Top Items:
The Huffington Post:
Cantor Watched Britney Spears Concert During Obama Presser, Landrieu Denies Rumors — There was more than one whip at last night's Britney Spears concert in Washington DC. — Three GOP aides confirmed to the Huffington Post that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) …
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Jim Newell / Wonkette:
Exclusive: Cantor, ‘Democrats’ Attend Britney Spears Concert During Obama Presser — And you all thought Washington wasn't sexy: the office of ambitious young House Republican Whip Eric Cantor has confirmed to your Wonkette that instead of watching President Obama's boring press conference …
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Cantor skips Obama's press conference to attend a Britney Spears concert. — In recent weeks, congressional Republicans have been critical of President Obama for doing anything that isn't directly focusing on the economic crisis — such as going on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno or filling out his NCAA bracket.
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
GOP's rising star runs into a rough patch — A rising star in the Republican Party has dimmed over the past week. — House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), a politically shrewd up-and-comer in the GOP, has broken with his party on two high-profile issues.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Ed Henry / CNN:
Ed Henry's take on exchange with Obama — Ed Henry, CNN's senior White House correspondent, got a tough answer from President Obama when he asked Tuesday night why Obama waited days to express outrage on the AIG bonuses. “Because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak,” Obama said.
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Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Fun With the Self-Referential Press Corps — Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Ed Henry's question for the President last night, and the subsequent snippiness it inspired in President Obama, but I think the column-length play-by-play on “the exchange,” as CNN is calling it, is a bit much:
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Geithner ‘open’ to China proposal — Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is “open” to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Note, Pajamas Media, Ben Smith's Blog, Commentary, Hot Air, Associated Press and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Right-Wing Echo Chamber Fomenting Panic About Fake Sino-Russian Global Currency Plan
Right-Wing Echo Chamber Fomenting Panic About Fake Sino-Russian Global Currency Plan
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
The Right-Wing Echo Chamber In Action: How A Conspiracy Travels …
The Right-Wing Echo Chamber In Action: How A Conspiracy Travels …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Washington Post:
House Democrats Slash More Than $100B From Obama's Plan — Budget Leaders Refuse to Include More Funding for Financial Sector Bailout — House budget leaders today unveiled a $3.45 trillion budget blueprint for fiscal 2010 that slices more than $100 billion from the spending plan President Obama proposed last month.
Discussion:
USA Today, Power Line, TPMDC, Open Left, About.com US Liberal Politics, Capitol Briefing, Riehl World View and Don Surber
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Jim Tankersley / The Swamp:
Another Obama nominee withdraws — Chalk up another casualty in the Obama administration's attempts to staff federal agencies. — Jon Cannon, nominated to be the deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, pulled his name from consideration today, citing questions over a non-profit …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Limbaugh An Issue in New York Special — Democrats are seeking to use conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh to rally their base in advance of next week's special election in New York's 20th district. — A new direct mail piece from businessman Scott Murphy's campaign features …
Quinnipiac University:
Little-Known GOP Challenger Tops Specter In Primary, Quinnipiac University Pennsylvania Poll Finds; Support For Obama Plan Helps Among Democrats — Apparently paying a political price for his support of President Barack Obama's Stimulus Plan, longtime Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter …
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BBC:
The man who survived both atomic bombings — Japan has certified a man aged 93 as the only known survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both hit by atomic bombs towards the end of World War II. — Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when a US plane dropped the first atomic bomb.
Discussion:
Liberty Street
Robert Mackey / The Lede:
Former CNN Anchor Moves to The Onion — In yet another sign that the line between real news and fake news is getting thinner, one of CNN's main anchors during the 1980s and 1990s, Bobbie Battista, has taken a step through the looking glass and can now be seen anchoring reports online for ONN, The Onion News Network.
Discussion:
Oliver Willis
Nicholas Dawidoff / New York Times:
The Civil Heretic — FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson has quietly resided in Princeton, N.J., on the wooded former farmland that is home to his employer, the Institute for Advanced Study, this country's most rarefied community of scholars.
