memeorandum: Japan marks Hiroshima anniversary (CBC News)

2:35 PM ET, August 6, 2011

Top Items:

Standard & Poor's has been wrong before. But they're right now. — Standard Poor's decision to downgrade the United States has led to a lot of criticism of Standard Poor's. The White House called their performance, which included a miscalculation of about $2 trillion, “amateur hour.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Reality-Based Community and The Politico

Paul Krugman:

S&P and the USA — OK, so Standard and Poors has gone ahead with the threatened downgrade. It's a strange situation. — On one hand, there is a case to be made that the madness of the right has made America a fundamentally unsound nation. And yes, it is the madness of the right …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Washington Monthly, Oliver Willis, Politics, Weasel Zippers, HousingWire, Guardian, The Mahablog, Swampland, Hullabaloo and Suburban Guerrilla

Damian Paletta / Wall Street Journal:

Math Error Fuels Fight Over Rating — A mathematical error discovered late Friday by Treasury Department officials threw into limbo, at least temporarily, plans by ratings firm Standard & Poor's to downgrade the top-notch AAA credit rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Atlantic Online, ABCNEWS, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Outside the Beltway, JammieWearingFool, Booman Tribune, Riehl World View, Political Punch, Crooks and Liars, TPMDC, Politics, Truthdig, Tim Blair, Taylor Marsh, Questions and Observations, CNBC and Hot Air

standardandpoors.com:

United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To ‘AA+’ Due To Political Risks, Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative … TORONTO (Standard & Poor's) Aug. 5, 2011—Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Online, The Moderate Voice, The Gateway Pundit, Nice Deb, Libertarian Republican, DealBook and NewsBusters.org

New York Times:

S.&P. Downgrades Debt Rating of U.S. For the First Time — WASHINGTON — Standard & Poor's removed the United States government from its list of risk-free borrowers for the first time on Friday night, a downgrade that is freighted with symbolic significance but carries few clear financial implications.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, UrbanGrounds, Washington Post, Runnin' Scared, Gawker, Swampland, NewsBusters.org, Mogulite, Online NewsHour and New York Magazine

Kevinliptak / CNN:

TRENDING: GOP candidates slam Obama after downgrade — Washington (CNN) - Republican presidential candidates issued harsh criticism of President Barack Obama Friday after the credit rating agency Standard and Poor's announced it was downgrading America's long-term debt status.

Discussion: The Politico, AMERICAN FUTURE and Towleroad News #gay

Robert Reich:

Why S&P Has No Business Downgrading the U.S. — Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's debt couldn't come at a worse time. The result is likely to be higher borrowing costs for the government at all levels, and higher interest on your variable-rate mortgage, your auto loan, your credit card loans, and every other penny you borrow.

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Wall Street Journal:
S&P Strips U.S. of Top Credit Rating

Discussion: Guardian, Firedoglake and Corrente

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
White House: S&P downgrade is why Obama ‘pushed for grand bargain’

Discussion: CNN

Walter Brandimarte / Reuters:
United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P

Washington Post:
S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time

Discussion: FT Alphaville, The Lonely Conservative, theblogprof, Weasel Zippers, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Conservatives4Palin, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Hit & Run, AmSpecBlog, Scared Monkeys, Connecting.the.Dots, Shakesville, Newshoggers.com and HotAirPundit

MarketBeat:
S&P Downgrades U.S. Debt Rating — Press Release

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Prairie Weather, Free exchange, NO QUARTER, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, The Raw Story, The Lonely Conservative and Vox Popoli

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Reid: S&P downgrade backs Dems' call for more revenue

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
Boehner's Folly Leads To S&P Downgrade of US Debt

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and HotAirPundit

John Detrixhe / Bloomberg:
S&P Cuts U.S. Rating for First Time on Deficit Reduction Pact

Discussion: naked capitalism, Wizbang, Discourse.net, The New Civil Rights Movement, Gothamist, The Huffington Post and Pajamas Media

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
Five thoughts on the potential S&P downgrade

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars, The Atlantic Online, Marginal Revolution and FT Alphaville

Tyler Durden / zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml:
S&P Downgrades US To AA+, Outlook Negative - Full Text

Discussion: Doug Ross, FrumForum, Sky Dancing, Atlas Shrugs, Hot Air, Pajamas Media and ECHIDNE of the snakes

New York Times:

31 Americans Killed as Taliban Shoot Down a Copter — KABUL, Afghanistan — In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 31 Americans and 7 Afghan commandos on board, American and Afghan officials said.

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, Hot Air, msnbc.com, The Gateway Pundit, New York Magazine, Politics, Gothamist, emptywheel, The Agonist, HotAirPundit and americanthinker.com

Kevin Sieff / Washington Post:

NATO copter shot down; dozens of U.S. troops killed — KABUL — A NATO helicopter was shot down during an overnight operation against the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. The crash appeared to be the deadliest incident for the coalition in the nearly 10-year-old war …

Discussion: Firedoglake, BBC, CNN, Guardian, The Moderate Voice and Outside the Beltway

Martha Raddatz / ABCNEWS:

31 Americans Killed Including 25 SEALs in Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan — A helicopter crash in Afghanistan killed 31 Americans, including as many as 25 Navy SEALs in one of the worst single-day U.S. losses of life since the war began, a senior military official told ABC News early this morning.

Discussion: The Long War Journal and Gawker

Associated Press:
Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Kills Members of SEAL Team 6

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Fox News Insider

Solomon Moore / Associated Press:
31 Americans, 7 Afghans killed in helicopter crash

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Scared Monkeys, Wizbang and Weasel Zippers

Reuters:

China tells U.S. “good old days” of borrowing are over — (Reuters) - China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the “good old days” of borrowing were over. — Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. long-term credit rating …

Discussion: BBC, The Moderate Voice, Sydney Morning Herald, americanthinker.com and The Political Carnival

David Barboza / New York Times:
China Tells U.S. It Must ‘Cure Its Addiction to Debt’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, Balkinization, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and China Digital Times

CNN:
Questions abound after agency downgrades U.S. credit rating

Discussion: Xinhua News Agency, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Poynter

Thomas W. Lippman / Washington Post:
Washington's uneasy alliance with Bahrain

Discussion: Eunomia and The Daily Dish

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

The Tea Party, Take Two — In the four months since I began writing an Op-Ed column, the thing that has most surprised me is how darned liberal I sound sometimes. I know that seems like a strange thing to say, so let me explain. — Growing up in heavily Democratic Providence, R.I. …

Discussion: Power Line, Riehl World View, NewsBusters.org, JammieWearingFool, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars and Wake up America

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

Widener Law School goes Soviet, demands law professor undergo psychiatric evaluation — Lawrence Connell is a tenured law professor at Widener Law School in Delaware. I have noted in prior posts that Connell was accused of a wide range of racist and sexist conduct directed at students …

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy

Joseph Rago / Wall Street Journal:

Obama and the Narcissism of Big Differences — ‘He becomes visibly agitated. . . . He does not like to be challenged on policy grounds,’ says the House majority leader of the president. — New York — Whatever the rhetoric that preceded this week's deal, the debt-ceiling debate was never really about the debt at all.

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air and PoliPundit.com