memeorandum: The Unbearable Lightness of Greg Mankiw (Ezra Klein)

8:40 AM ET, July 21, 2009

Top Items:

President Obama's Conference Call with Liberal Bloggers: John Amato asks Congress to work through the August recess — You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player! — DOWNLOADS: 681 — PLAYS: 1982 … President Obama and David Axlerod hosted …

Discussion: Don Surber, Riehl World View, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, The Lonely Conservative, The Moderate Voice, Think Progress, WhiteHouse.gov Blog and Macsmind

The Huffington Post:

Obama Calls On Bloggers To Keep Health Care Pressure On Congress — In a reflection of a legislative strategy that has left no stone unturned, President Barack Obama on Monday called on like-minded bloggers to help his administration keep the heat on lawmakers to pass health care reform.

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, The Politico, Pam's House Blend, TalkLeft, JammieWearingFool and Ben Smith's Blog

David Brooks / New York Times:

Liberal Suicide March — It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America. You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts. — They brought in pollsters to their party conferences …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Rumors of the Demise of ObamaCare Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Discussion: Blogs and Stories, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Washington Post, Liberty Street, Sadly, No!, The Plum Line and Ezra Klein

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
D-Day for DeMint — Amy Kremer of the National Tea Party …

Discussion: Liberty Street, The Washington Independent, Think Progress, Newsweek Blogs, United States Senator, The Plum Line, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Washington Monthly and GOP 12

Jonathan Singer / MyDD:
Obama Still Open to Using Reconciliation Process

Discussion: AMERICAblog News and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Tracy Jan / Boston Globe:

Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home — Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among …

Discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Confluence, Wonkette, Jack & Jill Politics, Chronicle of Higher Education, pandagon.net, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Shakesville, Simple Justice, The Moderate Voice and Alas, a blog

Abby Goodnough / New York Times:
Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer Is Accused of Bias

Discussion: Above the Law, Jeffrey Goldberg, Truthdig and TMZ.com

theroot.com:
Lawyer's Statement on the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Discussion: Blogs and Stories, Pam's House Blend, ATTACKERMAN and The Awl

Los Angeles Times:

Budget accord reached — Calling for deep cuts and avoiding broad tax hikes, Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders agree on ways to close California's $26.3-billion deficit. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced today that they have reached a deal …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Fix, Calitics, American Power and Patterico's Pontifications

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
California Reaches Budget Deal, With Billions Cut

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel and Zandar Versus The Stupid

Matthew Yi / San Francisco Chronicle:
State leaders have tentative plan to fix budget

Discussion: Associated Press and The Moderate Voice

Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:

Obama's Gitmo Task Force Blows Its Deadline — Exclusive: why a key report on closing the facility has been delayed until the fall. — Brennan Linsley / Reuters-Landov — A U.S. journalist walks past sleeping quaters at Camp Justice, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, July 14, 2009.

Discussion: ACLU, Hot Air, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Newsweek Blogs and The Campaign Spot

Ed Henry / CNN:
Time's up: Deadline passes for Gitmo plan

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY

Khaled Abu Toameh / Jerusalem Post:

Amman begins stripping state's Palestinians of citizenship — Article's topics: Jordan, Palestinians, West Bank, PLO — Jordanian authorities have started revoking the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians living in Jordan to avoid a situation in which they would be “resettled” …

Discussion: PoliGazette, Israel Matzav, Raw Story, Sense of Events and JOSHUAPUNDIT

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

New NASA Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter — Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. — Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake and New Scientist

Ezra Klein:

The Unbearable Lightness of Greg Mankiw — A friend e-mails: … I would respond by saying that there's a weird tendency among people to think that very banal comments are very important insights when they come from Greg Mankiw. And this is worse than a very banal comment: It's disengaged with the debate.

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, The New Republic, Matthew Yglesias, Greg Mankiw's Blog, Corrente and Crooks and Liars

CNN:

Maloney apologizes for using N word — (CNN) - New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, apologized Monday for using the N word in a recent interview while recounting a phone call she had received. — “I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting,” Maloney said in a statement.

