memeorandum: Italy agrees to liberalise economy (Financial Times)

5:40 PM ET, August 5, 2011

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Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs — POLITICO EXCLUSIVE — The President's private 50th birthday bash, not listed on his public schedule: His gift to the press corps was a travel/photo lid shortly after 4 p.m., prompting what pooler Julie Mason called “general cheering in WH workspace.”

Discussion: The New York Observer, The Moderate Voice, The Politico, Wonkette, Runnin' Scared, Little Green Footballs, Salon, The Wire, Mediaite, New York Magazine, The Raw Story and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Media Matters / Media Matters for America:

Fox Nation: Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs — Previously:

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Crooks and Liars

Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:

Fox Nation Reports On Obama's Birthday: 'Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs' — Yesterday, President Obama celebrated his 50th birthday. Politico reported that the president marked the milestone by holding a private barbecue attended by a flock of celebrities, including Stevie Wonder …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Washington Post

Lynn Sweet:

Obama's 50th Birthday bash: Stevie Wonder, Chris Rock, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, Herbie Hancock, Jay Z — li> (Screen grab of Chris Rock's Twitter feed) — WASHINGTON—President Obama celebrated his 50th birthday Thursday night with a celebrity-filled bash, as entertainer Chris Rock reported …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Big Government and The Gateway Pundit

Eddie Gehman Kohan / Obama Foodorama:
All The Details: Inside President Obama's 50th Birthday Party At The White House

Discussion: Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Pundit & Pundette, Political Punch and Lynn Sweet

Jason Cherkis / The Huffington Post:

Rick Perry's College Transcript: A Lot Of Cs and Ds … WASHINGTON — As governor of Texas, Rick Perry has pursued a controversial agenda that would gut Texas' vaunted public university system in favor of something that more closely resembles a business. — As the Washington Post reported on Thursday …

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Atlantic Online, Ben Smith's Blog, neo-neocon, No More Mister Nice Blog, Iowa Caucuses, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, GOP 12, Swampland, Politics, New York Magazine, TPMDC, Hullabaloo, Gawker, ThinkProgress and ParaPundit

The Note:

Rick Perry's Religious Event Mired in Controversy — ABC News' Arlette Saenz (@arlettesaenz) reports: — A prayer event initiated by Texas Governor Rick Perry will take place tomorrow in Houston, Texas, but the religious revival is mired in controversy concerning exclusion of non-Christian religions …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Daily Caller

William Saunders / The Politico:
Rick Perry is half-right on abortion

Discussion: LifeNews.com

Local News:

Click on the video link to see raw video of police and sheriff's deputies investigating the scene. — Did you witness the attacks outside State Fair, or were you attacked? Were you hurt? E-mail us your story! — WEST ALLIS - Witnesses tell Newsradio 620 WTMJ and TODAY'S TMJ4 of a mob …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Lonely Conservative, Moonbattery, The Greenroom, UrbanGrounds, Politics, Vox Popoli, nation.foxnews.com and Confederate Yankee

JSOnline:

State Patrol called in, youth policy imposed after violence at State Fair — By Don Walker and Mike Johnson of the Journal Sentinel — Gov. Scott Walker has ordered the Wisconsin State Patrol to provide additional law enforcement help at the Wisconsin State Fair after several incidents …

Discussion: Pajamas Media

Political Punch:

Govt official: US expecting S&P downgrade — A government official tells ABC News that the federal government is expecting and preparing for bond rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the rating of US debt from its current AAA value. — Officials reasons given will be the political …

Discussion: CNBC, Politics, ThinkProgress, MarketBeat, The Right Scoop, Capital Tonight and HotAirPundit

Joe Weisenthal / Politics:
US GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS BRACING FOR S&P TO DOWNGRADE CREDIT RATING

Discussion: Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications and MarketBeat

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Wrong Worries — In case you had any doubts, Thursday's more than 500-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average and the drop in interest rates to near-record lows confirmed it: The economy isn't recovering, and Washington has been worrying about the wrong things.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The New Republic, Questions and Observations, Don Surber, Taylor Marsh, ThePeoplesView.net, Firedoglake, Northern Reflections, The Mahablog and Daily Kos

Floyd Norris / New York Times:
Time to Say It: Double Dip Recession May Be Happening

Discussion: msnbc.com, Salon, The Politico, Felix Salmon, Winning Progressive, Hit & Run, Indecision Forever, Right Wing News and The POH Diaries

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
The Story of the Economy

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The New Republic and TalkLeft

Yahoo! News:

Nader: ‘Almost 100 percent’ chance of a Democratic primary challenger to Obama — Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and perennial third-party presidential candidate, announced last month that he would work to find a Democrat to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The Political Carnival, No More Mister Nice Blog, CANNONFIRE and Wake up America

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Incredible Shrinking Tea Party — If there's one thing the debt ceiling battle revealed, it's that the Tea Party continues to enjoy outsized influence in Washington in general and over the GOP in particular. — So it's interesting to note that according to the internals of today's New York Times poll …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Monthly and Daily Kos

Shushannah Walshe / ABCNEWS:

$30 Million Pouring In to Influence Wisconsin Recall Elections — A voter in Glendale, Wis., casts a ballot in a Democratic primary on Thursday, July 12, 2011, as part of recall efforts against Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling. Darling is one of six Republican state senators being targeted …

Discussion: USA Today and Outside the Beltway

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Why Democrats are very nervous about Wisconsin

