memeorandum: Tom Udall on Fixing the Senate: “We've Gotten Ourselves Into A Box” (David Dayen/Firedoglake)

4:50 PM ET, January 28, 2010

Top Items:

Justice Alito mouths ‘not true’ — POLITICO's Kasie Hunt, who's in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision. — “Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century …

New York Times:

Text: Obama's State of the Union Address — Following is the prepared text of President Obama's State of the Union address, delivered Jan. 27, 2010, as released by the White House: — Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Justice Alito's conduct and the Court's credibility — As I wrote at the time, I thought the condemnations of Rep. Joe Wilson's heckling of Barack Obama during his September health care speech were histrionic and excessive. Wilson and Obama are both political actors, it occurred in the middle …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, TalkLeft, PostPartisan, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Crooks and Liars, The Caucus, The New Republic and The BLT

Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:

Justice Alito's Reaction — There was the president, and there were six members of the Supreme Court. The few words from the one to the others went by quickly. The president's tone was mild compared to the animation in some other parts of the speech, and I thought he looked momentarily awkward.

Discussion: The New Republic, Power Line, The Corner on National …, Reaganite Republican, The Daily Beast, The Caucus, Left Coast Rebel, Top of the Ticket, The Lonely Conservative, POWIP, Wizbang, Swampland and AmSpecBlog

Bob Cusack / The Hill:

After Obama rips lobbyists, K St. insiders get private briefings — A day after bashing lobbyists, President Barack Obama's administration has invited K Street insiders to join private briefings on a range of topics addressed in Wednesday's State of the Union.

Discussion: Pundits Blog, The Lonely Conservative, The Atlantic Politics Channel and QandO

Kevin Hechtkopf Updated / CBS News:
Poll: 83% of Speech Watchers Approve of Obama's State of the Union Proposals

Discussion: Democracy Corps, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Pollster.com All Content, Ezra Klein, American Prospect, Newsweek Blogs, PoliBlog, Grist, TPMDC, Erick's blog, Sadly, No!, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, News Hounds, The Politico and Washington Monthly

National Review:
Enter Your E-Mail Address to Sign Up

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, protein wisdom, The Corner on National …, NewsBusters.org, Conventional Folly, Cato @ Liberty, Right Wing Nut House and Hot Air

Adam Winkler / The Huffington Post:
Alito Was Rude (But Right)

Discussion: Townhall.com

Emptywheel:
The Word Not Spoken: Foreclosure

Discussion: The Huffington Post and American Power

Michael Gerson / PostPartisan:
State of the Union: Obama's reality problem

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Scared Monkeys, Commentary, The New Republic, Stop The ACLU and Neptunus Lex

Randy Barnett / The Politico:
State of the Union: How did he do? — Professor, Georgetown University Law Center :

Discussion: OpenSecrets.org, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Mahablog and Balkinization

Peter Wehner / Politics Daily:
A Self-Reverential State of the Union Address

Discussion: Washington Post

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

AP's ten whoppers from the SOTU speech — Only ten? Maybe the Associated Press got as tired as everyone else listening to Barack Obama's lengthy State of the Union speech last night and stopped paying attention after an hour. AP's headline focuses on the “toothless commission” …

Discussion: Big Government, Gateway Pundit and The Greenroom

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Where Clinton Turned Right, Obama Plowed Ahead

Discussion: The Politico

Calvin Woodward / Associated Press:
FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative and 2.0: The Blogmocracy

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

I Just Remembered Chris Matthews Was White — Here's Matthews on Obama: … I think it's worth noting that Chris Matthews wasn't trying to take a shot at anybody. I also think it's worth noting that he was attempting to compliment Obama and say something positive about what he's done for race relations.

Discussion: Michael Calderone's Blog, News Desk, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Newsweek Blogs, The Other McCain, ATTACKERMAN, A plain blog about politics and Top of the Ticket

Charles McGrath / New York Times:

J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author, Dies at 91 — J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous …

Discussion: ArtsBeat

Michael Calderone / The Politico:

MSNBC: Shuster tweets ‘inappropriate’ — MSNBC may be obsessed with the four men arrested for trying to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu's telephones, but the network says reporter David Shuster crossed the line when he attacked one of them via Twitter. — Just before leaving for New Orleans …

Discussion: Big Journalism, Hot Air, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Mediaite, NewsBusters.org, Patterico's Pontifications, Media Matters for America and TPM LiveWire

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Landrieu: Bill on “life support” — If President Barack Obama hoped his State of the Union speech would revive the health care debate on Capitol Hill, signs of movement were not immediately apparent Thursday. — Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said health care reform “is on life support …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Fix, Matthew Yglesias, Hot Air, Ezra Klein, TPMDC, Dennis the Peasant, QandO, Wonk Room and The Page

Walter Alarkon / The Hill:

Senate OKs debt ceiling hike to $14.3T — Senate Democrats passed a $1.9 trillion increase in the federal debt limit Thursday, seeking to push off another politically painful debt vote until after the midterm elections. — All 60 Democrats and no Republicans voted for the debt limit increase.

