BBC: “Police in Russia have confiscated a painting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in women’s underwear from an art gallery in the city of St Petersburg. The artwork depicts President Putin combing the hair of the prime minister.”
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Bill Clinton Will Explain Obamacare
First Read reports that former President Bill Clinton will deliver a speech on the health-care law in Little Rock on September 4 defending — and making the case for — President Obama’s landmark health care law.
“Remember, it was almost a year when Obama tapped Clinton to be his ‘secretary of explaining stuff’ at the Democratic convention as it related to the state of the U.S. economy. Now it appears the president is doing the same when it comes to the implementation of the health-care law.”
This comes as a new Kaiser poll finds 44% of Americans either think the health-care law has been repealed,
overturned by the Supreme Court, or are unsure whether it’s the law of
the land.
What is Obama’s Goal in Syria?
First Read: “Regarding the likelihood that the Obama administration will use force — and perhaps soon — against the Syrian regime for its reported chemical-weapons attack, what we’re watching is to see how clear President Obama makes this goal to the American people. There’s no doubt the White House has been trying to lower expectations by not calling for regime change. But isn’t it the administration’s policy for regime change? After all, Obama has called for Assad to step down.”
Missouri Republicans Help Perry Poach Businesses
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is headed to Missouri this week in an attempt to lure businesses back to the Lone Star State, the Kansas City Star reports.
“This year, the former GOP presidential hopeful has swaggered into a handful of blue states around the country to court companies with a sales pitch of low taxes and less government regulation. But this trip is different. When Perry arrives in St. Louis this week, he’ll be doing so with the blessing of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“Missouri Republicans and business leaders are preparing to lay out the
welcome mat this week for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. And Missouri Gov. Jay
Nixon on Tuesday came pretty close to calling them economic traitors for
it.”
What Obama Will Say Today
President Obama previewed his speech today marking the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “March on Washington” with Tom Joyner:
“All I can do on an occasion like this is just to celebrate the accomplishments of all of those folks whose shoulders we stand on and then remind people that the work is still out there for us to do, and that we honor his speech but also, more importantly in many ways, the organization of the ordinary people who came out for that speech. We honor them not by giving another speech ourselves — because it won’t be as good — but instead by just doing the day-to-day work to make sure this is a more equal and more just society.”
The speech at 2:45 pm ET from the Lincoln Memorial, the same place where King delivered his famous address.
Former Illinois GOP Chair to Lobby for Gay Marriage
Chicago Tribune:
“Pat Brady, who was forced out as chairman of the state Republican
Party after backing gay marriage legislation, said Tuesday he has been
retained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois to lobby GOP
state legislators to back the bill.”
Quote of the Day
“You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there, they want to get people, so if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger… It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”
— Pat Robertson, quoted by The Atlantic, asserting that gay men in San Francisco use special rings to spread HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
MLK’s March on Washington Still Inspires
Jon Favreau: “We can make excuses. We can say that we are too busy or tired; too cynical or fed up. But 50 years ago, hundreds of thousands of Americans made a different decision. Most had fewer rights than we do. Most had fewer means than we do. Some had been humiliated and discriminated against and beaten within an inch of their lives by people whose job it was to protect them.”
“They came to Washington anyway. They drove, hitchhiked, and even walked–some for hundreds of miles over multiple days. They came from Boston and Los Angeles, Cleveland and Houston, Milwaukee and Mobile. And when the March on Washington was met with anxiety and skepticism by the Washington establishment, they kept on. As one account said, they kept on because ‘it was never about ‘me now,’ it was always about ‘someone someday.’ It could not have worked otherwise.'”
RNC Plans Digital Network to Rival Obama’s
“The Republican Party aims to build a digital operation that surpasses the one President Obama built for the 2012 campaign. Time, and two upcoming elections, will show whether the GOP succeeded,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“But instead of reserving this digital network for a single presidential candidate, the RNC plans to share it with any Republican running for any office anywhere in the country.”
What if Obama Bypasses Congress on Syria?
Roll Call: “Dozens of House Republicans and a smattering of Democrats are demanding President Obama get congressional authorization before ordering attacks on Syria, but no lawmaker seems to have an answer for what they will do if Obama goes ahead anyway.”
The New York Times reports Obama is preparing for “limited” military strikes against Syria which may last just a day or two.
The Week: Has Obama already doomed the Syria mission to failure?
Gay Marriage Ruled Legal in New Mexico
Washington Post: “County clerks in New Mexico will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a state judge ruled Monday that the state’s marriage law, which uses gender-neutral terms to define domestic relationships, doesn’t specifically prohibit gay marriage.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“I am a global warming denier. I don’t deny that.”
— Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), quoted by Tulsa World, adding that he thinks the evidence points that the Earth is moving into a “mini-ice age.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“As a guy, I personally like being a guy.”
— New Jersey U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan (R), in an interview with Newsmax, in response to Cory Booker (D) being unwilling to tell the Washington Post whether he is gay or not.
What’s Wrong with Politics?
Stuart Rothenberg: “Yes, there is too much confrontation in this town and too little willingness to compromise on issues. And analysts/authors Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann may well be right in arguing in their book, It’s Even Worse Than it Looks, that the problem rests primarily with Republicans who are unwilling to meet Democrats even part of the way on crucial public policy issues.”
“But there is no reason to believe that members on both sides of the aisle whose voting records put them toward the ideological extremes of their parties… aren’t evaluating bills in terms of what they believe is best for their constituents or for the country.”
Perry Schedules Iowa Visit
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is headed to Iowa this fall, the Des Moines Register reports.
“Perry, the governor of Texas, announced earlier this summer that he won’t seek re-election in Texas. He’s still weighing whether to make a second run for the White House. He told Newsmax TV last week that a run in 2016 run is still ‘a very viable option.'”
New Bush Paintings Surface
Gawker: “Two new paintings by former president George W. Bush, published for the first time here on Gawker, give us a new window into the ongoing development of the tortured artist/torture advocate–and opens the possibility for a new phase in his oeuvre: cats.”
The Clearest Sign Yet That Hillary Clinton is Running
The Democratic National Committee summer meeting “was a sedate gathering where routine party business was conducted routinely,” the New York Times reports.
But when Harold Ickes walked into the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile raised her eyebrows: “He predated the Clinton era, but when I saw Harold reappointed to the D.N.C., he surely, in my judgment, symbolizes the return of the Clintons.”
Ickes was put back on the committee by chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and acknowledged that he “actively sought” the seat as the “most important committee at the D.N.C. because of its role in shaping the nomination process. The goal is to design rules to nominate the strongest candidate for the general election.”
Obama Won’t Negotiate Over Debt Limit
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that President Obama won’t bargain with GOP lawmakers over increasing the debt limit, USA Today reports.
The warning from Lew came one day after he formally notified House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in a letter that the federal government will hit the $16.7 trillion debt limit in mid-October.
