Top Items:
Think Progress:
John Bolton jokes about nuking Chicago, entire CPAC audience erupts in laughter. — This morning, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He tried to up the fear quotient in the room by raising the prospect of an Iranian-sent nuclear attack on an American city.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, 1115.org, Wonk Room and TigerHawk
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Jonathan Stein / MoJo Blog Posts:
John Bolton at CPAC: The Benefits of Nuking Chicago — Former UN Ambassador John Bolton believes the security of the United States is at dire risk under the Obama administration. And before a gathering of conservatives in Washington on Thursday morning, he suggested, as something of a joke …
CNN:
Steele to CPAC: The Republican party is just fine — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Capping off a day of conservative soul-searching, strategizing and navel-gazing at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele announced Thursday …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Pelosi butts heads with Obama — Nancy Pelosi repeatedly stood to applaud Barack Obama when he addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. But in the days since, the speaker of the House has been standing up for herself —distancing herself from the president on Iraq …
Discussion:
Stop The ACLU, The Strata-Sphere, The Plum Line, Washington Post, TIME.com, The Note, RedState, Salon and The Gun Toting Liberal
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J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:
Reid joins Pelosi in opposing weapons ban revival — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will join Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in opposing any effort to revive the 1994 assault weapons ban, putting them on the opposite side of the Obama administration. — Reid spokesman Jim Manley …
Discussion:
QandO
Jeanne Cummings / The Politico:
Class warfare returns to Washington — President Barack Obama has spent months recasting Democratic goals on climate change and health care reform from liberal-leaning moral imperatives to hard-core economic necessities. — But when it comes to paying for them, Obama's creative juices seemed …
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas — The budget that President Obama proposed on Thursday is nothing less than an attempt to end a three-decade era of economic policy dominated by the ideas of Ronald Reagan and his supporters. — The Obama budget — a bold, even radical departure from recent history …
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Climate of Change — Elections have consequences. President Obama's new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course.
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Iraq Withdrawal Plan Gains G.O.P. Support — WASHINGTON — President Obama won crucial backing on Thursday for his Iraq military withdrawal plan from leading Congressional Republicans, including Senator John McCain, the party's presidential nominee, who spent much of last year debating the war with Mr. Obama.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Note, USA Today, Associated Press, Below The Beltway, TIME.com and Capitol Briefing
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WCBS-TV:
Jewish Leaders Blast Clinton Over Israel Criticism — Zuckerman, Lawmakers, Local Jews Say Secretary Of State Not The Hillary Clinton They Used To Know — Hillary Pressuring Israel To Speed Up Aid To Gaza — NEW YORK (CBS) ― In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator …
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, CBS News, Don Surber, YID With LID, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Strata-Sphere and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Rasmussen Reports:
59% Still Believe Government Is the Problem — In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that …
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Financial Times:
Insight: Time to expose those CDOs — Just how much should a debt vehicle backed by subprime mortgage bonds be worth these days? Two years ago, most banks and insurance companies assumed the answer was close to 100 per cent of face value - or more. — Since then, however, that “price” …
Zombie / zomblog:
San Francisco welcomes William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn — Former Weather Underground leaders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn made an appearance at San Francisco's Modern Times Bookstore on February 21 to promote their new book Race Course Against White Supremacy.
Discussion:
American Power
Joby Warrick / Washington Post:
Senate Panel to Examine CIA Detainee Handling — The Senate intelligence committee is planning an unprecedented review of the CIA's handling of captured terrorist suspects, drawing back the curtain for the first time on the agency's use of waterboarding and other interrogation tactics inside …
Megan McArdle:
Obama's big-bath accounting — Analysts have long recognized the tendency of companies who are forced to report bad news to make the news worse than they have to, piling every single thing that might goi wrong into one hell of a charge-off. The logic of this is simple …
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Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
National Security Structure Is Set — President Obama's first presidential directive, outlining the organization of his national security structure, adds the attorney general, the secretaries of energy and homeland security, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to the formal National Security Council.
New York Times:
U.S. Will Give Qaeda Suspect a Civilian Trial — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department, in an abrupt change in policy from the Bush administration, is preparing to bring terrorism-related charges against a man identified as an operative of Al Qaeda who has been held in a military brig …
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Michael Klare / Salon:
We're on the brink of disaster — Violent protests and riots are breaking out everywhere as economies collapse and governments fail. War is bound to follow. — Editor's note: This article has also appeared on TomDispatch.com. — A destroyed street market burns in the aftermath of riots …
Leslie Wayne / New York Times:
$25 Billion to Promote Electric Cars Is Untouched — WASHINGTON — The future of the American auto industry is getting off to a slow start. — The Energy Department has $25 billion to make loans to hasten the arrival of the next generation of automotive technology — electric-powered cars.
Discussion:
Green Sheet
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Newsday plans to charge for online news — * Cablevision plans to charge for Newsday website — * Writes down Newsday value by $402 mln — Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) plans to charge online readers of its Newsday newspaper, a move that would make it one of the first large U.S. papers …
Larry Margasak / Associated Press:
Firms defraud government but get new US contracts — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Companies that defrauded the United States and jeopardized American lives received new government work despite rulings designed to stop them from receiving federal contracts, government investigators report.