Top Items:
Terri Cullen / Reuters:
Backdoor taxes to hit middle class — NEW YORK (Reuters.com) —The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.
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Gillian Reagan / The Wire:
Reuters Withdraws ‘Backdoor Taxes To Hit Middle Class’ Story Linked By Drudge Report — The lead story at DrudgeReport.com as of 11:30 a.m. this morning was “**REUTERS: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class.” But Reuters withdrew the article last night. Drudge noted the change and wrote …
Christina Bellantoni / TPM LiveWire:
White House Gets Reuters To Pull Budget Story — Obama administration aides appealed to the Reuters White House reporting team to kill a story by another reporter of the news service that suggested the president's new budget blueprint included “backdoor” tax hikes.
Discussion:
Gawker
Reuters:
Advisory: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class — Buzz up! — The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week. — Related Searches: — Buzz up!
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
Top Defense Officials Seek to End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' — WASHINGTON — The nation's top two Defense officials called for an end on Tuesday to the 16-year-old “don't ask, don't tell” law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the United States military for the first time in its history.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, CBS News, The Note, DISSENTING JUSTICE, The Hill, Room for Debate, democracyarsenal.org, INSTAPUTZ, Prop 8 Trial Tracker, Indecision Forever, Raw Story, The Politico, Washington Monthly, Law Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, TPM LiveWire, ACS Blog, Shakesville, Towleroad News #gay, Boing Boing and SENATUS
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Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
McCain appears to shift stance on 'don't ask, don't tell' policy — Three years ago, Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was pretty clear about his stand on the military's “don't ask, don't tell” policy. — A former war hero, McCain said he would support ending the ban once the military's top brass told him they were okay with it.
Kos / Daily Kos:
The 2010 Comprehensive Daily Kos/Research 2000 Poll of Self-Identified Republicans — As I've mentioned before, I'm putting the finishing touches on my new book, American Taliban, which catalogues the ways in which modern-day conservatives share the same agenda as radical Jihadists in the Islamic world.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, Ezra Klein, Newsweek Blogs, Progressive Fix, The Moderate Voice, Feministe, race42008.com, Little Green Footballs, NewsBusters.org, Conservatives4Palin.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, TPMDC, The Washington Independent, Discourse.net, Swampland, Liberal Values, Althouse, 24Ahead and The Impolitic
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Rahm Apologizes / Political Punch:
Rahm Apologizes for Privately Calling Liberal Activists “Retarded” — Paulson: I Was Afraid McCain Would Change Mind and Go Against TARP — Brennan: All Transferred Detainees Who Returned to Terrorism Were Released by Bush, No Recidivism for Those Released by Obama
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool
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Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Blanche Lincoln Poll — John Boozman will enter the Arkansas Senate race this weekend as the frontrunner. He leads incumbent Blanche Lincoln by an amazing 56-33 margin in our first poll of the race. — Lincoln's approval rating has sunk to just 27%, with 62% of voters in the state disapproving of her.
Ezra Klein:
Rep. Paul Ryan's daring budget proposal — The White House's 2011 budget is only the second-most interesting budget proposal released recently. First prize goes to Congressman Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, who's released a budget proposal that actually erases the massive long-term deficit.
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Paul Ryan's Budget Alternative: Massive Rationing
Paul Ryan's Budget Alternative: Massive Rationing
Discussion:
The League of Ordinary …
National Post:
N.L. Premier Williams set to have heart surgery in U.S. — ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States. — Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday …
Discussion:
CBC News, Big Government, Hot Air, Flopping Aces, The TrogloPundit, American Power, The Foundry, Hyscience, The Jawa Report and Fausta's Blog
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama takes another dig at Las Vegas — President Barack Obama on Tuesday took another dig at Las Vegas at his New Hampshire town hall Tuesday after similar remarks got him into hot water last year. — Obama said that people should now “blow a bunch of cash in Vegas” during a tough recession.
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Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Reid: Senate can't pass reconciliation first, decision hopefully by next week — Emerging from a meeting Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hopes Democrats can decide by next week on a way to move the health care bill forward.
