Top Items:
Washington Wire:
McCain Lends Hillary Clinton a Helping Hand — Patrick Yoest reports on Congress. — Sen. John McCain unexpectedly lent a hand to Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Senate floor today, calling for her quick confirmation as secretary of State without a lengthy roll-call vote.
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David Stout / New York Times:
Clinton Is Approved, but Vote on Holder Is Delayed — WASHINGTON — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate as President Obama's secretary of state on Wednesday, but the new president will have to wait at least a week for a vote on his choice to lead the Justice Department.
CNN:
A major Bush rule gets scrapped by Obama — (CNN) — It's the same Oval Office. The same desk. Even the same curtains. But President Obama has already made one major change: Go through eight years of White House photos, and you won't find one of former President Bush in the Oval Office without his jacket on.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Outside The Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Townhall.com and TBogg
David Remnick / New Yorker:
GOING, GOING, GONE — The mood at the Inauguration was so joyful, so filled with unalloyed expectation and—there's that word again—hope, that it seems almost peevish (and historically repetitive) to sound a sour note, but here it unavoidably is: the hostility among some in the vast crowd toward …
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Mark McKinnon / Blogs and Stories:
Aboard the Bush Plane — Britain's Leading Historian on the Genius of Obama's Unsoaring Inaugural — Full Coverage: Obama Inauguration, Bush Farewell — Blogs and Stories — In a Daily Beast exclusive, a former Bush advisor files his account—and his photos—from aboard the former president's flight back to Texas.
James D. Besser / The Jewish Week:
Mitchell As Envoy Could Split Center … The expected appointment of a special envoy to breathe new life into Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could split the pro-Israel center while pleasing the Jewish left and outraging the right. The schism could be particularly deep if …
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:Foxman: George Mitchell is too ‘fair’ …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Guardian, Blogs and Stories, American Thinker and D-Day
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Holder confirmation delayed — Eric Holder's confirmation vote before the Judiciary Committee will be delayed for up to a week as Republican senators continue to press him on his views about interrogation and other Bush administration intelligence methods. — The Judiciary Committee …
Discussion:
CNN, The Swamp, Commentary, National Review, Think Progress, Salon, CBS News and The Washington Independent
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Carolyn Lochhead / San Francisco Chronicle:
Experts say Obama should retake the oath — (01-21) 04:00 PST Washington - — Several constitutional lawyers said President Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts. — The 35-word oath is explicitly prescribed in the Constitution …
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Marc Ambinder:
Obama Will Get His Blackberry — President Barack Obama is going to get his blackberry. — On Monday, a government agency that the Obama administration — but that is probably the National Security Agency — added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package. …
David Stout / New York Times:
Justices Reject Pornography Law — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton.
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Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:Court won't save porn law, alters immunity rule
Discussion:
Blog of Rights
CNN:
Change In the Air(waves) — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Welcome to the YouTube White House. — In one of many signs of “change” in the air, President Obama has officially tweaked the name of a White House institution, the Weekly Radio Address, which has been heard on stations across the nation each Saturday for years.
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Mohammed Jawad and Obama's efforts to suspend military commissions — (updated below - Update II) — This is a very good and important step — not only because of its substance, but also because it was something Obama did almost immediately, even before his first full day in office:
Discussion:
Harper's, Emptywheel, Guardian, Daily Kos, Fausta's Blog, Alas, a blog and Crooks and Liars
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Jonn Lilyea / This ain't Hell …:
Obama blows off Medal of Honor recipients — According to TSO who was at the “Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball”, this newly sworn-in President for the first time in 56 years blew off the ball (that's 14 Inaugurations). — Some background on the ball;
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MsUnderestimated:
DAILY SHOW - WHAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BUSH & OBAMA? (VIDEO) — Tonight Jon Stewart rightly pointed out that there really are no differences when it comes to philosophy about national security, and he demonstrates it with sequential video clips, comparing Barack's speech with past Bush speeches.
Discussion:
Lean Left
Nathan Gardels / The Huffington Post:
Obama Should Quit War on Terror, Talk to Hamas and Taliban — Of course, I agree with my passionate friend, Bernard-Henri Levy, who writes elsewhere on this page that Gaza cannot be allowed to become an “advance base for total war against Israel.” — But for the current Israeli government …
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BBC:
Dutch MP faces anti-Islam charges — A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements. — Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.
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Andy Levy / Big Hollywood:
My “To Don't” List for the Right — The only thing worse than bad winners are sore losers, and we've had enough of them for the past eight years. So with that in mind, in the wake of today's historic inauguration, here's my Handbook For The Loyal Opposition, 2009 edition - a “To Don't List,” if you will.
Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
President Obama's First Day — President Obama reported to work at 8:35 a.m. on Wednesday, walking into the Oval Office for the first time as the nation's chief executive. Jeff Zeleny is following Mr. Obama's first day on the job. — If so, perhaps the first official entry came this afternoon …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Washington Monthly, New York Times, Taylor Marsh, TIME.com and The Impolitic
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New York Times:
Hearing Over, Geithner's Confirmation Is Expected — WASHINGTON — Senators of both parties interrogated Timothy F. Geithner, President Obama's nominee to be Treasury secretary, on Wednesday about his personal tax delinquencies and his role in the run-up and response to the financial crisis …
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George Packer In / New Yorker:
LET US NOW SET ASIDE CHILDISH THINGS — There were echoes of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, but President Obama uttered no words today that will be quoted in a hundred years. He has never been a real stem-winder or a coiner of unforgettable phrases; what he's always been is a great explainer …
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Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:“No Words That Will Be Quoted In A Hundred Years”
Discussion:
Alex Spillius's blog listings
Juan Williams / Wall Street Journal:
Judge Obama on Performance Alone — Let's not celebrate more ordinary speeches. — With the noon sun high over the U.S. Capitol, Barack Obama yesterday took the oath of office to become president of the United States. On one level, it was a simple matter of political process — the symbolic transfer of power.
Julian Borger / Guardian:
President Barack Obama willing to negotiate with Iran ‘without preconditions’ — The new Obama administration is willing to talk to Iran “without preconditions” and will work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons, the White House said today. — The Obama foreign policy agenda that appeared …
Tom Gralish / Scene on the Road:
Found - AGAIN - the Poster Source Photo — The photographer is MANNIE GARCIA, a Washington DC freelancer for the Associated Press. — Driving home from Washington after the inauguration, cruising on adrenalin from covering the historic event and then stopping two or three times for coffee …
Discussion:
Swampland
Reihan Salam / The American Scene:
Worshipping Obama — Churlish right-wingers will likely keep complaining about the “cult of Obama.” I won't indulge in that easy cynicism. I will note, however, that as I stumbled home, tired and scotch-afflicted for the first time in my life, I talked to one of my best friends …
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Senate Progressive Media Summit Liveblog — digg it — Marcy and I are at the Hart Senate Office Building with Atrios, Jerome, Bowers, David Corn, Mike Rodgers, Natasha Chart, Chris Hayes, Brownsox and others listening to various Senators come in and talk about their issues.
Discussion:
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