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:

Democrats Want to Teach You to Die With Dignity — H.R. 3200 is the Democrat healthcare bill. — Let's back up for a minute. I noted some time ago Jay Rockefeller went on record to say that at some point the government has to decide whether or not you are allowed to receive …

Discussion: protein wisdom, QandO, The Daley Gator and Say Anything

Amie Parnes / The Politico:

Barack Obama's gaffe: seeking greater inefficiencies — Would health care reform bring “greater inefficiencies” to the country's health care system? — That's exactly what Obama said Monday when he spoke about health care reform at the Childrens National Medical Center in Washington.

Discussion: RealClearPolitics Video Log, Wizbang, Taylor Marsh, Think Progress, The Lonely Conservative, Don Surber and Talking Points Memo

WhiteHouse.gov Blog:
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON HEALTH CARE

Discussion: Big Brass Blog and Washington Wire

Eamon Javers / The Politico:

Bailouts could cost U.S. $23 trillion — A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government's watchdog over the effort says - a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation's entire economic output for a year.

Discussion: Right Wing News, AmSpecBlog, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Provocateur and Zandar Versus The Stupid

Matthew Jaffe / ABCNEWS:
Whoa: Bailout Could Top $23 TRILLION

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Gateway Pundit, Fausta's Blog, Hot Air, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Cato @ Liberty

Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:

Iran's supreme leader warns protesters to end campaign of civil disobedience — Government opponents, meanwhile, call for a national referendum to resolve the disputed presidential election. — Reporting from Beirut — Iran's supreme leader on Monday sternly warned government opponents …

Discussion: Informed Comment and Truthdig

Najmeh Bozorgmehr / Financial Times:
Khamenei warns Iran opposition of ‘collapse’

Discussion: Daniel W. Drezner

Penny Starr / CNSNews:

Health Care Bill Directs HHS Secretary to Develop ‘Standards for Measuring Gender’—As Opposed to ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ — (CNSNews.com) - The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee's health care legislation will give the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to develop …

Discussion: YID With LID, The Lonely Conservative, The Sundries Shack, insert clever s.logan here, Whiskey Fire and Sadly, No!

Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher:

‘New York Times’ Defends Palin Story that Quotes Hairdresser — NEW YORK A story on The Huffington Post Monday reporting that Sarah Palin's hairdresser was upset about being inaccurately cited in a New York Times piece drew a response from a Times spokeswoman today claiming the hairdresser had praised the story.

Discussion: First Draft, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Politics Channel and Wonkette

Alex Spillius / Telegraph:

US car dealer offers free Kalashnikov with every purchase — A Missouri car dealer has taken a novel approach to combating the fall in US vehicle sales by offering a free Kalashnikov assault rifle with every truck, whether new or used. — Mark Muller, whose business slogan is “God, Guns …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, Technology News and Think Progress

Online NewsHour:

Obama Outlines Expectations for Health Reform Timeline, Economic Recovery — JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, it must have been a little unpleasant for you to wake up this morning and see this headline: Washington Post poll shows Obama slipping on key issues, approval rating on health care falls below 50 percent.

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Page and Newsweek Blogs

David Boies / Wall Street Journal:

Gay Marriage and the Constitution — Why Ted Olson and I are working to overturn California's Proposition 8. — Printer — Friendly — When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost 20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the same race.

Discussion: Bench Memos, DownWithTyranny! and Pam's House Blend

Wall Street Journal:

Let's Face It: Obama Is No Post-Partisan — Only last summer we were told that Barack Obama's political appeal rested on his vision for a “post-partisan future.” The post-partisan future was one of the press corps' favorite phrases. It served as shorthand for the candidate's repeated references to …

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Zandar Versus The Stupid

Aaron Blake / The Hill:

Senate Dems outraise GOP counterparts — The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised $6.2 million in June, outraising the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) by nearly $3 million. — The DSCC banked $7.9 million and had $3.7 million in debt.

Lauren W. Whittington / Roll Call:
House Democrats Raise $7 Million in June

Discussion: Daily Kos and RedState

Think Progress:

Jimmy Carter: ‘The words of God do not justify cruelty to women.’ — Former President Jimmy Carter, who in 2000 officially severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention after the SBC declared its opposition to female pastors and reiterated its calls “for wives to be submissive to their husbands …