Top Items:
Andrew Breitbart / Big Hollywood:
Iraq War Showdown: Bill Kristol Agrees to Debate Matt Damon After Actor's “Idiot” Slam — On Sunday afternoon Weekly Standard editor and New York Times columnist Bill Kristol — in an email exchange with Big Hollywood — agreed to debate Matt Damon on his Hollywood home turf after being informed …
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Blogs and Stories:
The Sacking of Bill Kristol — Why The New York Times Sacked Bill Kristol by Scott Horton — Blogs and Stories — The famous neoconservative published his final New York Times column today. Scott Horton reports on real reasons the Gray Lady didn't renew his contract.
Richard Perez-Pena / New York Times:
Kristol Ends Times Op-Ed Column — William Kristol, the conservative columnist, and The New York Times have quietly ended their relationship after little more than a year, the newspaper said on Monday. — A single sentence printed below Mr. Kristol's column in Monday's paper broke the news: “This is William Kristol's last column.”
William Kristol / New York Times:
Will Obama Save Liberalism? — All good things must come to an end. Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era. — Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy. And a good thing, too!
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Culture11, The New Republic, The Reaction, Gawker, PoliticalBase.com Blog and Commentary
Greg Mitchell / The Huffington Post:
Cut Kristol: As Era Ends at ‘NYT,’ Some of Bill's Greatest Bloopers — As you surely know by now, Bill Kristol wrote his final column today for The New York Times, sparing the paper any further embarrassment. But, as usual, he did not spare us all a good belly laugh: The news of his demise came …
Glenn Garvin / MiamiHerald.com:
The opinionated Mr. Damon — Actor — and Miami Beach resident …
The opinionated Mr. Damon — Actor — and Miami Beach resident …
Discussion:
Gawker
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Cheney's Veil Lifted on Vice President's Residence — Hope and change has come to Google Maps. The official residence of the vice president, obscured until Dick Cheney's last days in office and residence, now shines in satellite sunlight. — A reader tipped us off that Google Maps …
The Huffington Post:
Woodward Suggests Future Scandal For Obama White House — Appearing on the Chris Matthews Show Sunday, Bob Woodward offered a rather cryptic prediction of scandal that will plague the Obama White House. — “This may be tantalizing but vague,” said the Washington Post scribe.
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Fox Shows Photos Of Muslim Men: ‘Would You Want A Guy Like This Living In Your Backyard?’ — Since President Obama's announcement last week that he would shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center within one year, Fox News has done its best to frighten its viewers about the rule:
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Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
New Right-Wing Stimulus Myth: Progressives Want To Spend ‘Hundreds Of Millions On Contraceptives’ — In recent days, conservatives have been stepping up their opposition to any stimulus proposal that favors smart spending over tax cuts for businesses. To push their argument …
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Liz Halloran / NPR:
Ex-AG Gonzales: ‘I Should Have Been More Engaged’ — Listen Now — · Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday rejected critics' charges that he allowed the Justice Department to become politicized under his watch. — Gonzales told host Michel Martin of NPR's Tell …
Discussion:
Emptywheel
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Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Prosecuting torture: ‘Hard to believe’ — Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, made plenty of people uncomfortable when he asserted, flatly, in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that water-boarding is torture.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Jeff Mason / Reuters:
Obama begins reversing Bush climate policies — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama began reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration on Monday, clearing the way for new rules to force auto makers to produce more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Bay & Environment, The Politico, MyDD and Sweetness & Light
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New York Post:
JUST PLANE DESPICABLE — ‘RESCUED’ CITI BUYING $50M JET — Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed. — Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas …
Jane Mayer In / New Yorker:
BEHIND THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS — On Thursday, President Barack Obama consigned to history the worst excesses of the Bush Administration's “war on terror.” One of the four executive orders Obama signed effectively cancelled seven years of controversial Justice Department legal opinions authorizing methods …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
KY-Sen: Mongiardo's In — Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning (R) faces a very difficult reelection race. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) — Kentucky Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo announced this morning that he will take on Sen. Jim Bunning (R) in 2010 — seeking a jump on what could be a crowded Democratic field.
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James R. Carroll / Courier-Journal:
Bunning's weak '08 fundraising raises more questions about 2010 run
Bunning's weak '08 fundraising raises more questions about 2010 run
Irwin M. Stelzer / Weekly Standard:
More to It Than Meets the Eye — The hidden coherence of Obama's recovery plan. — It grieves me to say so, but President Obama's conservative critics just don't get it. The new president has put forward a plan for economic recovery that is more coherent than they are willing to admit.
Discussion:
Swampland
Marc Lynch:
How badly did Gaza poison the well? — The Israeli attack on Gaza during the last weeks of the Bush administration looks more than ever like Bush's “last gift” to Israel and to the region — carried out during the transition, with no American attempt to intervene, ending immediately before Obama's inauguration.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Anonymous Attack On GOP Chair Candidate Uses Fake Newspaper Cover — Uh oh — it looks like viral email dirty tricks (okay, parodies) are now entering into the race for Republican National Committee chair. — This image of a parodied USA Today cover is being anonymously blasted around among Republicans …
John H. Cochrane / University of Chicago GSB …:
Fiscal Stimulus, Fiscal Inflation, or Fiscal Fallacies? — “Fiscal stimulus” is the proposition that by borrowing money and spending it, the government can raise the overall state of the economy, raising output and lowering unemployment. Can it work? Do the arguments for it make any sense?
John Heilprin / Associated Press:
Obama Administration To Engage In “Direct Diplomacy” With Iran — UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama's administration will engage in “direct diplomacy” with Iran, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday. — Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution …
Associated Press:
Gov't worried about media interest in Obama's aunt — WASHINGTON (AP) - The Homeland Security Department still is requiring high-level approval before federal immigration agents can arrest fugitives, a rule quietly imposed by the Bush administration days before the election of Barack Obama …
USA Today:
Geithner confirmed by 60-34 vote — The Senate just confirmed Timothy Geithner to be the next Treasury secretary. — Update at 6:22 p.m. ET: The president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank — who came under criticism both for failing to pay some payroll taxes in past years and for being among …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Feingold Introduces 28th Amendment — I hope you'll excuse the hubristic headline. Constitutional amendments are introduced all the time in the Congress. Most of them are used to make a political point of one kind or another and stand little chance of becoming law.
Discussion:
PoliBlog, Betsy's Page, Daily Kos, The Opinionator, Outside The Beltway and Washington Post
Jack Healy / New York Times:
62,000 Jobs Are Cut by U.S. and Foreign Companies — Employers have tried to nip and tuck their labor costs by reducing overtime, shortening the workweek and freezing wages, but now, they are reaching for the saw. — On Monday alone, companies across the employment spectrum announced …
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Why aren't there better surrogates coming from President Obama's administration to discuss the stimulus plan? — Fortunately Paul Krugman has been getting on the air to beat back nonsensical discussions and bogus claims being made about President Obama's big stimulus package from the likes of the Sam Donaldsons.
Discussion:
Firedoglake
John / Power Line:
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JIMMY CARTER — Jimmy Carter was on the Today show this morning, where he was interviewed by Meredith Viera. Carter's exposition of events in the Middle East consisted mostly of an endorsement of Hamas. It almost has to be read to be believed: