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Brown: SNL Sketch ‘Pretty Funny’ — By: Robert Costa — The GOP isn't the only flagging franchise that Senator-elect Scott Brown (R., Mass.) is helping to revive. Tonight on NBC's Saturday Night Live, host Jon Hamm, best known as the dashing Don Draper of AMC's Mad Men, portrayed Brown in a sketch …
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Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in ‘No Child’ Law — The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination …


Breaking: Adam Andrzejewski Surges to Within 2 Points in Latest Polling (Updated) — Illinois Gubernatorial Candidate and conservative Adam Andrzejewski rallied supporters in O'Fallon, Illinois this afternoon. — It was a standing room only crowd. — While campaigning in O'Fallon …

US raises stakes on Iran by deploying missile shield — Pentagon says Patriot shield will deter strike on American allies in the Gulf — Tension between the US and Iran heightened dramatically today with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect American allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran.


Gibbs: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Likely to be Executed — Why Even Have a Trial? — White House press spokesman Robert Gibbs just said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) would likely be executed after trial and conviction. WTF?!? — Am I the only person left who still remembers a legal concept called presumption of innocence?
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Sister Toldjah, The Lonely Conservative, The Moderate Voice, NY Daily News, TalkLeft and New York Times
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Paul Krugman Calls Fox News “Deliberate Misinformation” to Roger Ailes' Face on National Television — I have no idea why Jabba the Ailes decided to appear on “This Week” — but after this beatdown by Krugman, I doubt he'll be back. — Notice Jabba doesn't refute Krugman's charge.

What “Ailes” Cable News? Rupe Murdoch's Evil Genius — What's Your Reaction: … “If it were raining cookies,” Jon Stewart joked the other night, “Fox News would probably say, “'Democrats Leave Millions of Americans Milkless. Fox News has been in the news a lot this week.


‘Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on Feb. 11’ — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the “global arrogance” on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. — “The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race …


Democrats quietly working to resuscitate healthcare overhaul — While the focus shifts to legislation on jobs, party leaders are taking advantage of a cooling-off period to strategize, seek a new compromise and improve the public's opinion of the legislation.


American Family Association Radio Host: It's Time To Imprison All Gays — American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer has called for sending homosexuals to prison for forced reparative therapy, a move he says is sanctioned by the Bible. Below, he responds to an email from a complaining listener.
Discussion:
Truth Wins Out


Boehner Rejects Bipartisanship — I think John Boehner has a reasonable take on the question of bipartisanship: … I think that's right, and it's reflected in the fact that the US House of Representative is a fairly well-functioning legislative body. It's a body organized around …

What's the matter with you Americans? — More years ago than I'll admit, I was a student in a class of the man who became my mentor, Tom Willett. The course was in economics and public policy, and the early part of the syllabus had us read on the nature of arguing about economics.
Discussion:
Stop The ACLU


Chicago cools to Barack Obama, its hometown boy — “WE'RE what you might call an opinion-based barbershop,” proclaims Clemon Clay, the owner of Gordy's barbers on the South Side of Chicago. “Equal parts politics and haircutting.” — With its chess set, slot machine …
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Republicans hope for another Senate victory, this time in Obama's Illinois
Discussion:
SENATUS


A Democracy With Accountability — A stark contrast to the US where those who launched the Iraq war and instituted torture are deemed unprosecutable, immune from public accountability and many of them given platforms as if they have nothing to account for and nothing to apologize for.
Discussion:
Eunomia

ABC News and the public shaming of John Edwards — Call it the public shaming of John Edwards. — ABC News attracted a large audience Friday night of 8.1 million viewers for its hourlong interview/report with Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide whose new book, “The Politician,” …


War spending surges in 2011 budget — President Barack Obama's new budget, to be released Monday, forecasts two consecutive years of near $160 billion in war funding, far more than he hoped when elected and only modestly less than the last years of the Bush Administration.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org

Forces Pushing Obama to Act on Gays in Military — WASHINGTON — President Obama and top Pentagon officials met repeatedly over the past year about repealing “don't ask, don't tell,” the law that bans openly gay members of the military. — But it was in Oval Office strategy sessions …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay

Secondhand Sources — “Game Change,” the gossipy reconstruction of the 2008 presidential election that opens today atop The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list, is filled with racy anecdotes about dysfunctional marriages and political back-stabbing. What it does not have are identifiable sources.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Michael Calderone's Blog, Mediaite, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and TigerHawk
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