Top Items:
Colby Hall / Mediaite:
Exclusive: Hot Air Acquired By Salem Communications — CPAC hasn't even officially started and already its making news. Mediaite has learned that leading center-right web site Hot Air has been acquired by Salem Communications for an undisclosed sum. Sources close to the deal claim that Michelle Malkin …
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Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Open thread: Hot Air acquisition — Many Hot Air readers have begun responding to the following Mediaite story: … I'm going to open a thread on this in order to keep the rest of our comment threads on topic. Neither Allahpundit nor I will have any official comment on this until tomorrow …
Max Fisher / The Atlantic Wire:
Sale of ‘Hot Air’ Shakes Up Conservative Blogosphere — Conservative blog Hot Air has been sold by conservative pundit Michelle Malkin to a company called Salem Communications, Mediaite reports. Hot Air is known for the blogging team Ed Morrissey and the pseudonymous “Allahpundit.”
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel
Zaid Jilani / Think Progress:
CPAC will feature a Pelosi piñata and Reid punching bag. — Tomorrow, conservatives from around the country will converge at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which serves as a “showcase of the heart and soul of American conservatism.”
The Mount Vernon Statement:
Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century — We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence …
Discussion:
Right Wing Watch, Little Green Footballs, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The New American, Hit & Run, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, DISSENTING JUSTICE, TPMDC, The Foundry, OneNewsNow.com, Balkinization, The Washington Independent, Wonkette, TPM LiveWire, Ben Smith's Blog, Jay Bookman, Townhall.com, Hot Air, Washington Post, The Lonely Conservative, BuzzFlash.org, Gawker, Main Justice, Erick's blog, CBS News, INSTAPUTZ and NewsBusters.org
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Capitol Confidential / Big Government:
Clinton Plotting Tea Party Counterattack — Last week, former President Clinton was rushed to the hospital in New York for an emergency heart operation. Medical experts said the procedure was “relatively routine” and predicted Clinton would make a full recovery and be back to his regular schedule soon.
Discussion:
Moonbattery, The Lonely Conservative, GayPatriot, YID With LID, Instapundit and The Corner on National …
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Scott Conroy / CBS News:
Palin: Tea Partiers “Have to Pick a Party” — In Arkansas, Former Alaska Governor Heaps Praise on Movement, But Says U.S. Has A Two-Party System — (CBS) In front of a crowd of Republican Party activists and the tea-party movement's rank and file here on Tuesday night …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, CNN, Think Progress, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, Hot Air and PoliBlog
David Neiwert / Crooks and Liars:
Palin sees no extremism in the Tea Parties — and thinks the Birthers are just fine
Palin sees no extremism in the Tea Parties — and thinks the Birthers are just fine
Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Poll: Large majority opposes Supreme Court's decision on campaign financing — Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Discussion:
ACS Blog, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Cato @ Liberty, John Stossel, Democratic Strategist, DISSENTING JUSTICE and TPMDC
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David Leonhardt / New York Times:
Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success — Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked. — Let's say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let's also imagine it was large enough …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, CNN, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Ben Smith's Blog, Think Progress, Outside The Beltway, Ezra Klein, The Plum Line, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, Firedoglake, Matthew Yglesias, The Big Picture, ProPublica, Bloomberg, Political Punch, AmSpecBlog, Guardian, The New Republic, White House.gov Blog Feed, BuzzFlash.org, Taylor Marsh, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Washington Monthly, New West Notes, Washington Post, MyDD, Swampland, NewsReal Blog and Open Congress
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:
2009- Global Warming Causes Foggy Days in San Francisco... 2010- Global Warming Causes Fog-less Days in San Francisco — You just can't make this stuff up. — Global warming blamed on foggier days in San Francisco: — SFGate reported this seven months ago:
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Democrats mark the anniversary of the stimulus with GOP ‘hypocrites’ video — Democrats wished Republicans a “happy anniversary” of sorts with a Web video marking the stimulus act's first year in law. — In their latest salvo against Republicans who voted against the $787 billion American Recovery …
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Wall Street Journal:
Another Liberal Crackup — The real reason Evan Bayh wants out of Washington. — The political retirement of Evan Bayh, at age 54, is being portrayed by various sages as a result of too much partisanship, or the Senate's dysfunction, or even the systemic breakdown of American governance.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Endgame? House, Senate Edge Towards Deal On Bill For Health Summit — Okay, contrary to what you've been hearing, House and Senate Dem leaders are in fact edging towards reaching a deal on a health care reform package to take to next week's big summit, leadership aides tell me, though it remains a steep uphill climb.
