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Newsdesk / Clout St:
Burris open to ethics probes, will cooperate with perjury review — Posted by Ray Long, Rick Pearson and John Chase at 3:58 p.m. — U.S. Sen. Roland Burris said today he is open to a Senate ethics investigation into how he got the Senate seat from ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and that he has reached …
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Washington Wire, CBS News, Patterico's Pontifications, Chicago Sun Times, The Swamp, The Capitol Fax Blog, The Politico, Hot Air, Think Progress, The Raw Story, PoliticalBase.com Blog, PoliGazette, MyDD, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Scorecard's Blogs, The Aristocrats, Commentary, Moe Lane, Sunlight Foundation and Washington Monthly
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Associated Press:
Burris tried to raise funds for Blagojevich — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - U.S. Sen. Roland Burris now acknowledges attempting to raise money for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich — an explosive twist in his ever-changing story on how he landed …
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Reuters
Newsdesk / Clout St:
Burris unscripted: More details about Blagojevich contacts
Burris unscripted: More details about Blagojevich contacts
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Lynn Sweet, The Capitol Fax Blog and Chicago Breaking News
Washington Post:
Late Change in Course Hobbled Rollout of Geithner's Bank Plan — Just days before Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was scheduled to lay out his much-anticipated plan to deal with the toxic assets imperiling the financial system, he and his team made a sudden about-face.
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Michelle Malkin:
President Obama's 2,000-point tumble — On Nov. 4, after Barack Obama clinched the White House, the market closed at 9,625.28. — In mid-morning trading today, the day President Obama signs his massive Generational Theft Act into law and a day before he unveils a massive new mortgage entitlement, the Dow dropped to to 7,606.53.
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Washington Monthly, Associated Press, PoliBlog, Balloon Juice, Wizbang, Liberal Values and GayPatriot
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Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Congress' Approval Rating Jumps to 31% — More positive ratings from Democrats largely responsible for increase — PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup's latest congressional job approval rating, from a Feb. 9-12 poll, shows a sharp 12 percentage-point increase from last month, rising from 19% to 31%.
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CONGRESS GETS APPROVAL BOOST.... Republicans have spent quite …
CONGRESS GETS APPROVAL BOOST.... Republicans have spent quite …
Discussion:
The Plum Line
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Accused fraudster gave big to Dems — The Texas financier accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday of “massive ongoing fraud” was a generous political donor who gave more heavily to Democrats. — Since 2000, R. Allen Stanford, the chief of the Stanford Financial Group in Houston …
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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
SEC Charges R. Allen Stanford, Stanford International Bank for Multi-Billion Dollar Investment Scheme — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — 2009-26 — Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Robert Allen Stanford and three of his companies …
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New York Times, Portfolio, Washington Post, TPMMuckraker, Consumerist, Talking Points Memo, The Swamp and Financial Times
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Politico's David Rogers Catches Republicans Lying About High-Speed Rail, Won't Call Them Liars — David Rogers has a piece in Politico that offers a nice summary of the recovery plan's actual high-speed rail provisions and the direct role of the White House in securing them:
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David Rogers / The Politico:
Obama plots huge railroad expansion
Obama plots huge railroad expansion
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The Huffington Post, Associated Press, Corrente, California High Speed …, Reuters and Wall Street Journal
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Obama to Send 17,000 More Troops to Afghanistan — WASHINGTON — President Obama will send an additional 17,000 American troops to Afghanistan this spring and summer in the first major military move of his presidency, White House officials said on Tuesday. — The increase would come on top …
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MSNBC:
Obama OKs 17,000 troops for Afghanistan — Additional Marines, Army soldiers expected to deploy in coming months — U.S. soldiers with the Army's 1-6 Field Artillery Unit test fire a Howitzer Monday at a base in Kala Gush, Afghanistan. — Thousands to be moved to Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal:
McCain's Vote Should Trouble Obama — By the president's own standard of bipartisanship, he has failed. — “John McCain Was Right.” — That's one headline we ought to see when President Barack Obama puts his name to the stimulus bill in Denver later today. But we won't.
Alexandra Gutierrez / American Prospect:
THIS BIKE IS NOT A PIPE BOMB. — Jeffrey Goldberg wasn't trying hard enough. Despite stuffing Hezbollah flags into his carry-ons and waving fake boarding passes under the noses of security employees, Goldberg was unable to get TSA sufficiently riled up. — His efforts were wasted.