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Durbin and Schumer prepare for fight with donations to Senate colleagues
Durbin and Schumer prepare for fight with donations to Senate colleagues
Sally Jenkins / Washington Post:
Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are — I'll spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead: Tim Tebow is one of the better things to happen to young women in some time. I realize this stance won't endear me to the …
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah, The Other McCain, NewsBusters.org, Hot Air, Wizbang, Betsy's Page, RedState and Feministe
Patrick O'Connor / The Politico:
Hoyer walks back week-end prediction — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday that he doesn't “think time's running out” for Congress to do health care reform - but he's not making any predictions about when things will get back on track.
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Futile Struggle Against Free Content — David Goldman writes about falling music sales: … Music industry executives can tell themselves that as long as they want. But under conditions of perfect competition, the price of a song ought to be equal to the marginal cost of distributing a new copy of a song.
Discussion:
Conventional Folly
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David Goldman / CNNMoney.com:
Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half
Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half
Discussion:
The Atlantic Business Channel
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Limbaugh ‘thanks God every day’ for Obama's political problems — Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said that he “thank[s] God every day” for the political difficulties facing President Barack Obama. — Limbaugh told Fox News in an interview to air on “Fox and Friends” …
ABCNEWS:
Jenny Sanford: Husband Refused to Be Faithful in Wedding Vows — S.C. First Lady Tells Barbara Walters: ‘I Thought He Loved Me in His Own Way, Which Is Not a Warm, Bubbly Way’ — South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford recalls how she made the “leap of faith” to marry husband Gov. Mark Sanford …
Mary Pilon / Wall Street Journal:
What's a Degree Really Worth? — A college education may not be worth as much as you think. — For years, higher education was touted as a safe path to professional and financial success. Easy money, in the form of student loans, flowed to help parents and students finance degrees …
Stuart Schwartz / American Thinker:
The Fat Lady Sings for Keith Olbermann — “It ain't over until the fat lady sings.” — The fat lady is doing more than singing for Keith Olbermann. And, like most of the other women in the life of MS-NBC's premiere leftist sexist, she's not interested in dating him.
Discussion:
The Confluence
David Rogers / The Politico:
Murtha in intensive care — Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha was in intensive care at a Virginia hospital Tuesday because of serious complications related to gall bladder surgery last week. — Murtha's congressional office confirmed that he underwent scheduled laparoscopic surgery to remove …
Edward Colimore / Philly.com:
Early draft of the Constitution found in Phila. — Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler was intrigued by the centuries-old document at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. — On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: “We The People. . . .”
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Shoe bomber was read Miranda rights — Republicans may have a hard time keeping up their talking point about how reading Miranda rights to the Christmas Day bomber represented a dangerous new direction under President Barack Obama. — It turns out that that back in December 2001 …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Matthew Yglesias, Newsweek Blogs, Washington Monthly and Ben Smith's Blog
Martin Kaste / NPR:
Tea Party Star Leads Movement On Her Own Terms … text sizeAAA — The National Tea Party convention is on Thursday — though it's probably more accurate to call it a Tea Party convention, not the Tea Party convention. — But despite the convention, questions remain for the fledgling movement: Where is it heading?
Garance Franke-Ruta / Washington Post:
Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores — One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image. So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, Mediaite, Indecision Forever, Politics Daily, Taylor Marsh and Gawker
Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Nervous Dems Go On Polling Spree — Dems facing a difficult political terrain next year began polling their districts early to survey a tumultuous political landscape, according to reports filed with the FEC. — At least 14 potentially vulnerable Dems commissioned polls in the last 3 months of '09 …
Christopher Hitchens / Slate:
Kim Jong-il's regime is even weirder and more despicable than you thought. — Visiting North Korea some years ago, I was lucky to have a fairly genial “minder” whom I'll call Mr. Chae. He guided me patiently around the ruined and starving country, explaining things away by means of a sort …
Jordy Yager / The Hill:
Intelligence officials warn new attacks are ‘certain’ — The nation's top intelligence officials warned Congress on Tuesday that terrorists are “certain” to attempt another attack on the U.S. within the coming months. — CIA Director Leon Panetta said the foremost risk …