Top Items:
TMZ.com:
Special Olympics Champ to Barack: Bring it On! — A bowling phenom in the Special Olympics has just challenged Prez Barack Obama to a White House roll-off ... and he'll probably kick Barack's butt. — Kolan McConiughey, a Special Olympics competitor who has bowled three perfect 300 games …
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Michelle Malkin:
Why can't Obama tell a good joke? — Why are the president's “jokes” (scripted or not) so lame? — The answer is a three-letter-word (or is that four letters, Joe?): E-G-O. — Barack Obama is constitutionally incapable of self-deprecation, because self-deprecation requires sincere humility.
Alessandra Stanley / New York Times:
Seeking Everyman, Obama Does Leno — President Obama didn't look burdened by his office on “The Tonight Show” on Thursday; he seemed bemused. — As he described the problems of American International Group and the credit crisis to Jay Leno, Mr. Obama behaved less like a beleaguered president …
ABCNEWS:Obama Apologizes for Calling His Bad Bowling ‘Like the Special Olympics’
Discussion:
NY Daily News, Townhall.com, Daily Kos, NewsBusters.org, Washington Monthly, Salon and Political Punch
Associated Press:Obama apologizes for Special Olympics gaffe
Discussion:
Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Shakesville, MSNBC, Entertainment Weekly's … and Newsweek Blogs
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:Every word of the Obama-Leno summit, including the Special Olympics ‘joke’
Discussion:
The Swamp
Adam Serwer / American Prospect:
THIS FEED IS CLOSED TO THE PRESS. — Huh, I wonder why Jake Tapper, press access warrior, has blocked me from following his Twitter feed. — Time for a blogger ethics panel? — UPDATE: Tapper has also blocked Talking Points Memo. — Bonus Tapper: His exchange with White House Press …
Discussion:
Gawker
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
TAPPER, TWITTER, AND ONLINE ETIQUETTE.... It was bound to be of interest to the political world anyway, but ABC News' Jake Tapper helped get the ball rolling on the Special Olympics/Obama story last night. He was first out of the gate with a news item and a report on the president's comment on his Twitter feed.
Discussion:
Greg's Opinion
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
NOT A MENTALITY BUT A DISEASE — Everything you need to know about the DC journo establishment, from ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper's Twitter feed: … Late Update: Tapper gets his revenge: He has “blocked” me from following him on Twitter. — Later Update: Seems to be a trend.
Ali Akbar Dareini / Associated Press:
Iran plays down new Obama video message — TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran played down President Barack Obama's new video message to the Iranian people on Friday, saying it welcomed the overtures but warned that decades of mistrust can't easily be erased. — Obama released the video to coincide …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Hullabaloo, RealClearWorld, Booman Tribune, Think Progress, TIME.com and The Cable
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Alan Cowell / New York Times:
Obama and Israeli Leader Make Taped Appeals to Iran — Invoking art, history and “the common humanity that binds us,” President Obama offered a “new day” in America's relationship with Iran, using a videotaped message released on the Internet to make an unusual appeal directly to Iranians for a shift away from decades of confrontation.
Telegraph:
Iran responds to Barack Obama's video appeal with nuclear pledge — US President Barack Obama's appeal for a ‘new beginning’ with Iran has been met by a pledge to turn on the country's nuclear power plant this year. — Mr Obama sent Iran an unprecedented videotaped message offering …
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony — We are not making this up: — Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent presidential administration in American history. — This achievement and the overall promise of his historic administration caused …
New York Times:
Many in Government Knew Weeks Ago About A.I.G. Bonuses — WASHINGTON — The question was direct and prescient. Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, asked the Treasury secretary in an open hearing what could be done to stop American International Group from paying $165 million …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, AMERICAblog News, Commentary, MSNBC, Washington Post, Clusterstock, Swampland, The Politico, Bloomberg and naked capitalism
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Sean Cockerham / Anchorage Daily News:
Palin rejects over 30% of stimulus money — 31 PERCENT: She says state can't commit to continuation. — JUNEAU — Gov. Sarah Palin is refusing to accept over 30 percent of the federal economic stimulus money being offered to Alaska, including dollars for schools, energy assistance and social services.
