The New Republic

In the face of declining poll numbers and stalled health care negotiations, The White House has had a remarkably good 48 hours: --The unemployment rate has dipped to 9.4%, despite a loss of over 200,000 jobs --Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed by an American missile strike READ MORE >>

So this little jewel from the Libertarians landed in my inbox, contending that, when the White House reassured Democratic lawmakers headed home for the break that, if they got "hit" on the health care issue by the increasingly exercised Right, "We will punch back twice as hard," they meant it literally--and are now going so far as to bus in union goons for that express purpose.  READ MORE >>

Matt Yglesias makes it: READ MORE >>

The Enthusiasm Gap: Why Liberals Should Get Behind Congress's Lackluster Health Care Reform Plan, by Jonathan Cohn Blair’s Revenge: How The Gordon Brown Comedy Became A Tragedy, by Howard Jacobson READ MORE >>

A New York Times editorial suggests so: Even before Mr. Clinton’s mission this week to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee from a 12-year sentence to North Korea’s gulag, Obama administration officials concluded that Pyongyang was looking for a face-saving way to re-engage with Washington.  READ MORE >>

Michelle, below, notes the absurd Republican claim that the White House's attempt to correct disinformation about its health care plan (such as the widely-cited claim, even repeated on the House floor, that the plan would euthanize the elderly) represents some sinister totalitarian plot. READ MORE >>

Well, no. Obviously. But it looks increasingly as though the forged Kenyan birth certificate released by birther Orly Taitz on Sunday may have been created by a mischievous Obama supporter:   David Weigel has more here. --Christopher Orr READ MORE >>

Ta-Nehisi Coates, reminiscing about the hours he spent as a kid looking for meaning in the liner notes and cover art of his hip-hop albums, writes: When the culture of celebrity changed, and hip-hop morphed into that culture, my relationship with it changed--suddenly I knew too much. I miss the old "not knowing," and have gotten some of that feeling back in my time in the museum. There is so much to imagine. So much to wonder about.  READ MORE >>

When I first read that the White House had launched a Fight-the-Smears-style effort for the health care debate, it never occurred to me that it was a step down the grim path toward an Orwellian dystopia. Thankfully, the clear-eyed folks at Citizens for the Republican, with a little help from Senator Cornyn, have helpfully interpreted the true threat.  READ MORE >>

The ailing and often absent Robert Byrd is making an appearance in the Senate today to vote for Sotomayor. That could bode well for the Dems if the vote is close on any health care legislation. Of course, I say just let Byrd (and Kennedy) tele-vote. --Jason Zengerle READ MORE >>