Discussion: The Swamp, theblogprof and Gateway Pundit

Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:
Senate permits gov't to borrow an additional $1.9T

Discussion: QandO and Moonbattery

Noam N. Levey / Los Angeles Times:
Pelosi suggests maneuver to pass healthcare overhaul

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, USA Today and The Swamp

Justin Elliott / TPMMuckraker:

Judge Orders 25-Year-Old O'Keefe To Live With His Parents — As if James O'Keefe hasn't suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator's office, getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered …

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Washington Independent, Open Left, USA Today, Media Matters for America, New Orleans Times-Picayune and Newsweek Blogs

Sarah Ebner / Times of London:

Scientists in stolen e-mail scandal hid climate data — Ben Webster, Environment Editor, and Jonathan Leake — The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.

Discussion: The Corner on National …, Pajamas Media, The Huffington Post, Vox Popoli and Stop The ACLU

Kleinheider / Post Politics:

Blackburn Will Not Attend Opryland Tea Party Convention — From Blackburn spokesman Claude Chafin: … From Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn herself: … The Tea Party Convention and its sponsor organization, Tea Party Nation, have been under fire as of late by former members of the group.

Discussion: TPMMuckraker, The Hill and Mother Jones

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Reps. back out of tea party event

Discussion: Think Progress

Erin McPike / Hotline On Call:

Hackers Hit House Websites — Hackers struck at least 10 House websites overnight, substituting expletives aimed at Pres. Obama just hours after his State of the Union address. — The hackers targeted many House Dem freshmen, including Reps. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Harry Teague (D-NM) …

Discussion: The Politico and The Atlantic Politics Channel

Praetorian Prefect:
Congressional Web Site Defacements Follow the State of the Union

Discussion: Washington Wire, At-Largely and ReadWriteWeb

Joe / Joe. My. God.:

Photo Of The Day -Joint Chiefs Of Staff React To Obama's DADT Message — UPDATE: For those of you saying that protocol demands that the Joint Chiefs remain passive and non-reactive during presidential speeches, here's how they lept to their feet to applaud the president's threat to stick it to Iran over their nuclear program.

Discussion: Think Progress and The Daily Dish

Rasmussen Reports:

Election 2010: Wisconsin Senate — Wisconsin Senate: Thompson 47%, Feingold 43% — One more Democratic senator who has long been regarded as a safe prospect for reelection may be facing a challenging year in 2010. — A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters …

Discussion: This ain't Hell …, Hot Air and Scorecard's Blog

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Pelosi: Obama's Health Care Appeal “Very Powerful” And “Helpful To Us” — There've been some rumblings among House Dems that Obama's speech last night, despite its urgent appeal for passage of health reform, didn't chart out a specific enough road map for Congress to break its logjam on the issue.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos and Swampland

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

Pentagon To Announce Some “Don't Ask” Details Next Week — Before President Obama announced last night that he would work with Congress and the Pentagon to end the military's ban on service by gays and lesbians, the White House consulted Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Ben Smith's Blog, The Washington Independent and AMERICAblog Gay

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:

SEC to require disclosure of climate change risks — A politically divided Securities and Exchange Commission voted on Wednesday to make clear when companies must provide information to investors about the business risks associated with climate change. — The commission, in a 3 to 2 vote …

Discussion: Hot Air, Dennis the Peasant, Ezra Klein and Moonbattery

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Giannoulias leads Kirk in poll — In a reminder that contested primaries can be a good thing Alexi Giannoulias has jumped out to a 42-34 lead over Mark Kirk in the race to be Illinois' next Senator. When PPP last looked at such a match up in April the two were tied at 35.

Discussion: The Hill

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

Tom Udall on Fixing the Senate: “We've Gotten Ourselves Into A Box” — While Barack Obama called for bipartisan solutions to the country's nagging problems, and discussed the growing lack of faith in public institutions, a simple read between the lines shows that he was really focusing …

Discussion: Ezra Klein

dallasfed.org:

Economic Letter—Insights from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — Vol. 5, No. 1 — Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — A Historical Look at the Labor Market During Recessions — Turmoil in housing, credit and financial markets plunged the U.S. economy into a recession that has taken a heavy toll on the labor market.

Discussion: Economix

Daniel B. Klein / Originals:

Why So Few Conservative And Libertarian Professors? — Two researchers offer a new twist on an old question—why do college professors overwhelmingly lean to the left? Bias against conservatives is not the main reason, nor are the allegedly higher IQs of liberals, say Neil Gross …

Discussion: AmSpecBlog and The Corner on National …

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Feinstein says Obama should move terror trials from NYC — President Barack Obama should order the trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other accused terrorists moved out of New York City, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Thursday. — Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee …

Discussion: Associated Press, HillBuzz, Gothamist and Runnin' Scared