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Newsweek Blogs:
Exclusive: Another Taliban Leader Captured in Pakistan — Another leader of the Afghan Taliban has been captured by authorities in Pakistan working in partnership with U.S. intelligence officials. Taliban sources in the region and a counterterrorism officials in Washington have identified …
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds Fear of a Debt Crisis — WASHINGTON — Senator Evan Bayh's comments this week about a dysfunctional Congress reflected a complaint being directed at Washington with increasing frequency, and there is broad agreement among critics about Exhibit A …
Steven E. Levingston / Short Stack:
The secret behind the hot sales of “The Road to Serfdom” by free-market economist F. A. Hayek — Friedrich Hayek, Nobel-prize winning economist and well-known proponent of free markets, is having a big month. He was last seen rap-debating with John Maynard Keynes in the viral video above …
Michael Scherer / Swampland:
Gibbs: President Obama “Would Love” To Appear On Daily Show, But Not Colbert Report — On Tuesday afternoon, I caught up with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in his office, and the conversation turned to President Obama's decision last year to appear on both The Tonight Show …
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
The Democratic Agenda — The vast majority of opposition to health care and allowing gays to serve openly in the military is coming from people who already say there's no chance they'll vote Democratic this fall. That's an indication of minimal fallout for Congressional Democrats by acting on these issues.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, TPMDC, Talking Points Memo, AMERICAblog News, Guardian and Ezra Klein
Jay Heflin / The Hill:
Sen. Reid doesn't have the votes to pass $15 billion version of jobs bill — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) lacks the votes to begin debating his targeted jobs bill, according to sources monitoring the legislation. — Reid needs 60 votes to open debate on the $15 billion jobs bill.
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Dodd: Changing filibuster rules would be ‘foolish’ — Diluting the Senate's filibuster rules would be “foolish,” Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) suggested Wednesday. — Dodd, who has served in the Senate since 1981 and is the sixth most senior Democrat in the chamber, rejected some colleagues' efforts …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Open Left, The New Republic, TPM LiveWire, Wake up America and Don Surber
The Politico:
Dems' blues: States reverting to red — The electoral map candidate Barack Obama remade in 2008 appears to be retreating into its familiar patterns. — Obama broke the decisive role Ohio and Florida seemed to play in presidential elections, by moving from trench warfare engagement …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Nowhere Man — The vain search for Harold Ford's principles. — “Southern voters are interested in solutions,” said Harold Ford Jr. in 2003. “They can spot a fake.” Perhaps this explains Ford's subsequent decision to decamp from the South in search of a more gullible electorate.
Sam Dillon / New York Times:
Plan Would Let Students Start College After 10th Grade — Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.
Boston Globe:
Amy Bishop was charged with assault in 2002 IHOP dispute — In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.
Elisa Martinuzzi / Bloomberg:
Goldman Sachs, Greece Didn't Disclose Swap, Investors ‘Fooled’ — Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managed $15 billion of bond sales for Greece after arranging a currency swap that allowed the government to hide the extent of its deficit. — No mention was made of the swap …
John Koblin / New York Observer:
The Accidental Plagiarist — Five days ago, Robert Thomson, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, wrote a letter to The Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, about “apparent plagiarism” on The Times' DealBook blog, in a post by Zachery Kouwe, a 31-year-old business reporter.
Discussion:
New York Times
Ezra Klein:
Selling insurance across state lines: A terrible, no good, very bad health-care idea — The big Republican idea to bring down health-care costs is to “let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.” Jon Chait has some commentary here, but I want to simplify a little bit.
Discussion:
The New Republic
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
IT IS ‘BROKEN,’ BUT WHO BROKE IT?.... Again, this is the right sentiment, but it's incomplete. … Right. The system in Washington is “broken.” Every effort does require an inexplicable “supermajority.” The entire policymaking process is “dysfunctional.”