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Roxana Tiron / The Hill:
Air Force chief to ask Gates for more F-22s — The Air Force chief of staff is going to make his case with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the coming weeks for more F-22 Raptor jets. — Gen. Norton Schwartz said that the Air Force is looking to buy more than the 183 radar-evading F-22s now ordered …
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The Swamp
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Chris Matthews / The Daily Beast:
Stop the Democratic Suicide — Blogs and Stories — If the Obama administration doesn't start to deal with the populist wave headed for Washington, Republicans will tap a reservoir of resentment that could destroy his presidency. — First they came for the bankers. Then they came for the CEOs.
CNN:
Bristol Palin: Abstinence for all teens ‘not realistic’ — (CNN) — In her first interview since giving birth, the teenage daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said having a child is not “glamorous,” and that telling young people to be abstinent is “not realistic at all.”
Anne Bayefsky / The Corner:
A Foreign Policy of Obsequiousness — Yesterday in Geneva, President Obama unveiled the new look of America's foreign policy — obsequiousness. It was Day One for his emissaries to the U.N. planning committee of the Durban II conference. This is the racist “anti-racism” bash to be held in Geneva in April.
US News:
Exclusive: Pat Robertson Says Obama ‘Showing Partisanship,’ Denounces Rush Limbaugh's ‘I Hope He Fails’ Remark — Interviewing Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson recently for a forthcoming piece on the possibility of a Fairness Doctrine revival, I threw in a couple questions about President Obama.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Politicking, by David Axelrod — The indispensable Hyde Park Herald just put large portions of its archive online, offering access to some rather wonky Obama columns from the 1990s and early 2000s, and — better reading — to David Axelrod's reporting and columns from his days as a young reporter.
CNN:
Ex-Border Patrol agents released early from prison — (CNN) — Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents — whose cases became flashpoints in the controversy over border security — were released early from prison Tuesday, one of their attorneys and a congressman said.
Discussion:
RIGHTWINGSPARKLE
Washington Post:
Good News for Fans of the Status Quo — President Obama, with his constant chatter about change and shaking things up and new ways of doing things, had rattled some traditionalists in this area — especially those lacking a proper level of cynicism. — But a review of the early demographic data …
Jim McElhatton / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Postmaster got $800,000 in pay, perks — Raise came amid calls for cuts in delivery — Postmaster General John E. Potter recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service may end mail delivery one day a week and freeze executive salaries.
Fernanda Santos / New York Times:
Resisting Home Evictions Becomes a Group Effort — As resistance to foreclosure evictions grows among homeowners, community leaders and some law enforcement officials, a broad civil disobedience campaign is starting in New York and other cities to support families who refuse orders to vacate their homes.
Discussion:
QandO
Edward L. Glaeser / Economix:
If You Got Money, It's Time to Spend Some — Edward L. Glaeser is an economics professor at Harvard. — In the last eight years, Americans have spent an extraordinary amount of money and borrowed a lot to make that spending possible. Total outstanding consumer credit was $1.7 trillion in 2000; the current figure is $2.6 trillion.
Wall Street Journal:
Geert Wilders Is a Test for Western Civilization — If Rushdie should be defended, why not the Dutch pol? — Twenty years ago, Andres Serrano put a plastic crucifix in a glass of urine, photographed it and called it art. Conservatives in particular weren't pleased: not with Mr. Serrano …
Jeff Bercovici / Portfolio:
Barbara Walters: Only the Morning Shows Will Last — “When I die and my obituary is written, it's going to say ‘She asked people what kind of a tree they wanted to be.’” — That's Barbara Walters, discussing “The Art of the Interview” this morning with 60 Minutes's Steve Kroft …
Discussion:
Gawker
Thomas M. Defrank / NY Daily News:
Cheney pushed Bush to grant Libby pardon — WASHINGTON - In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby - and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn't budge.
Howard Dean / The Huffington Post:
The Far Right's All Out Offensive Against Medical Research — Opponents of fixing our broken health care system are at it again, attempting to use their same old scare tactics and falsehoods to kill a common-sense health care provision is the economic recovery package.
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Signing Stimulus, Obama Doesn't Rule Out More — DENVER — President Obama has not ruled out a second stimulus package, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Tuesday, just before Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion recovery package into law with a statement that it would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”
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