Daniel Hannan / Daniel Hannan's blog listings:
My speech to Gordon Brown goes viral — The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever. Twenty-four hours ago, I made a three-minute speech in the European Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown. I tipped off the BBC and some of the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly …
Mary Beth Sheridan / Washington Post:
Clinton: U.S. Drug Policies Failed, Fueled Mexico's Drug War — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday with a stark mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies had been a failure and contributed to the explosion of drug violence south of the border.
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Mark DeCambre / New York Post:
DOUBLE-DIPPERS — CITI, BOFA BUYING BACK LAUNDERED LOANS AT LOWER RATES — As Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner orchestrated a plan to help the nation's largest banks purge themselves of toxic mortgage assets, Citigroup and Bank of America have been aggressively scooping up those same securities …
Mark Preston / CNN:
Jindal defends those who want Obama to fail — WASHINGTON (CNN) — It's OK for Republicans to want President Obama to fail if they think he's jeopardizing the country, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told members of his political party Tuesday night. — Jindal described the premise of the question …
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Palin unplugged in speech to Alaska GOP dinner — (CNN) - Sarah Palin is teeing off on the media once again. — In a little-noticed speech to a GOP dinner in Alaska last week, Palin riffed for nearly an hour on a variety of topics — including her relationship with former McCain staffers …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
John Authers / Financial Times:
Is it back to the Fifties? — “My mother is 75,” said Jon Stewart, the US late-night comedian, at the end of his already famous interview with Jim Cramer, the television stock market pundit. “And she bought into the idea that long-term investing is the way to go. And guess what?”
Haaretz:
Netanyahu, Lieberman ‘struck secret deal for West Bank construction’ — Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a secret deal with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for highly contentious construction on West Bank land known as E1, Army Radio reported Wednesday.
Discussion:
New York Times, Wonk Room, The League of Ordinary …, Mideast Peace Pulse and Ben Smith's Blog
Blue Texan / Firedoglake:
Michelle Bachmann, Vigilant Guardian of the Constitution — Watch Timothy Geithner's face as he's grilled here by Bachmann. Priceless. … Funny how all these Bush/Cheney Republicans have suddenly discovered there's this thing called “the Constitution,” isn't it?
Phillip Coorey / Sydney Morning Herald:
New best friends have a great meeting of the minds — BARACK OBAMA delivered Kevin Rudd the ultimate compliment yesterday by citing the Prime Minister while defending his own approach to the global financial crisis. — During a live, nationally televised press conference that had been hyped …
Michael Fleming / Variety:
MGM gets its ‘Stooges’ — Penn, Carrey, Del Toro part of studio's plan — MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their cast for “The Three Stooges.” — Studio has set Sean Penn to play Larry, and negotiations are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor already making plans …
Discussion:
Don Surber
Hollywoodreporter / The Live Feed:
Obama's viewership declines — UPDATED: Most TV shows start strong in the ratings, then decline as their novelty wears off. — Apparently that trend also holds true for the president's primetime telecasts. — According to the national Nielsen ratings, Barack Obama's Tuesday-night press …
Discussion:
Entertainment Weekly's …
Lane Hudson / Firedoglake:
FEC Turns Blind Eye to Thompson, Sets Awful Precedent — Nearly a year and a half ago, Fred Thompson was called to task on his blatant abuse of the ‘testing the waters’ exemption of campaign finance law. That complaint was a compilation of research and writing by progressive bloggers.
The Politico:
Democrats vs. Democrats — House Minority Leader John A. Boehner snarled at moderate Democrats Wednesday, but the real bite came from liberal groups frustrated by centrist opposition to Barack Obama's budget priorities. — As Boehner accused Blue Dog Democrats of being “lap dogs” for Obama …
Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
Poll: Clinton has high job approval — CNN Deputy Political Director — (CNN) — As Hillary Clinton flies to Mexico for a high-level summit, a new national poll indicates seven in 10 Americans are happy with the job she's doing as secretary of state. — Seventy-one percent of people questioned …
Mike Mount / CNN:
Air Force jet crashes; pilot dies — WASHINGTON (CNN) — An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the test pilot, the Air Force said. — The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) for unknown reasons, Air Force officials said.