Top Items:
Ed Whelan / Bench Memos:
My Apologies to Publius — On reflection, I now realize that, completely apart from any debate over our respective rights and completely apart from our competing views on the merits of pseudonymous blogging, I have been uncharitable in my conduct towards the blogger who has used the pseudonym Publius.
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House, The Daily Dish, Power Line, The Moderate Voice, The Anonymous Liberal, The Skepticrats, D-Day, Balloon Juice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Winds of Change.NET, Personal Democracy Forum blogs, Outside The Beltway, Lean Left, Macsmind, QandO, The Impolitic, Southern Appeal and And So it Goes in Shreveport
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Publius / Obsidian Wings:
Moving On — Ed Whelan has written both publicly and privately and apologized. I know it was not an easy thing to do, and it is of course accepted. I therefore consider the matter done, and don't intend on writing about it anymore. — The real story here wasn't really about me anyway …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Riehl World View, Bench Memos, AmSpecBlog, The Moderate Voice, Salon, TBogg, The American Scene and The Debate Link
Jules Crittenden:
Nation Of Seventh Graders — I'm a little late to this Whelan-Publius party, but as long as the great blogosphere is speaking, I'll add my voice. I don't understand why Whelan needs to apologize for identifying a law professor who thinks he can engage in public debate and orchestrate a targeted attack on Whelan under a false name.
The Hill:
Palin beginning to irritate some Senate GOPers — Sarah Palin has begun to get on the nerves of Republican senators who say the former GOP vice presidential nominee is taking her own White House aspirations entirely too seriously. — But those same senators may have their eye …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, David Corn, Conservatives4Palin.com, Associated Press, Democracy in America and GOP 12
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Alex Isenstadt / The Politico:
Palin makes little splash at dinner — Ending weeks of she-said, they-said drama, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned in a cameo appearance at the gala fundraising dinner for her party's House and Senate candidates in Washington Monday night. — But in spite of all the back-and-forth between …
Discussion:
Scorecard's Blog, Conservatives4Palin.com, Comedy Central Insider Blog, Macsmind and The New Republic
Heidi Przybyla / Bloomberg:
Gingrich at Republican Fundraiser Says Obama's ‘Already Failed’
Gingrich at Republican Fundraiser Says Obama's ‘Already Failed’
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Swamp, Fox News, Politics Nation, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Taylor Marsh, The Reaction, Annapolis … and Raw Story
Frank J. Gaffney Jr / Washington Times:
GAFFNEY: America's first Muslim president? — During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton — someone Judge Sonia Sotomayor might call a “white male” — was dubbed “America's first black president” by a black admirer. Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Annals of religion — And the Muslim attack comes roaring back from the political fringe today with a Washington Times op-ed by Frank Gaffney that concedes while he isn't — “necessarily” — a Muslim, there is a valid Hitler comparison to make: — This is not to say, necessarily …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Banks Repaying TARP Money to Uncuff Themselves from Regulation — Looks like a bunch of banks are going to repay their TARP money and thus get out from under the burdens of executive compensation restrictions and other TARP-related regulations. That said, merely repaying the funds won't change …
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Associated Press:
10 Banks Allowed to Repay $68B in Bailout Money — WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has approved 10 of the nation's largest banks to repay $68 billion in government bailout money. — The department on Tuesday said the banks, which were not named, will be allowed to repay the money …
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Not All Abortions Are Equal — The case of Dr. George Tiller, murdered just over a week ago in the lobby of his church, helps explain why so many people believe that abortion should be available at any stage of pregnancy. — Tiller did abortions in third trimester, when almost no one else would do them …
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Monica Davey / New York Times:
Murdered Doctor's Abortion Clinic Shuttered — The Wichita abortion clinic run by a doctor who was shot and killed will remain closed permanently, his family said on Tuesday. — Dr. George R. Tiller's clinic was one of the few in the country to provide abortions to women late in their pregnancies …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:
CIA Urges Judge To Keep Bush-Era Documents Sealed — Al-Qaeda Could Use Contents, Agency Says — The Obama administration objected yesterday to the release of certain Bush-era documents that detail the videotaped interrogations of CIA detainees at secret prisons, arguing to a federal judge …
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Defeat of Graham-Lieberman and the ongoing war on transparency
Defeat of Graham-Lieberman and the ongoing war on transparency
Discussion:
Campaign Silo, Wonkette, TPMDC, TPMMuckraker, Firedoglake, The Daily Dish, Glenn Thrush's Blog, MoJo Blog Posts and Stop The ACLU
Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Graham: Hillary opposes release of torture pics
Graham: Hillary opposes release of torture pics
Discussion:
The Plum Line
David Brooks / New York Times:
Cautious at Heart — Sonia Sotomayor had bad timing. If she'd entered college in the late-1950s or early-1960s, she would have been surrounded by an ethos that encouraged smart young ethnic kids to assimilate. If she'd entered Princeton and Yale in the 1980s, her ethnicity and gender …
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Phil Bronstein / San Francisco Chronicle:
Love or lust, Obama and the fawning press need to get a room — When Barack Obama decided that questions from the German press about his trip agenda in that country were too pesky, he told the reporters, “So, stop it all of you!” He just wanted them to ask things he wanted to talk about.
