Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
12:40 PM ET, July 17, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Exclusive: Conservative group offers to sell endorsement for $2M  —  The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group's endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group's president flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.
Jonathan Allen / Notepad:
Another Alleged Affair Tied to Christian House on Capitol Hill  —  A Capitol Hill townhouse that serves as a dormitory and meeting place for a band of conservative Christian lawmakers has been linked to a third episode of marital infidelity, this time in a Mississippi court filing by a former lawmaker's estranged wife.
RELATED:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Joy of Sachs  —  The American economy remains in dire straits, with one worker in six unemployed or underemployed.  Yet Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits — and it's preparing to hand out huge bonuses, comparable to what it was paying before the crisis.  What does this contrast tell us?
Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:
Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions  —  A half-dozen senators friendly to labor have decided to drop a central provision of a bill that would have made it easier to organize workers.  —  The so-called card-check provision — which senators decided to scrap to help secure …
RELATED:
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
AFL: Dropping card check is ‘normal process’
Chris / TVNewser:
Susan Roesgen Out at CNN  —  Breaking: TVNewser has learned CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen's contract will not be renewed and she will be leaving the network.  —  Roesgen, you'll recall, was criticized for her coverage at the tax day tea parties in April, when she said the event she was covering …
RELATED:
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Heart-ache: Tea-party-hating superhack out at CNN
Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:
Elmendorf: More Cost Control; Orszag: We're Already On It.  —  Doug Elmendorf, director of the Congresional Budget Office, sent tremors through Washington when he gave congressional tesitmony on Thursday.  Appearing first before the Senate Finance Committee and then the House Ways and Means Committee …
RELATED:
Ezra Klein:
Rules For Commenting On The CBO's Judgments
Political Punch:
President Obama Continues Questionable “You Can Keep Your Health Care” Promise
Discussion: Right Wing Nut House
Wall Street Journal:
The Grassley Test  —  An Iowa Republican may decide the fate of ObamaCare.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Forget Max Baucus, Henry Waxman and Rahm Emanuel.  If there's one guy who may hold the whole health-care world in his hands, it's Sen. Chuck Grassley.  That ought to have President Barack Obama worried.
Discussion: Michelle Malkin
RELATED:
Political Punch:
Snowe Dampens President Obama's Timeline on Health Care Reform
Discussion: Stop The ACLU, TPMDC and The Note
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Sanford flies high on taxpayers' dime  —  Aside from the damage done to his standing as a social conservative, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's recent admission of an extramarital affair may end up tarnishing another of his political credentials—his carefully-honed reputation as a tight-fisted steward of taxpayer money.
Discussion: The Swamp and GOP 12
RELATED:
Associated Press:
AP Investigation: ‘Frugal’ SC gov flew in style
Wayne Drash / CNN:
Obama: Walls at ‘Door of No Return’ can speak  —  (CNN) — President Obama slowly walked across the grounds of Cape Coast Castle, a slave outpost in Ghana where hundreds of thousands of Africans were shipped as human cargo to a life of bondage in the United States, South America and the Caribbean.
Discussion: Big Brass Blog
RELATED:
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
The Long-Term Budget Outlook  —  Today I had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Budget Committee about CBO's most recent analysis of the long-term budget outlook.  —  Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run.
David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
A mechanic in a black robe  —  Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is embraced by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) after completing her testimony.  One law professor said the hearing was “less than useless.  If Judge Sotomayor won't meaningfully discuss any legal topics in front of the Senate, then what's the point?”
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Sen. Graham's Exchanges With Sotomayor Among Most Anticipated of Judiciary Panel
Discussion: AmSpecBlog and New York Times
Rasmussen Reports:
50% Oppose Government Health Insurance Company  —  Just 35% of U.S. voters now support the creation of a government health insurance company to compete with private health insurers.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% of voters oppose setting …
RELATED:
Rasmussen Reports:
Election 2010: New York Democratic Senate Primary
Hilzoy / Obsidian Wings:
Read It And Weep  —  Fester at Newhoggers links to a set of right-wing bloggers' predictions for 2003.  It's pretty stunning.  For instance: … More from another pre-war interview with Tim Blair: … If only.  —  Except for Rachel Lucas', those are some pretty embarrassing predictions.
Jimmie Bise / AIP Blog:
Let's Put Some Real Faces on the Casualties of Obamacare  —  On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the President and his Democratic allies in Congress intend to force small business with payrolls more than $250,000 per year to provide health insurance to their employees.
Wall Street Journal:
Sotomayor Hearing Escapes Gravity  —  They put a man on the moon, and a comedian in the Senate.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Everyone is noting the 40th anniversary, on July 20, of the moon landing.  Good.  It was an epic moment in history, though its memory is accompanied by an unsatisfied feeling …
Penny Starr / CNSNews:
Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’  —  (CNSNews.com) - Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money.
David Carr / New York Times:
A Hollywood Blogger Feared by Executives  —  Right now, there's a good chance a Hollywood executive is leaning into a colleague's office and quietly asking, “Did you see what Nikki just wrote?”  —  That would be Nikki Finke, a well-traveled newspaper reporter who has found her moment as a digital-age Walter Winchell.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
No Pity for the Rich  —  When considering the alleged plight of the very rich groaning under the socialist yoke of Charlie Rangel's tax proposals, it's worth keeping in mind that the super-rich's share of the overall income pie is been skyrocketing:  —  The reasons behind this trend are complicated.
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
40 Years After Apollo 11, America's Retreat From the Moon  —  Michael Crichton once wrote that if you told a physicist in 1899 that within a hundred years humankind would, among other wonders (nukes, commercial airlines), “travel to the moon, and then lose interest . . . the physicist would almost certainly pronounce you mad.”
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:
RNC Web site promoting anti-Semitic, anti-Latino, and pornographic literature  —  (UPDATE: I understand the Latino book is not anti-Latino, but in fact debunks anti-Latino prejudice.  Fair enough.  But I'm still looking forward to the RNC's explanation for including “bondage,” “anal,” and “clitoris.” )
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 12:40 PM ET, July 17, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
David M. Halbfinger / New York Times:
New Fund-Raising World for New Jersey Governor
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Clinton: “100 Percent Committed”
New York Times:
Explosions at 2 Hotels in Indonesia Kill at Least 8
Discussion: News Desk
 Earlier Items: 
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Dept. of unlikely sources
Discussion: The Moderate Voice
Ehud Olmert / Washington Post:
Stop Focusing on the Settlements to Achieve Peace in the Middle East
Discussion: Commentary and Mondoweiss
John / Power Line:
And Now For Something Completely Crazy
 

 
From Techmeme:

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus surpassed OpenAI's GPT-4 for the first time on Chatbot Arena, a crowdsourced leaderboard used by AI researchers for LLM evaluations

Rebekah Valentine / IGN:
Take-Two acquires Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment from the Embracer Group for $460M in stock; the deal is expected to close by the end of June 2024

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Oregon's governor signs the first US right-to-repair law that bans manufacturers from using “parts pairing” to dictate what replacement components can be used

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page