Top Items:
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:
Washington Post, Stop The ACLU, The Strata-Sphere, The Plum Line, TIME.com, The Note, Snowflakes in Hell, Salon, The Gun Toting Liberal and The Hill
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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 …
J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:
Revival of gun debate puts Gillibrand in tough spot — Attorney General Eric Holder's push for the renewal of the assault -weapons ban has put Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) between a rock and a hard place. — Gillibrand, who faces a possible primary fight from Rep. Carolyn McCarthy …
Discussion:
New York Times
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:
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Political Machine, Pam's House Blend, The Washington Independent and The Politico
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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, At-Largely, No More Mister Nice Blog, Jules Crittenden, 1115.org, Wonk Room and TigerHawk
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.
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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 …
Eric Dash / New York Times:
U.S. Agrees to Raise Its Stake in Citigroup — In its most daring bid yet to stabilize Citigroup, one of the nation's largest and most troubled financial institutions, the Treasury Department announced on Friday that it would vastly increase its ownership of the struggling company.
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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:
CBS News, Washington Post, American Power, USA Today, Associated Press, The Note, Below The Beltway, Capitol Briefing and CNN
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Peter Baker / New York Times:
Obama Plans to End Combat Mission in Iraq by August 2010
Obama Plans to End Combat Mission in Iraq by August 2010
Discussion:
Washington Post, MSNBC, TalkLeft, Taegan Goddard's …, The Caucus, FP Passport and New York Times
CNBC:
Steep GDP Revision Puts Economic Loss at 6.2% — The U.S. economy contracted more sharply than initially estimated in the fourth quarter, government data showed on Friday, as exports plunged and consumers cut spending by the most in over 28 years amid a severe recession.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News
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Catherine Rampell / New York Times:
In Revision, G.D.P. Shrank at 6.2% Rate at the End of 2008 — The economy at the end of last year contracted at a far faster rate than initially estimated, a government report released Friday said. — The decline in the gross domestic product — a measure of a country's total output …
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” …
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Conservatives Confident Their Day Is Coming — Tucker Carlson closed out the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference to a chorus of boos. His crime: informing a crowd of youngish, frustrated conservatives that if they wanted to succeed, they had to copy The New York Times.
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:
Swampland, TPMCafe, CBS News, Israel Matzav, YID With LID, Don Surber, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Strata-Sphere, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Commentary
John / Power Line:
DUSTBOWL DAYS? — The Democrats are delirious at the idea that we've gone back to the future—a return to the 1930s. I'm not sure their joy is shared by many of those who actually lived through that era, but from the Dems' perspective the unprecedented transfer of wealth and power …
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Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
More entertaining Sen. Burris news, this time on son Burris II — Not an all-around awful day for Democratic Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois. — Just terrible this time. — As you may have heard, the legally-embattled junior Illinois senator replacement for Barack Obama …
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Newsdesk / Clout St:
Quinn: let's have special election if Burris won't resign within two weeks
Quinn: let's have special election if Burris won't resign within two weeks
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The Politico
National Journal Online:
Congressional Insiders Poll — Q: Do you expect that another economic stimulus plan will be necessary in the next year? — Democrats (31 votes) — Yes 65 percent No 29 percent Maybe (volunteered) 6 percent — Yes — “When you're talking …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Think Progress:
Exclusive: Joe the Plumber suggests some members of Congress should be shot. — On Wednesday, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that if he were in Congress, he would “probably be in jail” because he'd be charged with “slapping some member.” He added, “And that's not [bull] either.”
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