Top Items:
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.
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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.
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.
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
House OKs 90 percent tax on bailout bonsues — The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to use the tax code to retrieve $165 million in bonuses that were paid out by the bailed-out insurer AIG. — The measure, which also applies to bonuses at other large bailed-out companies, passed 328-93.
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.
Michelle Malkin:First, they came for AIG bonuses
Discussion:
New York Post, Hot Air, Power Line, The Atlantic Business Channel, The Anonymous Liberal and Wizbang
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.”
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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.
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:
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.
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 …
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.
Kristi Keck / CNN:
Analysis: Obama's ‘blame me’ means ‘move on’ — (CNN) — President Obama topped a town hall appearance Wednesday by claiming responsibility for the bonuses paid out to executives at the bailed-out insurance giant American International Group, saying, “I'm outraged, too.”
Discussion:
Connecting.the.Dots
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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.
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:
Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Outside The Beltway, Commentary, Hullabaloo and Booman Tribune
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, Weekly Standard, Matthew Yglesias and Washington Monthly
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.
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 …
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 …
Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Obama's $500,000 book bonanza — Deal reached 5 days before he took office — As he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows.
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 …
Bloggingheads.tv:
Peter Singer & Tyler Cowen: Acting Now To End World Poverty — Acting Now To End World Poverty
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.
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 …
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.
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
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Axelrod: People Don't Care About AIG Mess — Come on, guys, can't we get the message straight on this one? — Yesterday I noted that Rahm Emanuel had said that Obama saw the AIG fiasco as a “big distraction” from efforts to fix the economy. Later in the day, Obama walked that back …
Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Report Details Countrywide's Efforts to Benefit VIPs — WASHINGTON — Executives at Countrywide Financial, one of the biggest names of the housing boom, routinely violated internal company policies to provide below-market rates on home loans to the politically connected and powerful …
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