memeorandum: Fannie Changes Clear Way for ‘Large-Scale’ Buyouts (Jody Shenn/Bloomberg)

6:55 PM ET, December 28, 2009

Top Items:

Crotch-Bomber Fails to Blow Up Plane, in Yet Another Disaster for Obama — There are a few ways to look at the case of the thwarted holiday crotch-bomber. On the one hand, we have a deluded fellow who, allegedly assured of eternal glory by jihadists who bade him sew explosive chemicals into his underwear …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, THE WEEK News & Opinion, American Power, CNN, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog, Pajamas Media, The Mahablog, American Spectator, Gates of Vienna and alicublog

New York Times:

Security System Failed, Napolitano Acknowledges — WASHINGTON — Backtracking from a widely criticized assertion over the weekend, the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, said in a televised interview on Monday that the thwarted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner …

Discussion: Washington Post, Real Clear Politics, Hot Air, Megan McArdle, Jules Crittenden, Time, Jeffrey Goldberg, Althouse, Mediaite, The Caucus, democracyarsenal.org, Bookworm Room, Hit & Run, Swampland, Los Angeles Times and Top Stories from CQ

Lovegetspeace / CBS News:

U.S. Failed to Catch Suspect's Active Visa — Exclusive: 2 State Dept. Checks Before Alleged Terror Attack Didn't Discover Abdulmutallab had Active Visa Allowing Entry — (CBS) By CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian. — CBS News has learned the State Department system designed …

Discussion: Hot Air, Matthew Yglesias, The Washington Independent and Sister Toldjah

Kenneth Chang / New York Times:

Explosive on Flight 253 Is Among Most Powerful — Sewn into the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a powerful plastic explosive, the authorities say. — Had Mr. Abdulmutallab, sitting in seat 19A of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday from Amsterdam to Detroit …

Discussion: American Power, Danger Room, National Review Online, Hit & Run, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Foundry, Townhall.com, Washington Monthly, Washington Wire and PoliBlog

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Obama pledges ‘thorough review’ in wake of attempted airline bombing

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Swamp, The Politico, Gateway Pundit and Politico Live's Blog

Reuters:
Dutch probe claims of Nigerian bomber accomplice

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, Hot Air, Mediaite, Political Byline, Classical Values, NPR Blogs, Gateway Pundit and Pajamas Media

Wall Street Journal:
The Terror This Time — Janet Napolitano says the system worked.

Discussion: New York Times, ABCNEWS, Washington Post, CNN, Guardian, The Politico, The Strata-Sphere, Cato @ Liberty, Taylor Marsh, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Israel Matzav and Commentary

TMZ.com:

The JFK Photo That Could Have Changed History — TMZ has obtained a never-before published photograph which appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women — it's a photo that could have altered world events. — We believe the photo was taken in the mid-1950s.

Discussion: Politics Daily, Little Green Footballs, Gawker, Mediaite, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Fausta's Blog, Atlas Shrugs, The Daily Dish and Riehl World View

The Smoking Gun:

TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax — Photo that “could have changed history” actually from a Playboy shoot — In a colossal screw-up, the gossip web site TMZ.com today published a photo purporting to show John F. Kennedy frolicking on a yacht with a harem of naked women—except …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, Vanity Fair, New York Times and ArtsBeat

TMZ.com:

Kennedy Picture — A Fake — TMZ received an email from someone who said the photo we posted showing a man appearing to be John F. Kennedy on a yacht with naked women was actually a photo from a 1967 Playboy photo shoot. — We have contacted Playboy and a rep says the photo did indeed run in one of its 1967 issues.

Discussion: La Figa and Gawker

Avi Zenilman / The Plum Line:

Tea Partiers To Republicans: You Better Call For Full Repeal of Reform, Or Else — It's now becoming clear that this could be a major issue for Republicans in 2010: the Tea Party movement, as well as high-profile conservatives, are going to demand that candidates call for a full repeal …

Discussion: The Politico, Erick's blog, Stop The ACLU, American Power, Say It Ain't So Already, Think Progress, Make Them Accountable, Top Stories from CQ and DISSENTING JUSTICE

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE MOST POPULAR ‘MTP’ GUEST OF THE YEAR.... In the previous post …

Discussion: The Plum Line

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE REPEAL LITMUS TEST.... The question of whether Republicans …

Discussion: RedState, Think Progress and The Reality-Based Community

ABCNEWS:

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S. — Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007 — Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Hot Air, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Washington Independent, Political Punch, Daily Kos, Riehl World View and AMERICAblog News

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

“Political Winners” Circle Filled by Figures Close to Obama — Americans divided in labeling Sarah Palin as a political winner or loser — PRINCETON, NJ — In Americans' estimation, the top three political winners of 2009 are all women closely linked with the Obama administration …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Politico, Politics Daily, The Hill, D.C. Now, Boston Globe, Real Clear Politics and The Political Carnival

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Now, Michelle Obama too is sliding in the polls

Discussion: Townhall.com

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:

MAX BAUCUS'S SPEECH UNDER CONSERVATIVE FIRE — “DRUNK WITH POWER? TOP DEM SLURS ON SENATE FLOOR...” reads the Drudge Report headline. — Newsbusters.org writes: “How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor?

