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CNN:
Geithner: I should have known about bonus problems — (CNN) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner confirmed Thursday that the department did talk to Sen. Chris Dodd about a clause he put forth in the stimulus legislation that would have strictly limited executive bonuses.
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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.
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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.
Tom Bevan / Real Clear Politics:
Dodd's Deep Doo-Doo — So Chris Dodd admitted he misled CNN, telling them on Tuesday he had nothing to do with the loophole that mysteriously found its way into legislation and paved the way for AIG's bonuses to be paid. The following day, Dodd confessed to CNN's Dana Bash that he in fact wrote …
Michelle Malkin:
Putting on a great show: Kabuki in the House; Update: 328-93 …
Putting on a great show: Kabuki in the House; Update: 328-93 …
Discussion:
FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
Alaska_Politics / Anchorage Daily News:
Palin rejecting federal stimulus money — From Sean Cockerham in Juneau - — Gov. Sarah Palin just told reporters that she's accepting only 55 percent of the federal economic stimulus money being offered to Alaska. The governor said that she will accept only about $514 million of the $930 million headed to the state.
Discussion:
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Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
AUDIO: Arnold on Obama: ‘Beautiful’ — LOS ANGELES - “When have you ever seen a president be that out there?” — That was a mesmerized Arnold Schwarzenegger after Obama's town hall meeting. — “I've never seen that,” Schwarzenegger said to a couple reporters as he and his wife, Maria Shriver, tried to make an exit.
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CBS News
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Michelle Malkin:
The Arnie-Barry lovefest — Well, how d'ya like that rebranded GOP now? The Taxinator, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, welcomed Barack Obama to southern California with open arms this afternoon — praising his courage and extolling the porkulus package.
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 …
Discussion:
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Carol Baum: Welfare CEOs are Just Like John Galt — Bloomberg columnist Carol Baum puts together a baffling analogy: … Atlas Shrugged is a stupid book, Ayn Rand is a stupid woman, and John Galt's ideas are stupid. That said, none of them are nearly this stupid.
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Caroline Baum / Bloomberg:
Obama Needs AIG's Liddy, Not Other Way Around: Caroline Baum — Somewhere John Galt is smiling. — The hero of Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged” is smiling because he's seen it all before: the government's intervention in the private sector; the constraints placed on business in the name of the people …
Gail Collins / New York Times:
The Grievance Committee
The Grievance Committee
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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:
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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Marian Burros / New York Times:
Obamas to Plant White House Vegetable Garden — WASHINGTON — On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn't like them) but arugula will make the cut.
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.
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Newsday:
Why President Obama skipped ‘Meet the Press’ — Moderator David Gregory, center, of “Meet the Press,” hasn't lived up to the Tim Russert legacy. (Getty Images) — THE SHOW “Meet the Press,” hosted by David Gregory. — REASON TO WATCH That is the question, and one President Barack …
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.
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.
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
BIGGER THAN THE BOTH OF US — There's no end of puffed up outrage and opportunistic posturing over the on-going revelation of the AIG bonus scandal. But some line has been crossed. And it's worth thinking really clearly about just what that line is. — What is so damaging …
Media Matters for America:
CNBC's Kudlow lights dollar bill on fire, says “This is the value of our money” — Send in the G-Men. This guy is defacing federal money — I was thinking the same thing, isn't it a crime to destroy US currency? I thought it was just as bad as defacing the US Flag, which we know the republicans would never...
The Politico:
Obama struggles as communicator — Of all the pitfalls Barack Obama might face in the presidency, here is one not many people predicted: He is struggling as a public communicator. — The sluggish and unsteady response to the uproar over AIG bonuses highlights a larger problem of his White House …
Satyam Khanna / Think Progress:
Rice: 'No One Was Arguing That Saddam Hussein Somehow Had Something To Do With 9/11′ — On PBS's Charlie Rose yesterday — six years after the eve of the Iraq invasion — former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice discussed the decision to invade Iraq.
Wall Street Journal:
Mexico Retaliates — When the U.S. closed the southern border to Mexican trucking last week — in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement — Mexico promised to retaliate. Yesterday it did, releasing a list of 89 U.S. products that will face new tariffs of 10% to 45%.
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 …
Joe Weisenthal / Clusterstock:
More Press Than Protesters Show Up At Goldman HQ — Whoops. Turns out nobody wanted to brave the rain to protest outside Goldman Sachs (GS) HQ today. According to one on-the-ground eyewitness, members of the press far outnumbered the the actual sign-wavers and chanters.
Manu Raju / The Politico:
GOP senator suggests Geithner resign — Sen. Johnny Isakson suggested Thursday that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should resign because of his tarnished credibility, which he believes is hurting the Obama administration's ability to respond to the economic crisis.
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 …
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?
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:
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Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Sebelius has trouble in Kansas — And it's not a twister, Auntie Em. Kathleen Sebelius left her job as governor of Kansas to take a Cabinet position as Secretary of Health and Human Services in Barack Obama's administration, but she left unfinished business behind.