Top Items:
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
EXCLUSIVE: Dems ‘Almost Certain’ to Bypass Conference — Now that both the House and Senate have passed health care reform bills, all Democrats have to do is work out a compromise between the two versions. And it appears they're not about to let the Republicans gum up the works again.
Discussion:
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Top House Liberal Rips Dem Plan To Skip Conference To Pass Health Care — Uh oh. Looks like the Dem leadership's plan to quickly pass health care reform by skipping House-Senate conference negotiations has further alienated House liberals — a potential problem, since liberal support …
Jessica Kutch / SEIU:
Hell Freezes Over: Rush Limbaugh Loves Union Hospitals and Socialized Medicine — Over the past year of Obama's presidency, conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh has routinely mocked, distorted and even invented various health insurance reform proposals before Congress.
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Blue Texan / Firedoglake:
Dear Right-Wing Bedwetters: George H.W. Bush Sought to Try Lockerbie Terrorists in US Court — Pictured: a terrorist-enabling ACLU civil liberties extremist — Jim DeMint, summing up the ZOMG-you-can't-give-these-terrists-a- trial meme on Sunday. … But back before Republicans reflexively went …
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BBC:
‘Missing arms spark Yemen alert’
‘Missing arms spark Yemen alert’
Discussion:
Newshoggers.com, Atlas Shrugs, Outside The Beltway, The Jawa Report, Fox News, The TrogloPundit and Washington Times
Tom Coghlan / Times of London: Freed Guantánamo inmates are heading for Yemen to join al-Qaeda fight
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Inside Obama's War on Terrorism — The evening before he was sworn into office, Barack Obama stepped out of Blair House, the government residence where he was staying across from the White House, and climbed into an armored limousine for the ride to a bipartisan dinner.
Discussion:
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Former Bush Officials Refusing to Endorse Policies They Support Out of Pique — Peter Baker's article on John Brennan and Obama-era counterterrorism is pretty conventional “friendly profile of important government official” stuff. But this is a good break with convention that more reporters should engage in:
msnbc.com:
Al-Qaida double-agent killed CIA officers — Officials: Perpetrator of Afghan attack was supposed to infiltrate al-Qaida — The suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan last week was carried out by a Jordanian doctor who was an al-Qaida double-agent, Western intelligence officials told NBC News.
Discussion:
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Republican retirements mount in House — The decision by South Carolina Rep. Henry Brown to retire brings Republican retirements to 14, a number that, if it continues to rise in the coming months, could curtail the expected GOP gains in the House in November.
Discussion:
The Palmetto Scoop, The Atlantic Politics Channel, MyDD, National Review Online and TPMDC
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Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Group Gives Up Death Penalty Work — Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it. — There were other important death penalty developments last year …
Christina Bellantoni / TPMDC:
Democrats Considering Health Care-Immigration Deal To Overcome Key Sticking Point — Lawmakers who want to extend health coverage to illegal immigrants will not block the passage of the final health care reform bill so long as the White House offers a substantive promise to start pushing comprehensive immigration legislation this year.
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Aaron Blake / The Hill:
Staff walks out on party-switcher Griffith — Rep. Parker Griffith's (Ala.) staff has resigned en masse after his recent decision to switch parties and become a Republican. — In a sternly worded statement, Griffith Chief of Staff Sharon Wheeler announced the exit of herself …
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Andy Birkey / Minnesota Independent:
Quist: Defeating liberals a bigger battle than defeating terrorism — Allen Quist, a Republican who is seeking to defeat Rep. Tim Walz in southern Minnesota's First Congressional District, told attendees of the Wabasha County Republicans Christmas Party in mid-December that beating the …
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
‘N-Word’ Sign Dogs Would-Be Tea Party Leader — Dale Robertson, a Tea Party activist who operates TeaParty.org, is getting stung for an old photo — taken at the Feb. 27, 2009 Tea Party in Houston — in which he holds a sign reading “Congress = Slaveowner, Taxpayer = Niggar.”
Agence France Presse:
New US flight checks ‘discriminate against Nigeria’ — Buzz up! — ABUJA (AFP) - Nigeria, home of the failed US plane bomber, Monday branded new security measures for passengers flying to the United States unfair and said they amounted to discrimination against its 150 million people.
Adam C. Smith / St. Petersburg Times:
The man behind RedState.com shakes up the Republican Party — Erick Erickson, 34, has emerged as one of the leading new voices for Republican activists through his blog, RedState.com. — Times] — MACON, Ga. — Between pecks at his laptop, Macon City Council member Erick Erickson ticked off some of his goals for the new year:
Political Punch:
President Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department — President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department. — In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality's board of directors …
Jeffrey Gettleman / New York Times:
U.S. Evangelicals' Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push — KAMPALA, Uganda — Last March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived here in Uganda's capital to give a series of talks.
Jerry Markon / Washington Post:
Appeals court upholds Moussaoui's conviction, life prison term — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the conviction and life prison term of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. court in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Hendrik Hertzberg / New Yorker:
UM, PATHETIC — “All violent feelings have the same effect,” John Ruskin wrote, in one of his most famous essays. “They produce in us a falseness in all our impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the ‘Pathetic Fallacy.’ ” Ruskin published “Of the Pathetic Fallacy” …
Curt Schilling / 38 Pitches:
Rarely does it ever feel like... We can truly make a difference. January 19th, here in Massachusetts, that can all change. — Scott Brown is going to provide this state with the once in a lifetime chance to change this country forever. — I won't get into specifics, since if this matters you already know them.
Ronald Kessler / NewsMax.com:
Secret Service Let Third Intruder Into White House — Michaele and Tareq Salahi were not the only uninvited guests at the White House state dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. — At the last minute, someone from the Indian diplomatic delegation invited a man to attend …
Discussion:
Political Punch, The Caucus, NewsReal Blog, Hot Air, Mediaite and The Lonely Conservative
CNN:
Mayor digs in after Twitter appeal — New York (CNN) - Need help from city hall? If you are looking for a quick response, you might want to send a “tweet” as well as making that customary phone call. — The daughter of a 65-year-old Newark man did just that when she used Twitter …
Andrew Breitbart / Big Government:
White House Spokeswoman Says Different Bertha Lewis on Visitor's Log — UPDATE: According to Politico's Ben Smith, the Bertha Lewis who went to the White House is not ACORN's CEO but another woman named “Bertha Lewis.” I contacted Smith to tell him that Big Government would offer a correction if the …
Discussion:
HillBuzz
Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
RNC Funding Northern Mariana Islands — The RNC has transferred $20K to the Northern Mariana Islands in the past 2 months, according to FEC reports, in what could be support for local candidates or, RNC critics say, political payback. — The transfers, made in Oct. and Nov. …
Umar Lee:
Thoughts on the Underwear Bomber and the Aftermath — Obama has went where the Bush Administration never fully went; the explicit profiling of Muslim passengers. Granted there was kind of an unspoken rule during the Bush Administration but now it has gone further. What are my thoughts?