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Mahablog

Andy Kroll / MoJo Articles:
Wisconsin Recall Elections: The Dark Money Pours In

Discussion: Salon, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and ThinkProgress

Adam Serwer / Washington Post:

GOP austerity agenda damaging Obama's reelection chances — The Republican austerity agenda is continuing to hamper job growth, making Obama's defeat in 2012 all the more likely. — Today's jobs numbers were better than expected, but as Matthew Yglesias points out, a fundamental problem remains …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Economix

Motoko Rich / New York Times:
U.S. Posts Stronger Job Growth in July

Discussion: Economix, Washington Post, TalkLeft, The Consumerist, Global Public Square, Gawker, Prairie Weather, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, p m carpenter's commentary and The Maddow Blog

New York Times:
Volatile Wall Street Ends the Day Mixed

Discussion: BuzzMachine, naked capitalism, Gawker, The BLT, New York Magazine and Prairie Weather

RealClearPolitics Video Log:

John Kerry: Media Has “Responsibility” To “Not Give Equal Time” To Tea Party — Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Friday that the media has the responsibility to not give equal time or credence to the Tea Party's views: SEN. JOHN KERRY: “And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely.

Discussion: Wake up America, RedState, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin, Pajamas Media, Don Surber, The Lonely Conservative, The Right Scoop, National Review and Hotline On Call

Mitchel Maddux / New York Post:

‘Rent is Too Damn High’ candidate facing eviction from rent-controlled apartment — The man who ran for governor because the “Rent is Too Damn High” claims he's being kicked out of his Manhattan apartment — because the rent is too damn low! — Jimmy McMillan says he pays $872.96 …

Discussion: Associated Press, newsfeed.time.com, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Colorlines, The Consumerist, New York Magazine, Runnin' Scared and Gawker

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:

Obama ‘smarter’ than critics, says Alan Simpson — Former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican who co-chaired President Barack Obama's fiscal commission, says that the president is “a little bit smarter” than some of his critics, who “ought to give it up.” — Simpson, who represented Wyoming …

Discussion: The Spot and Weasel Zippers

Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:

Cantor Opposes Extending Unemployment Benefits: We Need To Stop ‘Pumping Up’ Jobless Americans — The unemployment rate inched downwards to 9.1 percent today, with private sector jobs increasing by 154,000. While a slight improvement, these better-than-expected figures provide little comfort …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, The Hill, RedState, Hullabaloo, The Reaction, National Review, Daily Kos and Pajamas Media

James Pethokoukis:

Can Obama's 2012 hopes survive 9%+ unemployment? … The consensus used to be that President Obama might be OK if the jobless rate fell below 8 percent by Election Day. That seems increasingly unlikely. The economy is, at best, in slow-growth mode, just churning and churning, creating few jobs.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Joy Pullman / Washington Examiner:

Teachers union disavows internal memo endorsing deception of parents — American Federation of Teachers officials have disavowed an internal report after it was posted on the union's website following its annual conference, embedded on each of its 19 pages with the union's logo and signed by a union official.

Discussion: iOwnTheWorld.com and Pajamas Media

Paul Krugman:

Pulling Rank — John Quiggin has some fun with an economist named Stephen Williamson who attacks his work from a position of robust ignorance; Noah Smith has even more fun. — I'll pass the specific arguments by, and note another feature of this “debate” that has struck …

Discussion: Noahpinion, Balloon Juice and Crooked Timber

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Video: They're still not listening to Rick Santelli — Want to see a microcosm of everything that's been wrong with American economic policy over the last couple of years? Watch this exchange between Ezra Klein and Rick Santelli from earlier today on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Discussion: Pajamas Media and NewsBusters.org

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

The FAA shutdown and the new rules of Washington — Congressman John Mica, the Florida Republican blamed for single-handedly shutting down the Federal Aviation Administration, sounded like a beaten man when he called me Thursday evening. — The usually biting chairman …

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress, Associated Press, The Political Carnival, Guardian, Daily Kos and Knoxville News-Sentinel

Hilary Gowins / Northwest Herald:

Walsh tries to clear air at town hall-style meeting … WAUCONDA - When controversy erupts, public figures can hide or face their critics. — U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh seems to have chosen the latter, facing his constituents for the first time after the debt ceiling battle and allegations …

Discussion: Hotline On Call and The Hill

Marc Stewart / TheDenverChannel.com:

TSA Confiscates Pregnant Woman's Insulin, Ice Packs — Security Tells Woman Isulin Vial Was An Explosives Risk — DENVER — A Denver couple has filed a formal complaint with the Transportation Security Administration after a pregnant woman's insulin and ice packs were confiscated by screeners at Denver International Airport.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Raw Replay and OpenMarket.org

Kathie Obradovich / Iowa Caucuses:

Santorum: Courts have created ‘super-right’ of sexual liberty — GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, talking about same-sex marriage, said today that the courts have created a right to “sexual liberty” that diminishes the right to religious liberty. — Santorum was meeting with the Register editorial board this morning.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and TPMDC

Lee Fang / ThinkProgress:

VIDEO: Security Guards At American Legislative Exchange Council Conference Physically Attack ThinkProgress Reporters — Scott Keyes' thumb after being attacked by security guards at the American Legislative Exchange Council conference — Yesterday, at a conference in New Orleans …

Discussion: Dane101 and Rainforest Action Network Blog