Top Items:
Newsdesk / Clout St:
Burris open to ethics probes, will cooperate with perjury review — 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 out to a Sangamon County prosecutor who is reviewing Burris' sworn testimony before Illinois lawmakers.
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, The Capitol Fax Blog, Chicago Sun Times, The Politico, The Gun Toting Liberal, Washington Wire, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, PoliticalBase.com Blog, PoliGazette, CBS News, MyDD, The Swamp, The Raw Story, Hot Air, Sunlight Foundation, Commentary, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Think Progress, The Aristocrats and Moe Lane
RELATED:
Newsdesk / Vox Pop:
Roland Burris, resign — The benefit of the doubt had already been stretched thin and taut by the time Roland Burris offered his third version of the events leading to his appointment to the U.S. Senate. It finally snapped like a rubber band, popping him on that long Pinocchio nose of his, when he came out with version four.
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 …
Discussion:
Reuters
Michelle Malkin:
“Yes, we care!” Porkulus protesters holler back Updated — Scroll for updates...more vid and pic links below... Hundreds of taxpayers took time out of their busy day to protest President Obama's “stimulus” bill-signing in Denver today. Jim Pfaff of Colorado Americans for Prosperity …
RELATED:
Looking at the Left:
Colorado Says No To Obama's Package of Pork — Today in Denver, hundreds of citizens gathered on the steps of the Colorado State Capital to let their disagreement with Obama's economic policies be known. — Last week President Obama stated that “economists from across the political spectrum agree” …
Michelle Malkin:
President Obama's 2,000-point tumble
President Obama's 2,000-point tumble
Discussion:
www.dcexaminer.com, Wizbang, PoliBlog, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, Associated Press, Liberal Values and GayPatriot
Financial Times:
Bank nationalisation gains ground with Republicans — Long regarded in the US as a folly of Europeans, nationalisation is gaining rapid acceptance among Washington opinion-formers - and not just with Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman. Perhaps stranger still …
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
GM to End Brands, Cut 47,000 More Jobs — Saturn, Hummer Could Be History by 2011 as GM Plans to Slash Dealers; Chrysler Mentions Bankruptcy Option for First Time — General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC on Tuesday told the federal government they need at least $21.6 billion more combined …
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:
RELATED:
David Rogers / The Politico:
Obama plots huge railroad expansion
Obama plots huge railroad expansion
Discussion:
The Politico, Reuters, Corrente, California High Speed …, Associated Press and Wall Street Journal
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 …
RELATED:
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.
RELATED:
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 …
RELATED:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CONGRESS GETS APPROVAL BOOST.... Republicans have spent quite a bit of time lately criticizing Congress. By now, the arguments are probably familiar: the Democratic leadership hasn't been “bipartisan” enough. They completed a stimulus package behind closed doors.
Discussion:
The Plum Line
RELATED:
Paul Krugman:
Apocalypse now — Everyone should be paying attention to the political/fiscal catastrophe now unfolding in California. Years of neglect, followed by economic disaster — and with all reasonable responses blocked by a fanatical, irrational minority. — This could be America next.
New York Post:
RAHM'S ‘RENT’ IS JUST THE TIP OF ETHICS ICEBERG — NEWS broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) - and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate.
RELATED:
CNN:
Bristol Palin: Abstinence for 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.” — “It's just, like, I'm not living for myself anymore.
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.
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.
BBC:
A new jihad? — Turkey witnesses some of the most passionate demonstrations in support of Gaza — At a weekend meeting in Istanbul, 200 religious scholars and clerics met with senior Hamas officials to plot a new jihad centred on Gaza. — The BBC's Bill Law was the only Western journalist at the meeting.
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.
Fernanda Santos / New York Times:
Effort Takes Shape to Support Families Facing Foreclosure — 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
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.
Megan McArdle:
For shame — Adam Serwer objects to shame as a method for managing peoples' behavior: … Serwer is right that shame makes a hard lot harder. But I don't think he is right about the value of shame. Without shame, what are you left with? It's accepting that you have no way to regulate …
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.
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
Chicago Breaking News:
Willow Creek Chicago pastor resigns, admits to ‘sexual impurity’ — The pastor of Willow Creek Chicago — the city campus of the evangelical megachurch known as Willow Creek Community Church — has resigned and admitted to “sexual impurity,” according to a church spokesman.
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.
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.