Top Items:
The Caucus:
White House Blocks Testimony on Party Crashers — Updated | 10:22 p.m. The White House on Wednesday invoked the separation of powers to keep Desiree Rogers, President Obama's social secretary, from testifying on Capitol Hill about how a couple of aspiring reality television show celebrities crashed …
Discussion:
Stop The ACLU, American Power, Washington Post, Balkinization, Prairie Weather and TPMDC
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Josh Rogin / The Cable:
Exclusive: White House aides insisted F-22 be removed from Obama speech venue — When President Obama spoke to troops at Alaska's Elmendorf Air Force Base last month, the unit there parked a shiny new F-22 fighter plane in the hanger. But according to multiple sources …
Robin Givhan / Washington Post:
Rogers's unwanted new guest: Scrutiny — Social secretary's managerial style faces criticism in wake of her first state dinner — On the night of the Obamas' first state dinner, White House social secretary Desirée Rogers glided past the rope line of press and photographers at 6:53 p.m. …
CBS News:
White House: July 2011 Is Locked In for Afghanistan Withdrawal — Posted by Chip Reid During the Senate Armed Services hearing today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was pressed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. on whether the July 2011 date for beginning to withdrawal troops is “locked in.”
Discussion:
The Politico, The Sundries Shack, USA Today, Hot Air, JOSHUAPUNDIT and Taegan Goddard's …
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill — ALBANY — The State Senate defeated a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights, family and history. The vote means that the bill, pushed by Gov. David A. Paterson …
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool, Joe. My. God., Gothamist, NY Daily News, Newsweek Blogs, Towleroad News #gay, nysenate.gov/blog, The Awl, CNN, Syracuse Post-Standard, Opinion L.A., Hot Air, Think Progress, Paper Chase, Gawker, AmSpecBlog, The Page, Prairie Weather, Redhot, Indecision Forever, Washington Monthly, DISSENTING JUSTICE, TPM LiveWire, msnbc.com, Truthdig and Feministe
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The Huffington Post:
GOP Senator Pens Obstruction Manual For Health Care — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Sen. Judd Gregg, (R-NH) has penned the equivalent of an obstruction manual — a how-to for holding up health care reform — and has distributed the document to his Republican colleagues.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, White House.gov Blog Feed, Ezra Klein, TPMDC, Raw Story, The Lonely Conservative and Washington Monthly
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Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
Senate Dems prep for hardball tactics in health debate after floor strategizing
Senate Dems prep for hardball tactics in health debate after floor strategizing
CNN:
McCain challenges Obama in private meeting
McCain challenges Obama in private meeting
Discussion:
Washington Post, Matthew Yglesias, Riehl World View, Wonk Room, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, MyDD, The Hill and Wonkette
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over ‘Climategate’ — Leaked e-mails allegedly undermining climate change science should be treated as a criminal matter, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Wednesday afternoon. — Boxer, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee …
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Flopping Aces, Gateway Pundit, Confederate Yankee, Eschaton and AmSpecBlog
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U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders:
RELEASE: SANDERS PUTS HOLD ON BERNANKE — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today placed a hold on the nomination of Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. — “The American people overwhelmingly voted last year for a change in our national priorities to put the interests …
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Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:
Senator Moves to Hold Up Bernanke Confirmation
Senator Moves to Hold Up Bernanke Confirmation
Discussion:
naked capitalism
Katherine Goldstein / The Huffington Post:
ClimateGate: The 7 Biggest Lies About The Supposed “Global Warming Hoax” — A few weeks ago, hackers broke into the emails of one of the Climate Research Unit of The University of East Anglia, and climate skeptics have been having a field day making mountains out of molehills about what the emails contain.
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Tiger Woods:
Tiger comments on current events — I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Guardian, The Market Ticker, Jules Crittenden, Mashable!, QandO, SFGate, ChattahBox News Blog, The Huffington Post, Hot Air and AmSpecBlog
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Manu Raju / The Politico:
Franken fallout has GOP fuming — Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes. — The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn't doing much to stop them.
Spencer Morgan / New York Observer:
Rrrowl! Beware Cougar's Young Niece, the Cheetah — The cheetah is most often a just-one-of-the-guys girl. That's her cover. In nature, a cheetah will lurk in the high grass and use her spots as camouflage. — I called up an accomplished and self-described cougar named Angela …
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Ezra Klein:
If you give away the public option, what do you get? — Most of the energy in the Senate right now is being directed into a mad rush for compromise proposals on the public option. This reflects the sense that the right compromise on the public option is a compromised public option.
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Erin Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Anderson Cooper's Ratings Plummet — Anderson Cooper is fading in the ratings. — The respected CNN anchor has seen his numbers slip significantly through the past year. His 10 p.m. show, “Anderson Cooper 360,” has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 from November 2008, according to Nielsen figures.
Lee Davidson / Deseret News:
Utahns growing tired of Bennett — Poll shows most want a change — but rivals trail far behind senator — Two of every three Utahns want to see Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, ousted in his re-election bid next year. — However, all of the challengers seeking to unseat him currently trail far behind …
Vidya Rao / msnbc.com:
‘Family Ties’ mom: ‘I am a lesbian’ — Meredith Baxter says she has been dating women for the past seven years — For seven years, actress Meredith Baxter has been hiding a secret. — Now Baxter, who played the devoted hippie mom constantly butting heads with her conservative kids on “Family Ties,” is making a public admission.
Kos / Daily Kos:
Sens. Feinstein and Durbins attack on citizen journalism — The Senate is currently considering a media shield law, pushed by media outfits that want federal protection for their journalists. — The legislation originally had a broad definition of “journalist”, but that was curtailed thanks …
Scott McLemee / Inside Higher Ed:
Decline of the West — Ten years ago, in the final pages of a collection of his selected writings, Cornel West gave readers a look at the work he had in progress, or at least in mind, for the years ahead. One would be “a major treatment of African-American literature and modern Greek literature.”
Michelle Malkin:
Unbelievable update: The crappiest NYTimes column on Obamacare just got crappier; Update: Kristof's disingenuous non-response — Scroll for updates...Kristof non-responds...holes remain... Today, I did something that Pulitzer Prize-winning NYTimes columnist Nick Kristof apparently didn't do …
Adam Ciralsky / Vanity Fair:
Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy — Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial …