Top Items:
The Politico:
GOP gloves off for budget brawl — House Republicans have begun unveiling detailed alternatives to President Barack Obama's policies — a concerted effort to push back against Democratic efforts to label them “the Party of No.” — On Wednesday, it was a housing plan.
Discussion:
Don Surber, TIME.com, Capitol Briefing, The Washington Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Note, TIME.com and Washington Post
RELATED:
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.) …
Jim Newell / Wonkette:
Exclusive: Cantor, ‘Democrats’ Attend Britney Spears Concert During Obama Presser
Exclusive: Cantor, ‘Democrats’ Attend Britney Spears Concert During Obama Presser
Jeffrey Sachs / Financial Times:
Obama's bank plan could rob the taxpayer — The Geithner-Summers plan, officially called the public/private investment programme, is a thinly veiled attempt to transfer up to hundreds of billions of dollars of US taxpayer funds to the commercial banks, by buying toxic assets from the banks at far above their market value.
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Washington Post:
Geithner to Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight of Financial System — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to propose today a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Palin in Anchorage — Peter Hamby picks up a candid Sarah Palin speech to the Alaska GOP last week, in which she expressed her unhappiness with the media and her alienation from the McCain campaign: … The rest of the speech is here. — Also, Palin's PAC says it wasn't polling Iowa …
Discussion:
American Power
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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 …
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Steele On Rush Flap: “It's All Strategic” — Michael Steele just doesn't know how to stop. — Steele appeared on CNN this afternoon, and was asked by host Don Lemon whether he's ever considered running for president, and right off the bat he managed to give the sensible, correct answer …
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Wall Street Journal:
China and the Dollar — Markets don't like Treasury talking down the dollar's status. — As if the dollar didn't have enough problems, Timothy Geithner took China's bait yesterday and said he was “quite open” to its suggestion this week to displace the greenback with an “international reserve currency.”
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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard / Telegraph:
US backing for world currency stuns markets
US backing for world currency stuns markets
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog
David Rogers / The Politico:
Budget battle rife with contradictions — The White House rushed Wednesday to blur the lines between President Barack Obama and Democratic spending plans taking shape in Congress. They're not twins but still kin, as budget director Peter Orszag put it. — But like many families …
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Craig Whitlock / Washington Post:
E.U. President Blasts U.S. Spending — Czech Premier Calls Obama Administration's Economic Policies ‘a Road to Hell’ — The president of the European Union on Wednesday ripped the Obama administration's economic policies, calling its deficit spending and bank bailouts “a road to hell.”
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Aoife White / Associated Press:
EU presidency: US stimulus is ‘the road to hell’
EU presidency: US stimulus is ‘the road to hell’
Discussion:
Marginal Revolution, LewRockwell.com Blog, Paul Krugman, Swampland and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Jesse McKinley / New York Times:
Cities Deal With a Surge in Shanty Towns — FRESNO, Calif. — As the operations manager of a outreach center for the homeless here, Paul Stack is used to seeing people down on their luck. What he had never seen before was people living in tents and lean-tos on the railroad lot across from the center.
Chicago Tribune:
Rahm Emanuel's profitable stint at mortgage giant — Short Freddie Mac stay made him at least $320,000 — Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up …
Calvin Woodward / Associated Press:
Bold claims of stimulus jobs can't be measured — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - If space exploration were conducted like the job forecasts under the government's new stimulus law, man surely would have missed the moon. But this isn't rocket science.
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.
Gary D. Robertson / Associated Press:
States could lose billions in taxes to stimulus — RALEIGH, N.C. — President Barack Obama told the nation's governors in February that the states' $229 billion share of the federal stimulus package “will ensure that you don't need to make cuts to essential services that Americans rely on now more than ever.”
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.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Weekly Standard, Wonkette, Opinion L.A., TBogg, Liberty Street, AMERICAblog News and No More Mister Nice Blog
Andrew Pergam / NBC Connecticut:
Threats to AIG: “We Will Get Your Children” — The anger in the threats against AIG executives is palpable. — “Get the bonus, we will get your children,” someone identified only as “Jacob the Killer” hauntingly writes in an e-mail. — His is one of dozens of threats against AIG …
Discussion:
Don Surber
Wall Street Journal:
AIG Fights a Fire at Its Paris Unit — Executives' Resignations Put Billions in Contracts at Risk of Default — Amid the flap over bonuses at American International Group Inc. two of the company's top managers in Paris have resigned. Their moves have left the giant insurer …
Roger Cohen / New York Times:
The Fierce Urgency of Peace — Pressure on President Obama to recast the failed American approach to Israel-Palestine is building from former senior officials whose counsel he respects. — Following up on a letter dated Nov. 6, 2008, that was handed to Obama late last year by Paul Volcker …
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Albany Reaches Deal to Repeal '70s-Era Drug Laws — ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson and New York legislative leaders have reached an agreement to dismantle much of what remains of the state's strict 1970s-era drug laws, once among the toughest in the nation.
Mike / Rortybomb:
Modeling an FDIC Robbery. — I want to explain the Geithner Put for those without a finance background who want to understand how FDIC is going to get looted. (Warning: Will contain graphs, and be long and boring even by normal standards here.) Recap: Banks have “toxic waste” assets, which they want to sell.
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 …
Abby Goodnough / New York Times:
Gay Marriage in Vermont Faces Veto by Governor — BOSTON — Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont said Wednesday that he would veto a same-sex marriage bill if it reached his desk, setting a new hurdle for a measure that had been moving swiftly through the legislature.