Wall Street Journal:
The Media Fall for Phony ‘Jobs’ Claims — The Obama Numbers Are Pure Fiction. — Printer — Friendly — Tony Fratto is envious. — Mr. Fratto was a colleague of mine in the Bush administration, and as a senior member of the White House communications shop, he knows just how difficult …
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Health reform bill lacks details — The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee will release a much anticipated draft of health care reform this afternoon, but the most contentious issues, like the public insurance option and employer mandate, will be left out of the bill for now …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Blogs and Stories, New York Times, Daily Kos, The Seminal, TPMDC and Liberal Values
Newsweek:
The Top of the Class — The complete list of the 1,500 top U.S. high schools — Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors.
Michael Falcone / The Politico:
States say to feds: Get off our turf — The wave of government bailouts and the Obama administration's economic stimulus package are reviving interest in an issue that's largely been dormant since the mid-1990s: states' rights. — From Idaho to South Carolina and in dozens of other states …
Discussion:
HotMES
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David Gratzer / Wall Street Journal:
Canada's ObamaCare Precedent — Governments always ration care by making you wait. That can be deadly. — Printer — Friendly — Congressional Democrats will soon put forward their legislative proposals for reforming health care. Should they succeed, tens of millions of Americans …
On Deadline:
Judge kills suit claiming ‘crunchberrries’ aren't real fruit — This tale of an attempted cereal killing comes to you courtesy of the legal blog Lowering the Bar. — A federal judge in California has dismissed a complaint filed by a San Diego woman who had bought “Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries” …
Discussion:
Moonbattery
Emptywheel:
Leon Panetta Kisses His Credibility Goodbye — Well, that didn't take long, for a Director of Central Intelligence to totally lose his credibility in the servitude of the institution. What has it been? Three, four months? — I'll have more to say about Panetta's declaration in the ACLU FOIA case tomorrow.
Associated Press:
North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a ‘merciless offensive’ — North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.
Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
For a 2012 Contender, Some Advantages in Leaving Office — WASHINGTON — When Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota announced last week that he would not seek re-election next year - a decision widely seen in political circles as clearing the way for a presidential run in 2012 …
Megan McArdle:
Public Service Announcement for Graduating Students — I gave a talk to young journalism students last night, followed by a breakout session. I'm sure I was full of folksy, useless advice about working hard and keeping your nose clean and always calling mother on Sunday.
Discussion:
Instapundit
Ali Frick / Think Progress:
O'Reilly defends torture: ‘Look, if it were illegal, Bush and Cheney would have been arrested.’ — Fox News's Bill O'Reilly has always been one of the most outspoken defenders of torture, declaring there's “certainly no proof” that “mistreatment” ever happened at Guantanamo, and insisting it's …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish
Bruce Falconer / MoJo Sections:
Kabul's K Street Project — Help! I'm being outgunned on K Street! That's the message Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States is sending home, according to an internal government memo (PDF) obtained by Mother Jones. His complaint signals that Kabul's man in Washington has learned …
Frank Schaeffer / The Huffington Post:
Dr. Tiller, Murder, Domestic Terrorism and the Republican Right — As a former lifelong Republican from an influential family of religious right leaders, I look at the national village idiot that the Republican Party has become the way I'd contemplate a demented cousin pissing on the picnic basket at a family reunion.