The book, due out next year, will be called, “The Triumph of Character: What Washington Can Learn from the World of Sports.”
Discussion:
Wonkette