Top Items:
CNN:
Porn industry seeks federal bailout — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion …
RELATED:
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Porn Industry Goes Limp, Seeks $5 Billion Federal Injection — When President Bush announced his economic stimulus in January 2008, he bragged that his package was the “right size” and would “boost” the economy: … Bush's package did stimulate spending...in the adult pornography industry.
Bill Carter / New York Times:
NBC's Matthews Won't Run for Senate — Chris Matthews, the host of the MSNBC program “Hardball,” told his staff on Wednesday night that he would not run for the Senate in 2010 from Pennsylvania. — For much of the last year, Mr. Matthews had been considering entering the Senate race …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Hollywood Reporter, MyDD, theheretik.us, Macsmind, Political Machine and Gawker
RELATED:
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blogs:
Matthews isn't running for Senate — Before “Hardball” today, Chris Matthews informed the show's staff in a production meeting that he's not running for Senate, according to a network source. — Matthews' flirtation with running in 2010 for the Pennsylvania Senate seat held by Arlen Specter …
New York Times:
Obama Says He Will Seek Overhaul of Retiree Spending — WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be “a central part” of his administration's efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade …
RELATED:
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Obama Is Reported Set to Revise Counterterrorism Efforts — WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to scrap the way President Bush oversaw domestic security in the White House and name a former Central Intelligence Agency official to coordinate counterterrorism, people close to the transition said Wednesday.
Joseph Abrams / Fox News:
Protester Calls for Jews to ‘Go Back to the Oven’ at Anti-Israel Demonstration — Like many other protests of Israel's campaign in Gaza, this one ended badly — police had to cool an ugly fight between supporters of Israel and Gaza, breaking up the warring sides as their screaming and chanting threatened to turn into something worse.
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee, Preemptive Karma, Stop The ACLU, NO QUARTER, Snapped Shot and Macsmind
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Joe the Plumber to become war correspondent — TOLEDO, Ohio - Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter's notebook. — The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.
RELATED:
Roger L Simon / Pajamas Media:
Joe the Plumber: Mr. Smith Goes to Jerusalem for Pajamas TV — By now many of you have heard that Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is leaving for Israel tomorrow to be a war correspondent for Pajamas TV. This has created quite a brouhaha in the media - cable television, newspapers, wire services, etc.
Carla Marinucci / San Francisco Chronicle:
Why Feinstein broke with Obama on Panetta — (01-06) 18:17 PST — Sen. Dianne Feinstein's chilly response Tuesday to outreach from President-elect Barack Obama - after stomping on his choice of fellow Californian Leon Panetta as head of the CIA - dealt the incoming administration …
RELATED:
Art Golab / Chicago Sun Times:
Chicago Public Schools' cappuccino bill: $67,000 — Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them …
RELATED:
Carlos Sadovi / Chicago Tribune:
Chicago schools' espresso machines a waste of money, inspector reports
Chicago schools' espresso machines a waste of money, inspector reports
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org
Ynetnews:
Rockets hit northern Israel — At least two Katyushas fired at Western Galilee region, one rocket hits nursing home in Nahariya, lightly injuring two people. IDF estimates Palestinian group behind attack. Lebanon says committed to ceasefire resolution — A Katyusha barrage was fired Thursday …
Discussion:
Yourish.com
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
White House Asked Howard To Stay In Blair House To Give ‘Some Plausible Reason’ For Refusing Obama — In December, President-elect Obama asked the White House if he and his family could move into Blair House — the White House's guest house — a week early, so that his daughters Malia and Sasha could start school.
RELATED:
Little Green Footballs:
The Fauxto That Wasn't — In the midst of a liveblogging session on the conflict in Gaza, the Muqata raised the alarm about a possible fauxtograph: The Muqata: Day 12 of the War, Wednesday, January 7, 2009. — The picture he noticed was filed by AP photographer Adel Hana in Gaza:
Michael J. Totten:
Stop Juan Cole — Juan Cole is decrying all the neocons he's forced to compete with in the 2008 Weblog Awards for Best Middle East or Africa Blog. He thinks Helena Cobban — a deranged Hezbollah supporter — should have been nominated instead of someone like me.
Discussion:
Flopping Aces, Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations, BLACKFIVE, Taylor Marsh, Jules Crittenden, Neptunus Lex, Macsmind, Pajamas Media and Solomonia
Pacified / SoapBlox:
Where we stand — We are stabilizing everything as best we can right now, and getting ourselves backups to help keep everything safe and restoreable in the short-term — A long term fix is also on the way. — It also seems like SoapBlox needs to be transformed from a proprietary model …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Open Left, Burnt Orange Report, Ben Smith's Blogs, Pam's House Blend, Blog P.I., First Draft, Blue Mass. Group, Blog entry and SquareState.net
Eric Black / MinnPost:
Senate recount: It's unlikely Coleman will win in court — Norm Coleman is surrounded by supporters and members of the media following his press conference on Tuesday. — Norm Coleman's public statement Tuesday, in officially announcing that he would contest the election result, struck the right tone.
Keith Bradsher / New York Times:
China Losing Taste for Debt From the U.S. — HONG KONG — China has bought more than $1 trillion of American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, a move that could have painful effects for American borrowers.
Discussion:
naked capitalism
Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Palin Draws First Major Dem Challenger for 2010 Race — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has drawn her first Democratic challenger in a potential reelection bid in 2010, a hurdle the former vice presidential nominee may need to clear before pursuing national ambitions.
Discussion:
Swing State Project
Thomas E. Ricks / Foreign Policy:
Fiasco at the Army War College — Did faculty members at the Army War College curtail their criticism of the Iraq war for fear of institutional retaliation? — That seems to be the bottom line in a situation I stumbled across just a few days ago. A friend passed along a 2005 e-mail note …
New York Times:
Purple Heart Is Ruled Out for Traumatic Stress — The Pentagon has decided that it will not award the Purple Heart, the hallowed medal given to those wounded or killed by enemy action, to war veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because it is not a physical wound.
Discussion:
The Other McCain
Bob Cesca / The Huffington Post:
The Myth of Bush As “The Hero of September 11” — As January 20 grows larger in the window, I've been thinking more often about the Bush legacy — specifically about certain aspects of the president's record that are in danger of being completely obliterated and replaced with myths and wholesale fiction.
Discussion:
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Lawmakers and Financial Experts Question Obama's Tax Cuts — At least two tax cuts that are part of Barack Obama's stimulus package have been criticized by lawmakers, tax experts and economists for being potentially too expensive and ineffective, signaling that they are likely to face resistance …
Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
President Bush Tried to Rein In Fan and Fred — Democrats and the media have the housing story wrong. — Mythmaking is in full swing as the Bush administration prepares to leave town. Among the more prominent is the assertion that the housing meltdown resulted from unbridled capitalism under a president opposed to all regulation.
Discussion:
Ed Driscoll.com