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.
Discussion:
Jules Crittenden, The Atlantic Politics Channel, MSNBC, The Note, Boston Globe, Wake up America, The Fix, Time, Right Wing News, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, TIME.com, Outside The Beltway, Right Wing Nut House, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Politico, The Strata-Sphere, PostPartisan and marbury
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Nigel Duara / Associated Press:
Senator suggests AIG execs should kill themselves — IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.
Rich Edson / FOXBusiness.com:
Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections He Put In — Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG) bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit.
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
Clusterstock
Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Pursues Pay Loopholes
Wall Street Pursues Pay Loopholes
Discussion:
Associated Press, Think Progress, Bloomberg, The Washington Independent, naked capitalism and Obsidian Wings
Martin Kady II / The Politico:
Grassley on AIG execs: Quit or suicide
Grassley on AIG execs: Quit or suicide
Discussion:
The Swamp, Townhall.com, Political Machine, Open Left, Althouse, TIME.com, Cafe Hayek, Fausta's Blog and Fox News
Michael Calderone / The Politico:
JournoList: Inside the echo chamber — For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList. — Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?
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.
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Byron York / www.dcexaminer.com:
Why tax problems have plagued Team Obama — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner speaks at the Treasury Department in Washington, detailing the Obama Administrations plans for the economic recovery. It's been a recurring question about the young Obama administration: Why have so many of its nominees come down with tax problems?
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Cyra Master / The Atlantic Business Channel:
Members Looking For Relief For Madoff Fraud Victims — Senate Finance Committee members will be looking for answers today from IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman as to whether investors defrauded by financier Bernard Madoff and other Ponzi schemes will be entitled to tax relief.
Discussion:
The Corner
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Majority Receptive to Law Making Union Organizing Easier — But most Americans not closely following news about union bill in Congress — PRINCETON, NJ — A new Gallup Poll finds just over half of Americans, 53%, favoring a new law that would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers; 39% oppose it.
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.
Jeffrey Goldberg:
The Lieberman Disaster — Not this Lieberman, this Lieberman. It's not a disaster for the reasons some people think; I know Avigdor Lieberman a little bit, and he's actually a person interested in a cold compromise with the Palestinians. It's a disaster because he's made himself into a racist.
Eli Lake / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Israel's national security aide barred from U.S. — Former Israeli spy linked to Pentagon leak — Uzi Arad, who is expected to serve as national security adviser in the next Israeli government, has been barred from entering the United States for nearly two years on the grounds that he is an intelligence risk.
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Commercial Republic — Over the centuries, the United States has been most conspicuous for one trait: manic energy. Americans work longer hours than any other people. We switch jobs more frequently, move more often, earn more and consume more. — This energy was first aroused by abundance …
Jim Lindgren / The Volokh Conspiracy:
Illinois's special shame continues: Governor Confuses Democracy with Socialism. Pat Quinn, our new governor - who seems to be a decent enough guy though of modest talents - on Monday seems to have confused one of Karl Marx's and Joseph Stalin's most famous slogans with a democratic principle.
Discussion:
MSNBC
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 …
Anchorage Daily News:
GOP says Palin will star at dinner; she says she hasn't yet agreed — OR MAYBE NOT: She didn't know about keynoting, aide says. — Gov. Sarah Palin's spokesman said Monday that congressional Republicans were mistaken in announcing the governor would headline one of the biggest Republican gatherings …
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, CBS News, Taegan Goddard's …, Scorecard's Blog, Conservatives4Palin.com, The Politico, Salon and Associated Press
Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
A Hand in the Health Care Debate — The last thing the surgeon said to me before they rolled me into the operating room was, “You know, if you and Obama had your way with health care, it wouldn't be me doing this operation. It would just be some guy.” — I tried to tell him …
Bryan Bender / Boston Globe:
Gates readies big cuts in weapons — Battle looms with Congress — Aides said Defense Secretary Robert Gates's decisions will be guided by what he learns while spending time with troops. — WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration was drawing to a close, Robert M. Gates …
Discussion:
Donklephant
Financial Times:
Mexico to impose sanctions on US exports — ByAlan Beattie in Washington and Adam Thomson in Mexico City — A long-simmering trade dispute boiled over into sanctions on Monday after Mexico said it would raise tariffs on $2.4bn of US exports in retaliation for ending a pilot programme to allow Mexican trucks on American roads.
Discussion:
The Foundry