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Michael Lewis / Bloomberg:
Mass Hysteria Over AIG Obscures Simple Truths: Michael Lewis — Last September the U.S. government began to dole out the first of $173 billion to American International Group. A big chunk of it passed right through to banks that had bought insurance from AIG against mortgage and corporate defaults …
Henry Blodget / Clusterstock:
90% Tax? Now We Really ARE Screwed — The frantic passage of the Populist Rage Tax was a new low in the US government's response to this crisis. It shows just how likely we are to doom ourselves to a decade or more of misery—by choking our markets, closing our borders …
RELATED:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:“Saving” Banks — Henry Blodget, going to battle on behalf …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Paul Krugman:
AIG — Preliminary thoughts on the tax bill: — 1. It's not the way you should make policy — it's clumsy, and it will punish some innocent parties while letting the most guilty off scot-free — 2. But — there wasn't much alternative at this point. And for that I blame the Obama people.
Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget — We have just released our latest projections for the budget and economic outlook, updating the projections published in early January 2009. In addition, we have reviewed the President's budgetary proposals contained in the February publication …
RELATED:
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
After Years Of Lies, WSJ Concedes That Employee Free Choice Act 'Doesn't Remove The Secret-Ballot Option' — In a stunning reversal, the anti-labor Wall Street Journal editorial page admitted today that one of the key messages in Big Business's fight against the Employee Free Choice Act is false.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
GOP Pressed on Health Care — House Democrats Set September Deadline for Compromise — House Democrats, in consultation with the White House, will give Republican lawmakers until September to reach a compromise on President Obama's signature health-care initiative — otherwise …
Discussion:
Reuters, Wall Street Journal, D-Day, Brian Beutler, Los Angeles Times, The Note, But As For Me, AmSpecBlog and Blog entry
Mary Ann Akers / The Sleuth:
Joe the Plumber Wants to Make Love to Washington — The Republican's Working Man hero Joe the Plumber could barely contain himself last night before a crowd of adoring, media-bashing conservatives. — “God, all this love and everything in the room - I'm horny,” declared Joe, whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher.
John Hughes / Bloomberg:
GM, Chrysler May Need Additional Aid, Rattner Says — General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, which have requested as much as $21.6 billion in additional government aid, may need “considerably” more than that, said Steven Rattner, the Treasury's chief auto adviser.
New York Times:
Scorn Trails A.I.G. Executives, Even in Their Driveways — The A.I.G. executive who was nicknamed “Jackpot Jimmy” by a New York tabloid walked up the driveway toward his bay-windowed house in Fairfield, Conn., on Thursday afternoon. “How do I feel?” said the executive, James Haas, repeating the question he had just been asked.
Discussion:
But As For Me, Wizbang, AmSpecBlog, Open Left, The Agonist, JONATHAN TURLEY, Emptywheel, The Big Picture and Runnin' Scared
James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Newspaper cuts open door to more political trickery — Political consultants aren't exactly rubbing their hands together and snickering. But as the hired guns look over a landscape of closing newspapers and laid-off investigative reporters, they sense an opening that leaves them both excited and queasy.
Discussion:
Democracy in America
Reem Khalifa / Associated Press:
2 US Navy vessels collide in Strait of Hormuz — MANAMA, Bahrain - Two U.S. Navy vessels — a nuclear-powered submarine and an amphibious ship — collided before dawn Friday in the mouth of the Persian Gulf, one of the world's most important sea passages for oil supplies.
Discussion:
D-Day
Monika Scislowska / Associated Press:
Polish documentary shows prewar Jewish life — WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Jews were nearly wiped out in the Nazi Holocaust, then the communists who ruled the country for decades after World War II waged anti-Semitic campaigns and made Jewish history a taboo topic.
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