Top Items:
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Congress Approves Budget — $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan Paves Way for Obama Goals — Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.
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CNN:
Senate, House pass budget plans along party lines — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Senate passed a $3.53 trillion version of the federal budget for fiscal year 2010 late Thursday night in a party-line vote, ending several weeks of acrimonious partisan debate. — The package was approved on a 55-43 vote.
Scott / Power Line:
Why is this man bowing? — The caption on the photo above reads: … What's wrong with this picture? Americans do not bow to royalty. In my view, when the royal is the ruling tyrant of a despotic regime, the wrong is compounded. Putting aside the breach of American protocol …
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Andy Barr / The Politico:
Palin calls for Begich's resignation — Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) called on Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska ) Thursday to step down from his seat and run in a special election in the wake of the Justice Department's decision to drop corruption charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
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Erika Bolstad / Anchorage Daily News:
Palin, Ruedrich call for Begich resignation — WASHINGTON — The head of the Alaska Republican Party today called on Sen. Mark Begich to step down from the U.S. Senate, saying that the state's voters would have re-elected former Sen. Ted Stevens had they known the U.S Department of Justice would abandon its prosecution of him.
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy
Chicago Breaking News:
Blagojevich, his brother, top aides indicted — Federal prosecutors expanded their case against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich today in an indictment that drew more of his closest aides into the scandal and adds new schemes to the list of charges against him: Pocketing money funneled through his wife through a phony real estate job.
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Felisa Cardona / Denver Post:
Churchill wins CU suit but awarded just $1 — Ward Churchill won his case against the University of Colorado today as a Denver jury unanimously decided he was fired in retaliation for his controversial essay about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. — The jury gave Churchill $1 for past losses …
Discussion:
PirateBallerina, Slapstick Politics, Michelle Malkin, PointOfLaw Forum, Law Blog, On Deadline and JammieWearingFool
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New York Times:
Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired — DENVER — A jury ruled Thursday that Ward L. Churchill, a former University of Colorado professor who drew national attention for an essay in which he called some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “little Eichmanns,” was wrongfully terminated.
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Obama's Star Turn at Summit Gets Mixed Results — LONDON — In his debut on the international stage, President Obama presented himself as the leader of an America that can no longer go it alone, and as abiding by the protocol of a global new deal. — It was a performance that ranged …
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Jimmy Vielkind / Politicker NY:
Tedisco Now Leading By 12 — As of 4:30 p.m. on April 2. — ALBANY—Now it's Tedisco by 12! — As voting machines are re-canvassed, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco has picked up 37 votes, evaporating Democrat Scott Murphy's lead in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress …
Ian Katz / Bloomberg:
FASB Eases Fair-Value Rules Amid Lawmaker Pressure — The Financial Accounting Standards Board, pressured by U.S. lawmakers and financial companies, voted to relax fair-value accounting rules that Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. say don't work when markets are inactive.
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James Kwak / The Baseline Scenario:
The Mark-to-Market Myth — Today the Financial Accounting …
The Mark-to-Market Myth — Today the Financial Accounting …
Discussion:
The Curious Capitalist, Washington Monthly, D-Day, The Daily Dish, Paul Kedrosky's … and Portfolio
Financial Times:
Bailed-out banks eye toxic asset buys — By Francesco Guerrera in New York and Krishna Guha in Washington — US banks that have received government aid, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, are considering buying toxic assets to be sold by rivals under …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
China's Dollar Trap — Back in the early stages of the financial crisis, wags joked that our trade with China had turned out to be fair and balanced after all: They sold us poison toys and tainted seafood; we sold them fraudulent securities. — But these days, both sides of that deal are breaking down.
Discussion:
The Peking Duck
New York Times:
Immigration Agency's Revised List of Deaths in Custody — The document that follows, “List of Detainee Deaths since October 2003,” is the government's latest account of deaths in immigration detention, through Feb. 7, 2009. Compiled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and obtained …
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Should Norm Coleman Concede? — In the two days since a three judge state panel handed Norm Coleman a major setback in his election contest against entertainer Al Franken (D) the former Minnesota senator has made clear that he has no plans to declare defeat anytime soon.
David Brown / Times of London:
Dignitas founder plans assisted suicide of healthy woman — The founder of the Swiss assistedsuicide clinic Dignitas was criticised yesterday after revealing plans to help a healthy woman to die alongside her terminally ill husband. — Ludwig Minelli described suicide as a “marvellous opportunity” …
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Terry McAuliffe not laughing at Huckabee joke — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Terry McAuliffe, the jovial former chairman of the Democratic National Committee now running for governor in Virginia, is not laughing at one of Mike Huckabee's jokes. — During a recent appearance on behalf of Bob McDonnell …
Christopher Hayes / The Nation:
Pulp Nonfiction — Two years in Washington have started to make me feel jaded. I've come to expect that even nobly conceived laws will be manipulated and distorted for private ends. But once in a while I hear a story that gives me the queasy feeling that I'm nowhere near cynical enough.
Now! Hampshire:
Shea-Porter Staff Seeks “Refuge” from Tea Bag — Taxpayer tea parties have rattled some politicians in Washington, as thousands have gathered in cities across America to object to President Obama's spending policies. But no politician was rattled as severely as the staff of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) was yesterday.
Washington Post:
As Crisis Loomed, Geithner Pressed But Fell Short — Before Timothy Geithner became Treasury chief, he regulated major U.S. banks. Now he says: “We're having a major financial crisis in part because of failures of supervision.” — In September 2005, Timothy Geithner made one of his most visible moves …
Discussion:
TIME.com
Manuel Roig-Franzia / Washington Post:
The Pay Dirt — Jock Friedly's LegiStorm Makes Hill Salaries Easy To Search — and Debate — Go ahead. Hate him. — Jock Friedly couldn't care less. This is a man who counts being burned in effigy among his career highlights. So he's hardly going to be bothered …
Discussion:
The BLT
Mark Hemingway / The Corner:
Too Absurd to Be Real? — PJ O'Rourke, The Weekly Standard, Febuary 9, 2009: The next great government crusade will be against soap. The president will appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission, which will determine that soap releases polluting grime into the ecosystem, leads to aquifer depletion …
Discussion:
TigerHawk
Hans A. von Spakovsky / The Corner:
The Shameful Disenfranchisement of the Military in New York's Congressional Race — Only 25 votes separate Republican Tim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy in the special election for New York's 20th district. That means the winner will be determined by 6,000 outstanding absentee ballots.
John Hempton / Bronte Capital:
A little bit of careful thinking - and why Krugman's despair is misplaced — I am not an economics academic. I gave that game away for the lure of lucre and funds management. But this job throws up more than a few ideas for publishable economics papers - whereas when I was a student I was desperately short good ideas.