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.”
Discussion:
The Caucus, American Spectator, Riehl World View, The Huffington Post and The washington times Blogs
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:
Little Green Footballs, Right Wing Watch, The Hill, Glenn Thrush's Blog, The New American, Hit & Run, The Foundry, Balkinization, OneNewsNow.com, Townhall.com, Wonkette, The Washington Independent, TPMDC, Ben Smith's Blog, TPM LiveWire, The Lonely Conservative, Jay Bookman, Hot Air, CBS News, BuzzFlash.org, Gawker, Main Justice, Erick's blog, Washington Post, INSTAPUTZ, NewsBusters.org and American Power
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 …
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:
The Huffington Post, Democratic Strategist, Cato @ Liberty, John Stossel, DISSENTING JUSTICE, TPMDC and TalkLeft
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.
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, Think Progress, Ben Smith's Blog, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Ezra Klein, Firedoglake, The Plum Line, Raw Story, Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, Matthew Yglesias, The Big Picture, Political Punch, Bloomberg, White House.gov Blog Feed, AmSpecBlog, Guardian, The New Republic, BuzzFlash.org, Taylor Marsh, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Washington Monthly, New West Notes, NewsReal Blog, Washington Post, Swampland, MyDD, Open Congress, Daily Kos and AMERICAblog News
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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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.”
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Four More Dem Senators Join Push For Vote On Public Option — Yesterday four Dem Senators made a big splash by signing a letter pushing Dem leaders to pass the public option via reconciliation, suggesting the provision may have a faint pulse. — Now four more Dem Senators have added …
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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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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:
Washington Monthly, Open Left, The New Republic, TPM LiveWire, Don Surber and Wake up America
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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.
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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 …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, Wonk Room, Prairie Weather, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and democracyarsenal.org
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:
Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, AMERICAblog News, Guardian, Ezra Klein and AMERICAblog Gay
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 …
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 …
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.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Breaking News …, Jules Crittenden, Scared Monkeys and JammieWearingFool
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.
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 …
Adam Fogle / The Palmetto Scoop:
Bill would ban federal currency in SC — Legislation by SC Rep. Mike Pitts would replace paper money with gold and silver coinage — PITTS INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO REPLACE PAPER MONEY WITH GOLD, SILVER COINS — South Carolina will no longer recognize U.S. currency as legal tender, if State Rep. Mike Pitts has his way.
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
Walter Alarkon / The Hill:
Pay-go gets passed, then it gets bypassed — The ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda. — Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending …
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