Top Items:
New York Times:
Obama Unveils $75 Billion Plan to Fight Home Foreclosures — MESA, Ariz. — President Obama pledged on Wednesday to help as many as 9 million American homeowners refinance their mortgages or avert foreclosure, an initiative he said would shore up distressed housing prices …
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The White House:
Help for homeowners — The President's strategy for economic recovery is a stool with several legs, as he's said, and one of them is solving the foreclosure crisis. — “We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans, and do everything …
Lisa Demer / Anchorage Daily News:
Palin must pay tax on past per diem, state says — EXPENSES: Governor received meal money while living in Wasilla. — ldemer@adn.com — Gov. Sarah Palin must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at her Wasilla home, under a new determination by state officials.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Reaction, Wonkette, Washington Post, Gawker, Political Machine and The Raw Story
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Michael Leahy / Washington Post:
Back Home in Alaska, Palin Faces Scrutiny and Second-Guessing From All Sides — Scrutiny Has Been Intense Since Election — JUNEAU, Alaska — A couple of weeks before the Alaska legislature began this year's session, a bipartisan group of state senators on a retreat a few hours from here invited Gov. Sarah Palin to join them.
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
The White House's missing documents — In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor's system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D'Ivoire.
Discussion:
The Swamp, protein wisdom, Townhall.com, Hot Air, Warner_Todd_Huston's blog, Ben Smith's Blogs, Outside The Beltway and Reuters
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Bob Beckel / Fox News:
White House: Obama Opposes ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Revival — A White House spokesman tells FOXNews.com President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine. — FOXNews.com — President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday.
Newsdesk / Clout St:
Roland Burris: ‘Stop the rush to judgment’ — In a fiesty speech today in Chicago, U.S. Sen. Roland Burris defended himself against growing questions and multiple probes about the circumstances surrounding his appointment by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. — “If I had done the things I've …
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Washington Post:
Buy-Buy, Mr. Burris — WHEN THEN-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested in December for, among other things, allegedly trying to auction off the U.S. Senate seat left open by Barack Obama's election to the presidency, we feared that whomever Mr. Blagojevich eventually chose would be tainted by the association.
The Huffington Post:
New York Post Chimp Cartoon Compares Stimulus Author To Dead Primate — A cartoon likening the author of the stimulus bill, perhaps President Barack Obama, with a rabid chimpanzee graced the pages of the New York Post on Wednesday. — The drawing, from famed cartoonist Sean Delonas …
Discussion:
Gawker, Boston Globe, Think Progress, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Stephen C. Rose, The Politico, No More Mister Nice Blog, TMZ.com, JammieWearingFool and Wonkette
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Matt Corley / Think Progress:
George McGovern To Be Honored At CPAC For ‘Courage Under Fire’ — In August 2008, former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern published an op-ed on the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal attacking the Employee Free Choice Act.
Discussion:
Center for American …
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Conservatives to Honor Liberal Icon George McGovern
Conservatives to Honor Liberal Icon George McGovern
Discussion:
Think Progress
Del Quentin Wilber / Washington Post:
Court Reverses Ruling Bringing 17 Detainees to U.S. — A federal appeals court this morning blocked the transfer to the United States of a small band of Chinese Muslims held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. — In a decision released this morning, the three-judge panel …
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Mark Murray / MSNBC:
HOLDER TALKS ABOUT RACE IN U.S. — From NBC's Mike Kosnar — At a Department of Justice program this morning celebrating African American History Month, the nation's first black attorney general — Eric Holder — said the United States is a “nation of cowards” when it comes to racial issues.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
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Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Pope lectures Pelosi on abortion stance — Pope Benedict XVI made clear to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday that she cannot advocate for abortion rights and still be a good Catholic. — After meeting with Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the Vatican, the pontiff stressed that Catholic politicians …
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Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Charlie Savage's Alarm — The NYT reporter who, at the Boston Globe, helped expose the worst abuses of executive power under Bush-Cheney, writes a piece today that reminds all of us that vigilance is vital if we are to maximize civil liberty with potent measures to counter the terrorist threat.
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Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Jindal Signals Louisiana May Not Take Stimulus Money — Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, has suggested his state may not be interested in all of the roughly $4 billion allotted to it in the economic stimulus package to be signed by President Obama today.
Discussion:
WWL-TV, Michelle Malkin, Think Progress, Facing South, Newshoggers.com, The Huffington Post and MoJo Blog Posts
Pew Research Center:
Obama Faces Familiar Divisions Over Anti-Terror Policies — No Change in Views of Torture, Warrantless Wiretaps — President Obama receives positive ratings for his handling of terrorism and most Americans say his administration's policies will reduce the likelihood of another major attack on the United States.
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
KNOWLEDGE MAY BE POWER, BUT INFORMATION IS PROFIT. — Doc-blogger Kevin Pho — no liberal, and no fan of government action — writes in defense of federally-funded comparative effectiveness research. “Physicians need an authoritative source of unbiased data, untainted by the influence …
Michael Calderone / The Politico:
Dem exclusive? Reporters jump ship — In three months since Election Day, at least a half-dozen prominent journalists have taken jobs working for the federal government. — Journalists, including some of those who've jumped ship, say it's better to have a solid job in government than a shaky job …
ABCNEWS:
Manhunt: Accused Financier Scammer Stanford Missing — Authorities say Investor Losses Could Rival Madoff Scandal — Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is accused of cheating 50,000 customers out of $8 billion dollars but despite raids Tuesday of his financial empire in Houston, Memphis …
Thomas H. Maugh II / Los Angeles Times:
Major cache of fossils unearthed in L.A. — Volunteer Judy Scharf, left, assistant lab supervisor Trevor Valle and volunteers Pat Simun and Linda Wright carefully brush away dirt surrounding the pelvis of a mammoth at the Page Museum in Rancho La Brea. The mammoth, which museum researchers …
Discussion:
D-Day
Wyatt Buchanan / San Francisco Chronicle:
GOP ousts Senate leader, budget deal in question — (02-18) 02:28 PST Sacramento — A state budget deal to close a $41 billion shortfall has been put further into question early this morning after Senate Republicans ousted their leader who had helped negotiate the long-awaited plan with other top lawmakers in California.
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Patrick Fitzgerald, 50 others, still serving — With all the controversy surrounding the Bush administration's firings of several U.S. attorneys, the question for the Obama administration became: What now? — And with all the muck that the hard-charging Chicago-based U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Paul Krugman:
Comrade Greenspan: Seize the economy's commanding heights! — Here. Truly, it's amazing how compelling the logic of temporary nationalization is. How long will it be before the Obama administration is ready to take the plunge? — The WaPo reports that Tim Geithner realized late …
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings
Wall Street Journal:
There's Virtue In Geithner's Vague Bank Plan — At least he doesn't want to guarantee more bad debt. — On Jan. 27, Bank of America sold a whopping $6 billion of three-year notes at a yield of 2.2% — a good 3.5% less than what its other bonds of similar maturity were trading for.
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama approval over 50 — Obama Approval in North Carolina: — Approve 52 — Disapprove 41 — Barack Obama has the highest approval PPP has ever found for the President in North Carolina. Of course that may have something to do with the fact that we were formed during the Bush administration...