Top Items:
Erik Schatzker / Bloomberg:
Citigroup Said to Commit $10 Million for New Executive Suite — Citigroup Inc. plans to spend about $10 million on new offices for Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit and his lieutenants, after the U.S. government injected $45 billion of cash into the bank.
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David Stout / New York Times:
House Passes Heavy Tax on Bonuses at Rescued Firms — WASHINGTON — Spurred on by a tidal wave of public anger over bonuses paid to executives of the foundering American International Group, the House voted 328 to 93 on Thursday to get back most of the money by levying a 90 percent tax on it.
Stephen Ohlemacher / Associated Press:
House passes bill taxing AIG and other bonuses — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Acting swiftly, the Democratic-led House approved a bill Thursday to slap punishing taxes on big employee bonuses at firms bailed out by taxpayers.
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
No New Taxes — I deplore this confiscatory tax aimed at whoever Congress is mad at today. Right now it's AIG and Fannie Mae; later it will be Merrill and Citibank, and eventually it will be defense contractors, profiteering oil executives, or whomever the Congressional Dems single out as their whipping boy du jour.
Manu Raju / The Politico:GOP wary of plan to tax AIG bonuses
Discussion:
Think Progress, Right Wing News, DownWithTyranny!, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly, MSNBC, The Swamp, TPMDC and American Power
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Who Doesn't Love The JournoList? — How great is the JournoList, that off-the-record electronic salon where liberal journalists and policy gurus can exchange views, and which is emphatically *not* an echo chamber? — Let's see - Matt Yglesias of JL on the AIG furor - it's a distraction:
Brady Dennis / Washington Post:
Inside AIG-FP, Feeling the Public's Wrath — A solitary flat-screen television hangs on the back wall of the trading floor inside the headquarters of AIG Financial Products here. Wednesday afternoon, the most-talked-about employees in America huddled around it to find out just how despised they have become.
Fox News:
Duke Coach to Obama: Worry About the Economy, Not NCAA Picks — Reacting to news Obama picked North Carolina to win the NCAA Championship, Mike Krzyzewski says, “the economy is something that [the president] should focus on, probably more than the brackets.”
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, NO QUARTER, TIME.com, TBogg, Political Machine, FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog and Wizbang
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Amos Harel / Haaretz:
IDF in Gaza: Killing civilians, vandalism, and lax rules of engagement — During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.
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Tim Walker / Telegraph:
Gordon Brown is frustrated by ‘Psycho’ in No 10 — While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies - including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins on his recent visit to Washington. — Alas, when the PM settled …
Stephen Ohlemacher / Associated Press:
13 firms receiving federal bailout owe back taxes — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - At least 13 firms receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe a total of more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes, a key lawmaker said Thursday.
Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
Obama, Schwarzenegger hug it out — LOS ANGELES - It was a Hollywood moment, even if it was fleeting. — The celebrity president and the celebrity governor appeared together on stage. — Sure, it was only for a minute. But the cameras never stopped clicking and the crowd never stopped cheering.
Discussion:
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Michelle Malkin:
Audio comedy gold: Bozo the Vice President is looking out for you — The gaffetastic gift that keeps on giving. — In trying times, we can always count on Bozo the Vice President to provide some welcome comic relief. Joe Biden was The Newshour on PBS last night in full swagger …
Jared Allen / The Hill:
Pelosi: House Dems blameless in AIG scandal — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) kicked blame for the insertion of a provision allowing for AIG bonuses to go forward to the White House and the Senate on Thursday morning, saying House Democrats bore no responsibility for the bonus language at the center of the AIG storm.
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Associated Press:
Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga — Eruption in South Pacific not presently a threat to islanders, authorities say — NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga - Scientists sailed Thursday to inspect an undersea volcano that has been erupting for days near Tonga — shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet …
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Gail Collins / New York Times:
The Grievance Committee — Angry. So very, very angry. Unable to speak due to mega-anger washing over every pore and fiber of my being. Anger is in. (Hope's so ... January.) — I am extremely angry at Tim Geithner for being such a baby that he couldn't scare a bunch …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Commentary, Outside The Beltway, Hullabaloo, Booman Tribune and Wall Street Journal
Eddie / Sky News:
Julia Alasheyeva, Moscow — A picture has emerged apparently showing Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in his former days as a KGB officer. — The 20-year old photo depicts two world leaders - US President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - in Moscow.
Laura Rozen / The Cable:
Top brass disturbed by GOP stalling of Iraq ambassador — There's one as yet unremarked constituency increasingly disturbed by some Republican senators' efforts to block the confirmation of former North Korea envoy Christopher Hill to be the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq: the U.S. military.
Discussion:
Think Progress, democracyarsenal.org, The New Republic, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly and Weekly Standard
Jimmy Orr / Christian Science Monitor:
Obama: It's like AIG has a bomb strapped to them — E-mail a friend - Print this - Letter to the Editor - Republish - - Get e-mail alerts - RSS — Maybe Iowa Senator Charles Grassley and President Obama have more in common than they think. — At least there are similarities when they discuss AIG.
Elizabeth A. Kennedy / Associated Press:
Bin Laden exhorts Somali militants in Web message — NAIROBI, Kenya - Osama bin Laden urged Somalis on Thursday to overthrow their new president, issuing a statement that clearly outlines al-Qaida's ambitions in a nation long feared to be a haven for the terrorist network.
James K. Galbraith / Associated Press:
No Return to Normal — Why the economic crisis, and its solution, — are bigger than you think. — B arack Obama's presidency began in hope and goodwill, but its test will be its success or failure on the economics. Did the president and his team correctly diagnose the problem?
Hollywoodreporter / The Live Feed:
Networks reluctantly shuffle for Obama speech — Networks are pulling their shows over to the side of the road to make room for the lights and sirens of president Barack Obama's latest primetime address. — Obama will take to the air next Tuesday evening on four broadcast networks and bump …
Times of London:
Iranian blogger who insulted leader ‘dies in jail’ — A young Iranian blogger jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for insulting the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has died, his lawyer said today. — Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said that although there is not yet …
Fox News:
Haggard, Wife to Appear on ‘Divorce Court’ Show — COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard and his wife are planning another TV appearance, this time to talk about their marriage. — The two are in Los Angeles taping an appearance on the syndicated Twentieth Television show …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
Lindsey Ellerson / The Note:
Norquist Opposes AIG Tax, But Says It Doesn't Break Tax Pledge — ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports from Capitol Hill: While everyone seems to be outraged about the $165 million in bonuses awarded to AIG executives at the troubled financial products division, the plan by Democrats in the House …
Timothy J. Burger / Bloomberg:
California Congressman Calls Maryland Home to Gain Tax Credit — A senior member of the U.S. House's tax-writing Ways and Means Committee from California has been taking advantage of a tax break for a home in Maryland that he claims as his principal residence.
Forbes:
The United States Of Ponzi — Behold the Madoff in the mirror. — A reporter contacted me recently with the following question: — “I am a reporter, and I am doing a story on Bernard Madoff's life after pleading guilty. As part of this, I was wondering if you could comment …
Erik Eckholm / New York Times:
'07 U.S. Births Break Baby Boom Record — More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than in any other year in American history, according to preliminary data reported Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics. — The 4,317,000 births in 2007 just edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom.
Discussion:
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