Top Items:
Washington Post:
Anger Over Firm Depletes Obama's Political Capital — President Obama's apparent inability to block executive bonuses at insurance giant AIG has dealt a sharp blow to his young administration and is threatening to derail both public and congressional support for his ambitious political agenda.
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Martin Kady II / The Politico:
Grassley on AIG execs: Quit or suicide — Sen. Charles Grassley is so angry over AIG bonuses that he says the executives should resign or kill themselves. — In a comment aired this afternoon on WMT, an Iowa radio station, Grassley (R-Iowa) said: “The first thing that would make me feel …
Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:
The Case for Paying Out Bonuses at A.I.G. — Do we really have to foot the bill for those bonuses at the American International Group? — It sure does sting. A staggering $165 million — for employees of a company that nearly took down the financial system. And heck, we, the taxpayers, own nearly 80 percent of A.I.G.
Washington Post:
Rage at AIG Swells As Bonuses Go Out — Fed Decided Payouts Couldn't Be Stopped — A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products …
Discussion:
CNBC, TalkLeft, Brilliant at Breakfast, Riehl World View, MoJo Blog Posts and Viking Pundit
Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Pursues Pay Loopholes — Compensation Caps Drive Some Firms to Weigh Options; Higher Salaries? — Some Wall Street firms are looking for ways to sidestep tough new federal caps on compensation. — In response to expected bonus restrictions, officials at Citigroup Inc. …
New York Times:
Obama in Effort to Undo Bonuses at A.I.G. — WASHINGTON — President Obama and his top economic advisers scrambled to calm a nationwide furor on Monday over bonuses paid at the American International Group, even as administration officials acknowledged they had known about the issue for months.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Talking Points Memo, Clusterstock, MoJo Blog Posts, DealBook, MyDD and Think Progress
Wall Street Journal:
Political Heat Sears AIG — Obama Targets Bonuses; Treasury Says $30 Billion in Pending Aid Is at Stake — President Barack Obama said Monday that he would “pursue every single legal avenue to block” $165 million in bonuses to American International Group Inc. employees who were in part responsible …
lauraingraham.com:
“USEFUL IDIOT” WATCH... Memo to Meghan McCain: Enjoy the media coverage while it lasts, but know you're being used. You are the flavor of the month in left-wing media land because you are a Republican bashing the GOP. Likewise, your dad is most popular among the same people when he is slamming …
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Scott Wilson / Washington Post:
Obama Team Derides Cheney's Criticisms — The Obama administration responded sharply yesterday to former vice president Richard B. Cheney's comments in a weekend interview that the new president “is making some choices that, in my mind, will in fact raise the risk to the American people” of another terrorist attack.
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TPMCafe
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Huma Khan / Political Punch:
Two Weeks Ago: White House Says It's Confident It Knows What Happened to Previous AIG Billions — From White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' briefing two weeks ago, when $30 billion in additional funds were announced for AIG. AIG had at this point designated $165 million in retention bonuses …
Discussion:
Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, The Sundries Shack, The Corner, Commentary and Sister Toldjah
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AMERICAN DIGEST:
Buh-Bye to the P. I.: Couldn't happen to a more liberal paper. Check that. It can and it will. — Ah, the ironies of web-only news. My email alert for local news informs me of the death of the dead-tree Post-Intelligencer with this headline: The 146-year-old Seattle Post-Ingelligencer …
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Zachary Coile / San Francisco Chronicle:
Pelosi goes to bat to keep Bay Area papers alive — (03-16) 17:38 PDT Washington - — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, worried about the fate of The Chronicle and other financially struggling newspapers, urged the Justice Department Monday to consider giving Bay Area papers more leeway …
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Moderate Is Said to Be Pick for Court — WASHINGTON — President Obama is expected to name his first candidate to an appeals court seat this week, officials said, choosing David F. Hamilton, a highly regarded federal trial court judge from Indiana, for the appeals court in Chicago.
U.S. Newswire:
The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President's Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — Contact: Craig Roberts of The American Legion, +1-202-263-2982 Office, +1-202-406-0887 Cell — The leader of the nation's …
Christopher Beam / Slate:
Ron Paul's insane cameo in the upcoming Bruno movie. — Note: This article contains spoilers about Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming movie, Bruno. — Presidential candidates will do almost anything for publicity. But Ron Paul's appearance in Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming Bruno movie suggests …
Louise Story / New York Times:
Goldman Offers Loans to Stretched Employees — Goldman Sachs got its bailout. Now some of its bankers, those aristocrats of Wall Street, apparently need a bit of a bailout too. — Goldman, which accepted billions of taxpayer dollars last fall and, as learned Sunday …
Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Both Hands:
Fear of Reese Witherspoon Look-Alikes on the Pill — I was once approving of Ross Douthat as a New York Times oped columnist. But that was when I was younger. And easily misled. — From Ross Douthat, Privilege, bottom of p. 184: … What squicks me out is (a) that the real turnoff …
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Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Don't Blame Jim Cramer — What Jon Stewart needs is Jon Stewart. He could use a droll comedian to temper his ferocity and correct him when he's wrong, as he was about the financial media, particularly CNBC and its excitable analyst Jim Cramer. They didn't cover up the story of financial shenanigans.
Manu Raju / The Politico:
GOP eyes Bush v. Gore to save Coleman seat — A state court could rule any day now on Norm Coleman's challenge to Al Franken's 225-vote lead in Minnesota, but the race may be far from over no matter what the judges say. — Top Republicans are encouraging Coleman to be as litigious as possible …
Discussion:
TIME.com
WISN Milwaukee's Channel 12:
UW-Milwaukee Study Could Realign Climate Change Theory — Scientists Claim Earth Is Undergoing Natural Climate Shift — MILWAUKEE — The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing.