Top Items:
Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times:
California voters exercise their power — and that's the problem — Residents relish their role in the lawmaking process, but they share the blame for the state's severe dysfunction. — Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash …
Discussion:
Reuters, Reason, Midwest Voices, Michelle Malkin, The Mahablog, Townhall.com, DownWithTyranny!, Say Anything, PoliBlog, The Rhetorican and American Power
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Eric Bailey / Los Angeles Times:
California voters kill budget measures — Only salary curbs survive in a rout of Schwarzenegger's slate of reforms — Reporting from Sacramento — The “big five” elected leaders — Schwarzenegger and the legislative chieftains from both houses — are slated to begin closed-door meetings today upon …
Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent — LOS ANGELES — A smattering of California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected five ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year. — The results dealt a severe setback to the state's fragile fiscal structure …
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Say Anything, Hullabaloo, Sweetness & Light, Wake up America, L.A. Now and Michelle Malkin
Megan McArdle:
Is California Too Big to Fail? — So what about California? A reader asks. Ummm, that's a tough one. No, wait, it's not: California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed. And not a little garden hose. More like this. Their outflow is bigger than their inflow.
Discussion:
Commentary, Balloon Juice, The Campaign Spot, Shot in the Dark, ParaPundit and Gateway Pundit
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Obama's biggest critic: Krauthammer — The dinner guest that night at George Will's house in Chevy Chase was intellectually nimble, personally formidable and completely baffling, recalled columnist Charles Krauthammer - who was getting his first up-close look at President-elect Barack Obama.
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The Politico:
Obama, Cheney plan dueling speeches — President Barack Obama will attempt to regain control of a boiling debate over anti-terrorism policy with a major speech on Thursday—an address that comes on the same day that former Vice President Cheney will be weighing in with his own speech on the same theme.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, Washington Monthly, Liberal Values, Ben Smith's Blog, Swampland, Crooks and Liars, Weekly Standard and The Page
John Podhoretz / Commentary:
A Small Man — This blog has had many differences with Joe Klein of Time magazine, whom I once considered a very friendly acquaintance before he accused me and those who argued for an aggressive policy in Iraq and with Iran of being war criminals and began spouting anti-Semitic conspiracy nonsense that …
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Stand Up, Joe Klein, So We Can Kick Your A** — Times columnist and sensitive liberal Joe Klein actually said this about Charles Krauthammer: — “He became Ground Zero among the neo-cons, but he's vastly smarter than most of them,” said Time's Joe Klein, an admirer and critic who praised Krauthammer's …
ABCNEWS:
Democrats on Capitol Hill Rebel Against President Obama's Guantanamo Bay Plan — Lawmakers Reject Funding To Shut Down Detainee Center At Gitmo, Want Obama To Present A Plan For How The White House Plans To Close The Facility — The U.S. Senate today voted overwhelmingly to block funding …
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David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo
Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo
Discussion:
Salon, The Swamp, The Politico, Washington Post, Boston Globe, White House Watch, Wall Street Journal, At-Largely, The Plum Line, The Caucus, Forbes, TalkLeft, FP Passport, The Note, rubber hose, MoJo Blog Posts, The BLT, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, NY Daily News, Unfogged, normblog and Balloon Juice
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Senate Democrats Reject Obama's Request for Funds to Close Guantanamo Bay Prison
Senate Democrats Reject Obama's Request for Funds to Close Guantanamo Bay Prison
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, The BLT, Think Progress, McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Foundry, The Politico and The Plank
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Inhofe: Terrorists Already Incarcerated In The U.S. Were Just ‘Criminals’
Inhofe: Terrorists Already Incarcerated In The U.S. Were Just ‘Criminals’
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Advocates of Gun Rights Are Poised for a Victory — WASHINGTON — Advocates of gun rights are poised to win a Congressional victory that eluded them under a Republican president. — To the frustration and discouragement of many Democrats, House and Senate lawmakers and aides …
Discussion:
Liberal Values, Top of the Ticket, The Politico, Philly.com, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Cafe Talk Aggregator, The Page and Swampland
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Theresa Cook / Legalities:
Judge Wood Goes to Washington — Just two days after Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's sudden appearance in Washington set off a flurry of speculation about Supreme Court interviews, here's something that actually could be significant: — Federal Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood …
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Eric Zimmermann / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Colorado judge is latest SCOTUS name to surface
Colorado judge is latest SCOTUS name to surface
Discussion:
Law Blog
Robert Boczkiewicz / Pueblo Chiefton:
Coloradan may be considered for high court
Coloradan may be considered for high court
Discussion:
Colorado Independent
David Beard / Boston Globe:
Powell to Rush, Cheney: Room For Me Among ‘Emerging’ Republican Party — Colin Powell issued a sharp rebuke Tuesday night to Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney for trying to exclude him from the backbiting Republican Party. — Before some 1,500 business leaders in Boston …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Moderate Voice, Think Progress, Hot Air, The Page, Cold Fury, Gateway Pundit and Newsweek Blogs
Newt Gingrich / Human Events:
Why Pelosi Should Step Down — The case against Nancy Pelosi remaining Speaker of the House is as simple as it is devastating: — The person who is No. 2 in line to be commander in chief can't have contempt for the men and women who protect our nation. America can't afford it.
