Top Items:
New York Times:
Daschle Knew of Tax Issues Over Car Use Last June — WASHINGTON — President Obama's choice for health secretary, Tom Daschle, was aware as early as last June that he might have to pay back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a private equity firm, but did not inform …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, TalkLeft, Althouse, Betsy's Page, The Strata-Sphere, Taegan Goddard's …, TIME.com, USA Today, Daily Kos and The Corner
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Greg Miller / Los Angeles Times:
Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool — The role of the CIA's controversial prisoner-transfer program may expand, intelligence experts say. — Reporting from Washington — The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Raw Story, Liberty Street, Moe_Lane's blog, theheretik.us, Macsmind, Daily Kos, Jules Crittenden and Pat Dollard
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Robert E. Lee, confused — Obama appears tonight at the Alfalfa Dinner, a gathering of Washington's elite with Confederate roots, a fact on which the president remarked, according to excerpts from his prepared remarks:
Bruce Schreiner / Associated Press:
Life after ice storm dire, getting worse in spots — MARION, Ky. - In some parts of rural Kentucky, they're getting water the old-fashioned way — with pails from a creek. There's not room for one more sleeping bag on the shelter floor. The creative are flushing their toilets with melted snow.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
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Paul Krugman:
Another temporary misunderstanding — Brad DeLong links to Megan McArdle saying something wrong about the effects of a temporary increase in government spending. But he fails to note that it's not just wrong, it's 180 degrees wrong: a temporary increase in government spending …
Times of London:
Two children should be limit, says green guru — COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government's green adviser has warned. — Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission …
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
SHLAES STRIKES AGAIN.... Over the summer, the Washington Post ran a piece from conservative writer Amity Shlaes, explaining that the national economy was fine, there was no recession, and that Phil Gramm was right to call us a “nation of whiners.” — Undeterred, in early December …
Tyler Cowen / New York Times:
Recession Can Change a Way of Life — AS job losses mount and bailout costs run into the trillions, the social costs of the economic downturn become clearer. The primary question, to be sure, is what can be done to shorten or alleviate these bad times. But there is also a broader set …
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Playbook - Presented by STARBUCKS - Newsweek's cover calls Afghanistan 'OBAMA'S VIETNAM' - BULLETIN: Adam Putnam leaving Congress — President Obama, at last night's closed-press Alfalfa Dinner, on the delay in getting a dog: ‘The labradoodle we picked has some problems with back taxes.’
Discussion:
Think Progress
Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
Local Police Want Right to Jam Wireless Signals — As President Obama's motorcade rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day, federal authorities deployed a closely held law enforcement tool: equipment that can jam cellphones and other wireless devices to foil remote-controlled bombs, sources said.
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog
New York Times:
The Nativists Are Restless — The relentlessly harsh Republican campaign against immigrants has always hidden a streak of racialist extremism. Now after several high-water years, the Republican tide has gone out, leaving exposed the nativism of fringe right-wingers clinging to what they hope will be a wedge issue.
Charles Mahtesian / The Politico:
Obama remakes political rules — Three months after his election, President Barack Obama continues to remake the political landscape—and there's no clearer example than Friday's election of Michael Steele as the Republican National Committee's first black chairman.