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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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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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 …
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, USA Today, American Power, Associated Press, The Note, Below The Beltway and CNN
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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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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:
Think Progress, Swampland, CBS News, TPMCafe, Israel Matzav, YID With LID, Don Surber, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Strata-Sphere, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Commentary
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 …
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TalkLeft
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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Noam N. Levey / Chicago Tribune:
Obama administration may rescind ‘conscience rule’ — Officials say the move seeks to clarify rules for health care workers — WASHINGTON — Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows health-care workers …
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
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Climate Science in A Tornado — Few phenomena generate as much heat as disputes about current orthodoxies concerning global warming. This column recently reported and commented on some developments pertinent to the debate about whether global warming is occurring and what can and should be done.
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.
Dan Balz / Washington Post:
Ambitious Blueprint a Big Risk The President Is Willing to Take — President Obama's first budget — with its eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit, a health-care fund of more than $600 billion, a $150 billion energy package and proposals to tax wealthy Americans even beyond what he talked …
Meg Marco / Consumerist:
The “Worst Food Product Ever” May Have Been Found — Pork Brains In Milk Gravy. Could it be the worst food product ever? It does have 1170% of your daily cholesterol per serving. Mmmm. More »