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Mark Murray / MSNBC:
FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA VS. CHENEY
FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA VS. CHENEY
Discussion:
The Enterprise Blog, Balance of Power, New York Times, MoJo Blog Posts and The Washington Independent
Peter Hamby / CNN:
RNC showdown over ‘socialist’ resolution may be avoided — OXON HILL, Maryland (CNN) — Members of the Republican National Committee appear to have reached a compromise that would let GOP leaders avoid a possible dispute over a controversial resolution that calls on Democrats to re-name their party the “Democrat Socialist party.”
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Associated Press:
Clinton: Iran can't have nuclear arms capability — WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that a nuclear-armed Iran is “going to spark an arms race” in the Middle East. — In an appearance before a Senate Appropriations panel, Clinton reiterated …
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Eric Zimmermann / The Hill:
Clinton-era hard drive missing from archives — A massive amount of sensitive, national security-related information from the Clinton administration has gone missing from the national archives. — The Inspector General of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) …
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David Johnston / New York Times:
Investigation Into Huge Loss of Computerized Clinton Data
Investigation Into Huge Loss of Computerized Clinton Data
Discussion:
Newsweek Blogs
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Cheney Grabs a Third Term — Dick and Rummy are at Cafe Milano in Georgetown, holding court. The maître d' fawns. Waiters hover. Tourists snap pics on their digital cameras. Cable chatterers stop by to ingratiate themselves. — It isn't so much that Dick and Rummy are back.
Discussion:
Commentary, The Atlantic Politics Channel, No More Mister Nice Blog, RedState and JammieWearingFool
ABCNEWS:
America's Richest Givers Hold Secret Meeting — Oprah, Gates, Buffett Gather in NY to Compare Notes About Charity, Economy — Under a cloak of secrecy, some of the world's wealthiest people gathered in an unprecedented meeting early this month in New York City possibly to coordinate strategies …
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Democrats' Assault On the CIA — In a little over 100 days, the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have delivered a series of blows to the pride and morale of the Central Intelligence Agency. — It began with the release of the Justice Department memos …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, DownWithTyranny!, First Draft, protein wisdom, Commentary and TPMMuckraker
C. J. Chivers / New York Times:
Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands — KABUL — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.
Discussion:
Shadow Government, USA Today, Democracy in America, The Page, NPR Blogs, ATTACKERMAN and Registan.net
Quinnipiac University:
Christie Has 23-Point Lead In New Jersey GOP Primary, Quinnipiac University New Jersey Poll Finds; Corzine, With Low Approval, Gains No Ground On Christie — Two weeks before the primary in the New Jersey Governor's race, former federal prosecutor Christopher Christie leads former Bogota …
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
Feinstein: California prisons are ‘eminently capable of holding’ Guantanamo detainees. — Since President Obama announced his goal to shut down the Guantanamo prison, conservatives have fearmongered that it would mean terrorists would be coming to Americans' “backyards.”