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Washington Independent, NewsBusters.org, News Hounds, Instapundit, Scared Monkeys, Say It Ain't So Already, Left in the West, Runnin' Scared, Riehl World View, The Sundries Shack and Examiner

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Democrat Max Baucus' really, uh, passionate Senate speech …

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

GOP blame at TSA? — As Republicans seek to put the blame for the widespread perception of ineptness at the Transportation Security Administration on the Obama administration, Democrats are arguing that Republican legislators bear part of the blame and that they're politically vulnerable on the subject.

Discussion: MyDD, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Coop's Corner, TalkLeft, Little Green Footballs, msnbc.com and The Political Carnival

Peter J. Wallison / The Enterprise Blog:

Administration Won't Estimate Total Losses of Fannie and Freddie — It's a favorite government trick to announce bad news on a Friday afternoon, so it appears in Saturday's paper, the least likely edition to be read. By Sunday and Monday, it's old news. The Obama Treasury just went one better …

Jody Shenn / Bloomberg:
Fannie Changes Clear Way for ‘Large-Scale’ Buyouts

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Calculated Risk

Chris Isidore / CNNMoney.com:
Blank check sends Fannie, Freddie soaring

Discussion: Firedoglake, Calculated Risk, Reuters and Eschaton

Washington Post:

Transcript of Obama remarks on airline security and terror watch lists — President Obama's remarks Monday about airline security and this weekend's protests in Iran. The Washington Post maintains a full database of Obama's speeches here. — Good morning, everybody.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Plum Line, Commentary and Jihad Watch

TSA:
TSA Guidance for Passengers on Heightened Security Measures …

Discussion: New York Times, Boing Boing, Online NewsHour, ABCNEWS, Washington Post and WBBM-TV

The Huffington Post:

Andy Martin, GOP Senate Candidate, Accuses Opponent Mark Kirk Of Homosexuality — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — If there was any question whether or not the 2010 election season was heating up, it was dispelled on Monday morning when a Republican Senate candidate from Illinois released …

WBBM780.com:
PHOTOS RELATED TO THIS STORY - CLICK HERE

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, WBBM-TV and Raw Story

Jeffrey Goldberg:

Andrew Sullivan, Hannah Rosenthal and Neocons — Andrew Sullivan writes, in reference my charge that Hannah Rosenthal, the State Department's anti-anti-Semitism czar, made as her “first target” of criticism Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, for refusing to speak at the J Street conference:

Discussion: Political Byline and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Peter Baker / The Caucus:

Son of Obama's Friend Injured in Hawaii — Updated | 5:37 p.m. President Obama was rushed away unexpectedly from a Hawaii golf course on Monday and brought back to the beachfront compound where he has been staying because the son of one of his friends was hurt and needed stitches.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and Gawker

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Big Zero — Maybe we knew, at some unconscious, instinctive level, that it would be an era best forgotten. Whatever the reason, we got through the first decade of the new millennium without ever agreeing on what to call it. The aughts? The naughties? Whatever.

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, Wall Street Journal, DownWithTyranny!, The Agonist, Connecting.the.Dots, Ezra Klein, Gawker, The Glittering Eye, Achenblog and Prairie Weather

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

10 Questions About Terrorism, Obama and the Christmas Day Plot — The fast-moving story raises many questions, political, procedural and existential. Here are some of them: — (1) If, as ABC News reports, the plotters of the Christmas Day attack were released from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia in 2007 …

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:

What are the odds that the best chess player in the world has never played chess? — The more general issues are how well the modern world allocates talent and how much exposure you need to something you eventually will be very good at. — My view is that people who are born into a reasonably …

Discussion: The Buck Stops Here and Matthew Yglesias

Laura Northrup / The Consumerist:

AT&T Customer Service: “New York City Is Not Ready For The iPhone” — AT&T has apparently found a workable solution to the reported data congestion in New York City. They've quietly stopped selling the iPhone from their web site to customers in the New York metropolitan area.