The workweek’s final required reading for you all – send in tips to tips@americasfuture.org.

BLOGS

It appears that the roundly amusing Kenyan birth certificate was a deliberate prank on the “birthers” after all.

A poll hints at the disappointment of voters, or merely the toughness of the times.

Chatter about the administration’s enemies list - but criticizing this list is tricky, as shown at the American Scene.

John Hughes passes.

AFF

Reihan Salam points to useful thinking on healthcare reform.

EVENTS

Next Wednesday a big AEI panel on trade policy in the age of Obama; register here.

DREAM JOB

Assistant Director of Finance, the Mercatus Center, Arlington, VA

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Institute for Humane Studies are looking for an Assistant Director of Finance to contribute to the effectiveness of both organizations. The Assistant Director of Finance will work closely with the Chief Financial Officer, program directors, and employees to manage various projects including: financial accounts, employee benefits, payroll, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.

To apply, submit a resume and cover letter to hr@mercatus.org. No phone calls please.

For more details and opportunities, visit the AFF Job Thread.

So much to do this weekend!

FRIDAY

Selections by Renee Stout are showing now at Hillyer Art Space, and tonight is the monthly First Friday event. A $5 donation gets you drinks, local art and live jazz from 6-9 p.m. Details here.

The Black Cat club will be celebrating the three-year anniversary of Sorted, a popular dance night, by featuring DJ Stero Faith spinning britpop, soul and indie pop (whatever that is). Admission is $6, starts at 9:30 p.m. Details here.

I’m definitely going to be at the US Air Guitar National Championship at the 9:30 Club. The competition starts at 8 p.m., and the $20 tickets can be purchased here. The show features 25 of the most talented air guitarists in the country, all competing for the title and a cash prize. Details here.

Barack Stars will be lampooning the president and other officials like Rahm Emanuel starting tonight at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. They added an 11 p.m. late show, and tickets are going for $25. Details here.

SATURDAY

The Brightest Young Things pool parties at the Capitol Skyline Hotel have been happening all summer, but as the summer grinds down they’re becoming crazy popular. This Saturday you can make your own iPod playlist and sing karaoke. Cover is $10. Food and drink specials and lockers available. From noon to 8 p.m. Details here.

The National Gallery of Art screens La Femme et le Pantin with live musical accompaniment at 3 PM Saturday. The 1928 silent film is the story of a rich Spaniard who gives up everything for the woman he loves.

Show up to the Feedback dance party at DC9 early: from 9 to 10 PM, enjoy free entry and free vodka/Redbull cocktails. Best of all, one of the best deejays in the area, Tittsworth, spins electro, club, and rock music all night. Entry after 10 is $8. (via Washingtonian)

There are also a ton of concerts on Saturday. Check out the roundups by the Washington Post and Washingtonian.

SUNDAY

There’s another pool party at the Capitol Skyline Hotel at noon, hosted by Good Stuff Eatery’s Spike Mendelsohn. Food and drink specials, and you’ll probably see the cast of DC: The Real World, because they come nearly every week. Tickets are $10 and include a free burger. More here.

The Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights is celebrating its fifth anniversary with drink specials and live music, starting at noon. Details here.

More than just required reading today, I swear.

As always, send your scoop in to us at tips@americasfuture.org.

BLOGS

The Onion scores major points with me with the “news” that the United States staged a fake coup to erase its international debt.

Rupert Murdoch plans to start charging for all of his online news sources.

The Moderate Voice on the cancellation of the F-22 program.

More representatives almost get lynched at town hall meetings, the DNC calls the constituents an angry “mob” but they’ll be disappointed to learn that over 60% of the country is a part of that angry mob.

ProPublica offers a new breakdown of promised stimulus spending divided by federal agency. It joins their stimulus breakdown by state and county.

The North Korean publicity coup probably means that we’ll be seeing more of the Clintons around.

AFF ONLINE

Michael Moynihan is all over Gibbs.

Katherine Mangu-Ward “Confessions of a Cash-for-Clunkers Scammer”

EVENTS

Mark your calendars way ahead of time – Reason’s next happy hour will be held in conjuction with FIRE and SFL at Philly’s favorite bar, Smokin’ Betty’s, on Friday August 28 at 5 p.m. Details here.

YOUR DREAM INTERNSHIP

The Foreign Policy Initiative seeks an intern in Washington DC. Details here.

For more, visit the AFF Job Thread.

Because everybody loves extra reading. Come on, today you get 2 for the price of 1.

BLOGS

Reason and National Review will help you avoid anything “fishy”.

We’re running out of numbers to describe the national debt. No big deal. We’ll just add some zeroes.

Megan McArdle goes for broke on obesity (which makes it sound like she’s trying to get fat or something, but she’s not, as far as I know. She basically gets snippy in her latest obesity post.)

Reason points out Obama’s plans for restaurant menu reform, grocery reform, transportation reform, and recreation reform.

More members of congress get shouted at in Town Hall meetings. (I don’t feel bad for them, do you?) The local Democratic party blames the opposition for such nefarious tactics as “getting there early.”

AFF ONLINE

John McCormack will read the health care bill with Gibbs, because Obama is too busy with important vacation plans.

Reihan Salam asks “Why is Bill playing Carter?” (Related: Matthew Cooper imagines what Bill said to Kim Jong Il.)

Conor Friedersdorf rounds up opinions on cash for clunkers.

Peter Suderman reviews Apatow’s Funny People.

Cool off in this hot D.C. week with these cool links – and send in tips to tips@americasfuture.org.

BLOGS

Radley Balko confirms his prophetic powers – or at least the reliability of large corporations to survive regulation too costly for their competitors.

Malcom Gladwell vs. Atticus Finch. Also at the New Yorker a profile of the radical conservatism of the Little House on the Prairie.

The rumors swirling around Blackwater intensify.

Austin Bramwell explains the troubles of the Episcopal Church.

AFF

At the American Scene, the old journalism is ravaged.

James Poulos defends the disposable economy.

EVENTS

Interesting book event on organized crime today at the New America Foundation.

DREAM JOB

Publications Intern, the Philanthropy Roundtable, Washington, DC

The Philanthropy Roundtable seeks a part-time publications intern for fall to assist the editors with the publication of Philanthropy magazine, the production of new guidebooks, and the maintenance of PhilanthropyRoundtable.org. Intern duties include writing, fact-checking, proofreading, editorial support, and routine office assistance.

Internship hours and days (approximately 20-25 hours per week) are flexible. The intern will receive a stipend of $1,000 per month.

For more details and opportunities, visit the AFF Job Thread.

I came across the MintLife Blog yesterday because of this graphic illustrating the rise and fall of cost of living in America.

But the whole blog’s worth exploring. The graphics are top-notch, the information is comprehensive and timely, and the blog collects things like the amazing map of the federal budget and the “visualizing a trillian dollars” video.

Don’t forget to go here to RSVP for the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center luncheon tomorrow, entitled “Being Young and On the Front in the Nonprofit Sector.” Starts at 11:45.

Put down the remote. You don’t need to watch the Gosselins tonight. Here are the internet videos running around the DC blogosphere that you need to see today:

• Are you kidding? Obama says different things to different audiences at different times? Wild. And he’s a politician, right? Unprecedented.
• Desperately trying to figure out what the internet wants from it, WaPo goes viral.
• Not even the Nationals’ costumed racing president can win at anything.
• Michelle Malkin joins fellow harpies on The View, shouts a lot, and almost gets in an awkward fist fight with Joy Behar and Whoopi.
• FEE’s Lawrence Reed talks on Reason.tv about why having the government run the economy is a recipe for disaster.
• Orly Taitz talks about Obama’s birth certificate on MSNBC, and her crazy is showing.

Celebrate the President’s (alleged) birthday with these awesome reads!

(As always, send events, gossip, or articles to tips@americasfuture.org)

BLOGS

Radley Balko on the attempt to defy the ban on Steven Hayne.

Even though I like putting “alleged” in parenthesis between Happy and Birthday, it’s still nonsense. Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice, rounds up the proof against the birther nonsense, twice, and Dave Weigel provides the scoop on the forged Kenyan document.

10 reasons American health care is better than you’ve been told.

The federal government is on its way to subsidizing bread and circuses (really!).

In case you missed it, Fishbowl DC has a roundup of the fair-use spat between the WaPo’s Ian Shapira and Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan.

Joe Gandelman, again, provides a primer on how Iran is turning into a truly scary totalitarian state before our eyes.

Arlen Specter gets booed at a town hall meeting. Rather hilarious, really.

AFF ONLINE

Conor Friedersdorf postulates that newspapers might be failing because they suck.

Tim Carney’s excellent lobbying column in the Examiner, and on his blog on the Kenyan birth certificate.

How to kill a city like Detroit, by David Frum.

EVENTS

Tonight at 5 p.m. at the American Enterprise Institute, catch dinner with Michael Novak, who is discussing free enterprise. Details here.

YOUR DREAM JOB

The Marijuana Policy Project, Development Officer, New York.

The Marijuana Policy Project, a fast-paced, well-respected lobbying organization, is seeking a seasoned fundraising professional to spearhead MPP’s major donor fundraising in New York, New England, and Florida. The position is based in New York. Details here.

Check out more great opportunities on the AFF job stream.

Lunches

Tuesday, Noon, at the Cato Institute, catch Tyler Cowen discussing his new book Create Your Own Economy.

Wednesday, 11:30-1:00, at the Heritage Institute, there’s “Hurting of Helping Consumers? Destroying Federal Preemption One Industry at a Time.”

Also on Wednesday, 11:45 – 1:30, at the Hudson Institute, “Being Young and On the Front in the Nonprofit Sector.”

Talks

Tonight, Monday, at 7 p.m. Sen Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) is at Politics and Prose for her new novel Blind Trust.

Catch Michael Novak discussing the benefits of free enterprise at AEI @ 5 p.m on Tuesday.

The 14th Street Busboys hosts an author event with Marjorie Cohn at 6:30 p.m on Tuesday night. She’ll discuss and sign Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent, which “takes readers into the courtroom where sailors, soldiers, and Marines have argued that [the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq] are illegal under international law and unconstitutional under U.S. law.”

Politicos nostalgic for election fever can (sort of) relive the excitement at Politics and Prose on Wednesday night. Washington Post journalists Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson will discuss The Battle for America 2008, their analysis of race-, gender-, and class-based undercurrents of the Obama and McCain campaigns. 7 p.m. Call 202-364-1919 for more information.

Entertainment

Test your texting skills at DC9’s SMS Trivia Smackdown tonight, Monday, at 7 p.m. Instead of writing down or shouting out trivia answers, you’ll text them in to the host, with heavy rock playing in the background. Top prize is a $50 bar tab.

On Wednesday, bring your pet to Canines and Corks, a pet-friendly happy hour organized by the Washington Human Society at the Park Hyatt Washington Hotel at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10, for two drink tickets and complimentary dog treats and water bowls.

Pretty In Pink screens at Rossyln’s free outdoor film festival on Friday night. Before the screening (which starts at dusk – around 8 p.m.) there are 80s themed games and prizes at Gateway Park.