Top Items:
Reuters:
Blundering Afghan suicide bomber blows up 6 militants — A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up on Thursday, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said. — “The terrorist was on his way to his destination …
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Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Obama Plans More Funding For Afghan War — President Obama's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy will require significantly higher levels of U.S. funding for both countries, with U.S. military expenses in Afghanistan alone, currently about $2 billion a month, increasing by about 60 percent this year.
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Winnable War — I came to Afghanistan skeptical of American efforts to transform this country. Afghanistan is one of the poorest, least-educated and most-corrupt nations on earth. It is an infinitely complex and fractured society. It has powerful enemies in Pakistan, Iran and the drug networks working hard to foment chaos.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
'Obama's war' - New troops, new plan — President Barack Obama plans to commit to sending 4,200 more troops and hundreds more civilians to Afghanistan in a speech at the White House on Friday morning, and also to embrace a new system of benchmarks to measure progress.
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
MY FAVORITE BUDGET EVER. — If you're having a bad day, I highly encourage you to spend some quality time with the Republican budget proposal. It's reads like what would happen if The Onion put together a budget. “Area Man Releases Proposal for 2010 Federal Spending Priorities.”
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Obsidian Wings, Wonk Room, The Seminal, FiveThirtyEight, AmSpecBlog, The Anonymous Liberal and Hullabaloo
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Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
Bad blood: GOP infighting on budget — House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) raised objections to an abbreviated alternative budget “blueprint” released today — but were told by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) they needed to back the plan, according to several Republican sources.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, AmSpecBlog, CNN, Associated Press, Matthew Yglesias, Reuters, TPMDC, Donklephant, DISSENTING JUSTICE, GOP Leader Blog, Political Machine, MSNBC, The Moderate Voice, The Gun Toting Liberal, The Swamp, Barack Obama's …, MyDD, No More Mister Nice Blog, Newshoggers.com, Mercury Rising, Bark Bark Woof Woof and The Atlantic Politics Channel
David Weigel / The Washington Independent:Behold, Charts! — An anonymous official quoted in Politico's story …
Thomas Joscelyn / Weekly Standard:
Welfare for Freed Gitmo Detainees? — Here, from the Associated Press, is a partial account of DNI Dennis Blair's first press conference today (emphasis mine): … Four short questions/comments: — (1) Does this mean that the Obama administration is planning on giving some freed Guantanamo detainees a stipend?
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool
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Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Obama: Marijuana is not a good strategy to spur economy — (CNN) — In a statement that's sure to disappoint many of those who submitted questions to President Obama's virtual town hall meeting, the president made clear Thursday he does not support legalizing marijuana as a means to spur economic growth.
Discussion:
Donklephant
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Peter Hamby / CNN:
Palin's prayer remark angers former staffers — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Some of Sarah Palin's former campaign aides are frustrated with the Alaska governor for remarking in a lengthy, freewheeling speech that she had refused to pray with them before last October's vice presidential debate.
Discussion:
The Politico, TPMDC, TIME.com, Balloon Juice, Salon, Liberty Street, RedState, The Washington Independent, Political Machine and Hot Air
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Exec says Coleman donor ordered $100K payments — Sworn statement backs allegation that Kazeminy directed fees to an insurance firm to benefit the Colemans. — The former finance chief of a Texas company controlled by Nasser Kazeminy, a close friend of former Sen. Norm Coleman …
Discussion:
TIME.com
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Market Mystique — On Monday, Lawrence Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, responded to criticisms of the Obama administration's plan to subsidize private purchases of toxic assets. “I don't know of any economist,” he declared, “who doesn't believe that better functioning capital markets …
Rod Liddle / Times of London:
British Army chief ready to send 2,000 more troops to Afghanistan — The head of the Army is ready to send up to 2,000 extra troops to Afghanistan amid fears that the US-led mission will struggle without significant reinforcements. — General Sir Richard Dannatt told The Times yesterday …
Jonathan Wheatley / Financial Times:
Brazil's leader blames white people for crisis — Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday blamed the global economic crisis on “white people with blue eyes” and said it was wrong that black and indigenous people should pay for white people's mistakes.
New York Times:
As New Lawyer, Senator Defended Big Tobacco — The Philip Morris Company did not like to talk about what went on inside its lab in Cologne, Germany, where researchers secretly conducted experiments exploring the effects of cigarette smoking. — So when the Justice Department tried …
Mary Williams Walsh / New York Times:
Inquiry Asks Why A.I.G. Paid Banks — Members of Congress and the New York State attorney general demanded detailed information Thursday on how tens of billions of taxpayer dollars flowed through the American International Group during its crisis last fall and ended up in the coffers …
Lymari Morales / Gallup:
Amid Budget Battle, Americans' Views Hold Steady — Views are more positive than negative but diverge according to party lines — WASHINGTON, D.C. — While lawmakers on Capitol Hill battle back and forth over President Barack Obama's proposed budget plan, Americans' views are holding steady.
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
W.H. preserves secrecy option — I think I have a better idea now why the White House was so sensitive about my story Monday questioning the legality and wisdom of secret meetings held by subcommittees of President Obama's economic advisory panel. — It was because officials planned …
Discussion:
HotMES
Alan Greenspan / Financial Times:
We need a better cushion against risk — The extraordinary risk-management discipline that developed out of the writings of the University of Chicago's Harry Markowitz in the 1950s produced insights that won several Nobel prizes in economics. It was widely embraced not only by academia …
Peter Nicholas / Los Angeles Times:
Campaign for Obama's budget is widening — His allies' ads target districts led by conservative Democrats — some of whom question the wisdom of the strategy, suggesting that it's divisive. — Reporting from Washington — A campaign to persuade Republicans to support President Obama's budget …
Discussion:
CapitalBeat
Christopher Buckley / Blogs and Stories:
The Audacity of Poping — D.C. Mystery: Who Did Nancy Pelosi's New Face? by Sandra McElwaine — Blogs and Stories — The much-married Newt Gingrich converts to Catholicism this weekend—and I'd pay a year's salary to have been a bug on the wall during his religious instruction.
Tom Topousis / New York Post:
PORT AUTHORITY DOING AWAY WITH FREEDOM TOWER NAME — Freedom is so passe at Ground Zero. — Once hailed as a beacon of rebirth in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Freedom Tower's patriotic name has been swapped out for the more marketable One World Trade Center, officials at the Port Authority conceded today.
Discussion:
The Mahablog
Simon Johnson / The Atlantic Online:
The Quiet Coup — ONE THING YOU learn rather quickly when working at the International Monetary Fund is that no one is ever very happy to see you. Typically, your “clients” come in only after private capital has abandoned them, after regional trading-bloc partners have been unable to throw …
Discussion:
Rortybomb, MoJo Blog Posts, Washington Post, The Baseline Scenario, Multi Medium and Salon
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