Top Items:
The Politico:
Bunning poised to retire — Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, the most endangered Republican up for reelection in 2010, appears headed for retirement after giving his leading GOP rival the blessing to prepare to run for his seat next year. — Bunning's retirement would be a huge victory …
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S.A. Miller / Washington Times:
Donors demand refund from Specter — Political switch gets expensive as lawmaker's support shrinks — Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party is prompting his campaign donors large and small to demand their money back, including several Republican senators whose political …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Top of the Ticket, No Sheeples Here!, RedState and No More Mister Nice Blog
Reid Wilson / The Hill:
Sen. Bunning approves his GOP rival's bid — Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) has formed an exploratory committee to run for Senate with the consent of his would-be primary opponent, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), sources tell The Hill. — Bunning, who has angrily pushed back against talk …
Los Angeles Times:
Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild — Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter. — As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked …
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The Politico:
Biden says avoid planes, subways; puts out clarifying statement — Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.”
Discussion:
The World Bank, Hot Air, Don Surber, New York Times, ABCNEWS, No More Mister Nice Blog, Liberal Values, The Sundries Shack, CBS News, The Huffington Post, Time, Right Wing News, Indecision Forever, The Swamp, Guardian, Moonbattery, Newshoggers.com, JustOneMinute, Pajamas Media, Radio Iowa, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Other McCain, protein wisdom and Ben Smith's Blog
Xana O'Neill / NBC New York:Biden: Stay Off Subways During Swine Flu Panic
Discussion:
Commentary, Don Surber, The Reaction, Hot Air, The Campaign Spot, The New Ledger, Moe Lane and Redhot
Serena Ng / Wall Street Journal:
A Chrysler Creditor Finds Himself Torn — Geoffrey Gwin is wrestling with the knowledge that the retirement plans of some 80,000 Americans may rest in his hands. — “I am in turmoil,” says Mr. Gwin, principal of the Group G Capital Partners LLC hedge funds in New York.
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Sen. Robert Byrd / The Huffington Post:
Our Obligation to Investigate — In President Obama's inaugural address, he declared that “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man …
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New York Times:
Hints That Detainees May Be Held on U.S. Soil — WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested on Thursday that as many as 100 detainees at the prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba would end up held without trial on American soil, a scenario he acknowledged would create widespread if not unanimous opposition in Congress.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Obama and Churchill — Obama followed Bush last night in using Winston Churchill as his example of a war president: — “I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, The Huffington Post, JustOneMinute, Guardian, Sister Toldjah, Weekly Standard and Power Line
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Gary Langer / ABCNEWS:
Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana — ABC News-Washington Post Poll: 49 Percent Support Gay Marriage, New High — Support for gay marriage, legalizing illegal immigrants and decriminalizing marijuana all are at new highs.
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The Politico:
New GOP ad: Do you feel safer? — House Republicans are using images of the Pentagon burning on 9/11 and President Obama's “bow” to the Saudi leader in a video that accuses the president of making America less safe in his first 100 days. — But the new video has already created blowback …
Aconant / Alex Conant:
Palin and the bear — Coming soon to a cable TV station near you: TLC just released a YouTube video of a recent interview with Sarah Palin that has an unfortunate image of the Governor relaxing on a bear rug in her office. Seriously: — I've defended Sarah Palin after recent media criticism.
Washington Post:
Administration Aide Suspected of Contracting Swine Flu — Man May Have Passed Virus to Family Members in Anne Arundel County — An Energy Department employee who was part of the advance team for President Obama's recent trip to Mexico is suspected of having contracted the swine flu virus …
Cenk Uygur / The Huffington Post:
Condi Rice Pulls A Nixon: When the President Does It, That Means It is Not Illegal — Condoleezza Rice was recently speaking at Stanford when students asked her an excellent question on waterboarding and torture. They have her answer on tape and it isn't pretty. Condi Rice absolutely pulls a Nixon.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Win By Losing? — Via Ed Kilgore, Ed Rogers from the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations makes the point that it's basically never good to lose a Senator: … I do think it's always worth considering an alternative. I think it's very possible that Democrats could “gain so much power” …
Chris / TVNewser:
“Lie to Me” Tops Obama News Conference — Just In: FOX, the only one of the Big Four networks that did not carry Pres. Obama's news conference last night, finished first in the 8pmET hour with a new episode of “Lie to Me.” The drama averaged 7.9 million Total Viewers, according to Nielsen overnights.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Threat Of Christianism — “There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon …
Huma Khan / The Note:
Senate Rejects Bankruptcy Bailout for Troubled Homeowners — ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports from Capitol Hill: On the same day that the White House announced that overextended Chrysler would go into a “quick” bankruptcy — its loans rewritten by a judge to emerge for life another day …
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
ARE SODA TAXES...POPULAR? — Till now, I've been of the opinion that arguing in favor of raising revenue by taxing unwanted behaviors is little more than a quixotic argument. Good for a blog post, maybe, but nothing beyond that. Then I heard that the prospect of sin taxes was actually emerging …
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Report: Justice Dept. Official Violated Ethics Rules in Grant-Making — Bush Administration Appointee Awarded Sole Source Contracts to Ideologically Favored Companies, Individuals — A former Justice Department grant-making administrator violated federal ethics and procurement rules …
William Creeley / FIRE:
Dartmouth's Speech Codes: FIRE Responds to Challenge — Yesterday, in his blog entry discussing the difficult road facing petition candidates for governing board positions at Harvard University and Dartmouth College—and the substantial hostility they face if elected—Kyle provided …
Washington Whispers:
Fox Cancels Beltway Boys — It's the end of the road for The Beltway Boys, Fox News Channel's Saturday evening political chat with newsmen Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke. Whispers hears that the show has run its course. No replacement has been named. — Theirs was a fun mix …
Discussion:
Michael Calderone's Blog
Chris Good / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Pew: Church-Goers Like Torture More — They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Top Conservatives On Twitter FAIL — Ok, quick twitter post and then back to...serious...business. Several weeks ago, those of us who (for reasons unclear) communicate with friends, colleagues, and complete strangers on Twitter, began scratching our heads when we noticed various conservatives …
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