Top Items:
New York Times:
Housekeeper and Taxes Are Said to Derail Kennedy's Bid — ALBANY — Problems involving taxes and a household employee surfaced during the vetting of Caroline Kennedy and derailed her candidacy for the Senate, a person close to Gov. David A. Paterson said on Thursday, in an account at odds …
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Karen Tumulty / Time:
Ted Kennedy's Circle Upset By Caroline Kennedy's Awkward Exit — Senator Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy in August 2008 — Of all the many ways in which Caroline Kennedy's brief and unofficial candidacy for the U.S. Senate was mishandled, one final ungraceful note is striking particularly close to home.
Discussion:
The Daily Politics, Political Machine, The New Republic, Wonkette, Firedoglake, Gawker, NY Daily News, KansasCity.com Prime Buzz and Swampland
Marvin Scott / WPIX-TV:
Confirmed: Kirsten Gillibrand Chosen to Fill Clinton's Senate Seat — PIX NEWS is being told that Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand is the reported choice of Governor David Paterson to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. Two Congressional sources say members …
Danny Hakim / City Room:
With Kennedy Out, N.R.A. Becomes Issue — ALBANY — Representative Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island, a staunch supporter of gun-control laws, said in an interview Thursday that she would challenge a fellow Democrat, Representative Kirsten E. Gillibrand, if Gov. David A. Paterson names Ms. Gillibrand to the Senate.
The Politico:
Obama flashes irritation in press room visit — President Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press corps Thursday night, but got agitated when he was faced with a substantive question. — Asked how he could reconcile a strict ban on lobbyists in his administration …
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Peter Baker / New York Times:
On Plane to Texas, Critiques of the Speech — WASHINGTON — On the plane, no longer Air Force One but now Special Air Mission 28000, they talked about the speech. George W. Bush, the former president, was heading home to Texas with his inner circle, having just left the west front of the Capitol …
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
A RIDICULOUS STANDARD.... Marc Thiessen, up until recently George W. Bush's chief speechwriter, has a twisted op-ed in the Washington Post today, arguing that if Barack Obama changes Bush's national-security apparatus in anyway, he'll invite domestic terrorism and will shoulder the blame for American deaths.
Discussion:
Media Matters for America
Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:2,688 Days — When President Bush left office on Tuesday …
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Huffington Post, democracyarsenal.org, Hot Air and No More Mister Nice Blog
CNN:
Obama picks Mitchell as his Middle East envoy — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was named as a special envoy for the Middle East during an event at the State Department on Thursday afternoon. — The move, which is meant to send the signal that Obama …
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Nick Baumann / MoJoBlog:
Obama to Bush: I Can Release Your Records. Don't Like It? Sue. — On his first day in office, President Obama put former president Bush on notice. His administration just released an executive order that will make it difficult for Bush to shield his White House records …
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Reid Wilson / The Hill:
Pa. defense firm raided by FBI — Federal agents raided the offices of a Western Pennsylvania defense contractor that has received millions in federal earmarks at the request of Rep. John Murtha, according to local media reports. — The offices of Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense Systems …
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WJAC-TV:
Local Defense Contractor Raided By FBI, IRS — WINDBER, Pa. — Federal agents raided Kuchera Industries, an area defense contractor located in Windber. — The entrance of the building was blocked by state and federal authorities. One by one, Kuchera employees drove off the property.
Discussion:
Hot Air
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Glenn Beck freaks out about the missing Bible at Obama's do-over swearing in.» — Today on his new Fox News show, Glenn Beck panicked about the re-do oath of office President Obama took last night, because Obama did not place his hand on a Bible. “I checked.
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Carolyn Lochhead / San Francisco Chronicle:Obama retakes oath to err on side of law
Discussion:
Christian Science Monitor
David Neiwert / Crooks and Liars:
Limbaugh on Hannity: Racism is ‘the exclusive province of the left’ — Something seems strangely off about Rush Limbaugh in his interview with Sean Hannity yesterday on Fox. Of course, there's also the crazy things he says, such as his further explanation of why he hopes Barack Obama's presidency fails:
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Fred Hiatt and the Washington establishment's bizarre concept of “due process” — Barack Obama will have spent his first several days in office issuing a series of executive orders which, some quibbling and important caveats aside, meet or actually exceed even the most optimistic expectations …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Editor and Publisher, Daily Kos, D-Day, Washington Post, Feministe, Riptide 2.0, theheretik.us and Washington Monthly
Robert P. George / Public Discourse:
Our Struggle for the Soul of our Nation — In remarks delivered yesterday at the Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life, Robert P. George reflected on the history of the pro-life movement and offered advice for its future. — Thirty-six years ago tomorrow, the Supreme Court of the United States handed …
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog
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Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
Cheney Speaks Out on Libby — Former vice president calls prosecution a “serious miscarriage of justice” and disagrees with Bush's decision. — Former Vice President Dick Cheney disagreed publicly with his boss just four times in the eight years they served together.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Raw Story, MoJoBlog, JustOneMinute, Emptywheel, Fox News, Comments from Left Field and The BRAD BLOG
Michelle Malkin:
“Whore for the far-right” — The Huffington Post demonstrates its moral superiority and commitment to Obama-esque positivity by breaking out the w-word again. They're incensed that conservatives on Fox News would dare to express dissenting views of the inaugural festivities.
The White House:
Executive Order — Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and sections 3301 and 7301 of title 5, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Discussion:
The Washington Independent, pogo.org, MoJoBlog, Think Progress, TPMDC, Swampland, The Project …, Ben Smith's Blogs and ATTACKERMAN
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New York Times:
Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed — WASHINGTON — Saying that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” to combat terrorism, President Obama signed executive orders Thursday effectively ending the Central Intelligence Agency's secret interrogation program …
Marc Lynch:
Unilateral al-Qaeda ceasefire with the U.S.? — Mohammed Essam Derbala, one of the leaders of the Egyptian al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, today called on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to declare a unilateral four month ceasefire [hudna] with the United States to test Barack Obama's pledges to establish …
Randall Mikkelsen / Reuters:
Obama CIA choice won't call waterboarding torture — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's choice to head the CIA declined on Thursday to call waterboarding “torture,” only days after his attorney general nominee condemned the interrogation practice as precisely that.
Discussion:
Think Progress, Wall Street Journal, The Project …, Weekly Standard, Amygdala and The Washington Independent
The Politico:
GOP pressures Bunning to quit — Some Republicans are privately urging Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to step down at the end of his term amid growing concerns that he can't win reelection in 2010. — According to two GOP sources, leading Republican fundraisers in Kentucky are hesitant …
Associated Press:
Castro says he doubts he'll be lucid in 4 years — HAVANA - Fidel Castro suggested Thursday that his health is failing, saying that four years from now he doesn't expect to be following current events. In an online column titled “Reflections of Comrade Fidel,” the 82-year-old Cuban leader appeared …
Jack Shafer / Slate:
Chris Matthews' Inaugural Jib-Jabbery — The MSNBC motormouth talks a lot, says nothing. — Nobody in TV news stir-fries his ideas and serves them to the audience faster than MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Drawing from a larder filled with old anecdotes, unreliable metaphors, wacky intuition …
Discussion:
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