Top Items:
Fox News:
Small Plane Crashes Into Austin, Texas, Office Building — A small single-engine plane crashed into a seven-story office building in Austin, Texas, around 10 a.m. local time Thursday. — An NTSB official told Fox News that they are investigating this as an intentional act …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog, Instapundit, Infowars, Mediaite, Macsmind, AmSpecBlog, Pajamas Media, Townhall.com, Philly.com, Atlas Shrugs and The New Editor
RELATED:
Joe Stack / Austin American-Statesman:
Internet note posted by man linked to plane crash — Editor's note: We found this note on a Web site being pointed at by social media users. A search showed the domain that the note was posted on is registered to Joe Stack of San Marcos. A man by the same name, who has addresses …
CNN:
Texas plane crash deliberate, officials say — (CNN) — An Austin, Texas, resident with an apparent grudge against the Internal Revenue Service set his house on fire Thursday and then crashed a small plane into a building housing an IRS office with nearly 200 employees, officials said.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Mashable!, Politics Daily, Blogs of War, Clusterstock, Gateway Pundit and Althouse
Austin American-Statesman:
Plane crashes into Northwest Austin office building — A plane crashed into a Northwest Austin building that houses federal offices about 9:30 this morning, sending plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles. — Paramedics have set up a triage center at the scene, though it is unclear how many people are injured.
The Smoking Gun:
Plane Crash Suspect's Online Diatribe — Posting rages at IRS, claims, “I have had all I can stand” — The man suspected of intentionally crashing an airplane into a Texas office building today appears to have posted a lengthy online diatribe attacking the Internal Revenue Service and declaring that …
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
NTSB: Plane crash into Austin office building may have been …
NTSB: Plane crash into Austin office building may have been …
Discussion:
Chicago Breaking News, Moonbattery, The Stranger …, Gawker, Houston Chronicle and Reaganite Republican
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
At CPAC, a new conservative order — Since Richard Nixon was president, the Conservative Political Action Conference has provided the American Right with an annual occasion for self-evaluation. On Thursday, when some 10,000 activists gather in Washington for this year's conference …
RELATED:
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Rubio makes fun of Obama teleprompter — President Barack Obama's use of teleprompters again became the butt of a Republican's joke Thursday morning; this time Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio took the jab. — While speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
In surprise CPAC speech, Cheney says Obama will last one term — President Barack Obama will be a one-term president, former Vice President Dick Cheney confidently predicted Thursday. — During a surprise appearance at the end of his daughter Liz's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference …
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Marco Rubio speech at CPAC conference brings conservatives to their feet
Marco Rubio speech at CPAC conference brings conservatives to their feet
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, Gateway Pundit, The Fix, Newsweek Blogs, PostPartisan, Top of the Ticket, Political Party Time, Israpundit and msnbc.com
Say Anything:
Photo Evidence: Michelle Obama Keeps Socialist Books In The White House Library — I arrived in Washington DC today to cover CPAC and since I was in town, and since CPAC doesn't really get rolling until tomorrow, I tagged along with some Scott Hennen Show listeners on an extensive tour …
RELATED:
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Sarah Palin and the mutual loathing society — The Republican presidential nominee, an Arizona senator, was a maverick, which was part of his charm. He spoke and acted impulsively, which was part of his problem. Voters thought his entertaining dimensions might be incompatible with presidential responsibilities.
WRAL-TV:
Duke lacrosse accuser charged with attempted murder, arson — DURHAM, N.C. — Durham police arrested Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum, 33, late Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Romney: ‘Obama fails to understand America’ — Mitt Romney has gone from being an overeager suitor to being a favored son of the Conservative Political Action Conference since he ended his presidential campaign here in 2008, and his speech today was well-calibrated to an audience basking …
Discussion:
The Washington Independent
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Dexter Filkins / New York Times:
In Blow to Taliban, 2 More Senior Leaders Are Arrested — KABUL, Afghanistan — Two senior Taliban leaders have been arrested in recent days inside Pakistan, officials said Thursday, as American and Pakistani intelligence agents continued to press their offensive against the group's leadership …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, Associated Press, Matthew Yglesias, JustOneMinute, Danger Room, Newshoggers.com, Democracy in America, BLACKFIVE, The Long War Journal, The Page, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, The Corner on National …, Neptunus Lex, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Sister Toldjah and Obsidian Wings
Karl Rove:
Where the Tea Parties Should Go From Here — There has been a lot of talk about combining the tea party movement with the Republican Party. And on a small scale, that seemed to happen last week in South Carolina after state GOP representatives agreed to create a “Tea Party Republicans” …
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Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Obama's federal government can weatherize your home for only $57,362 each — Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes …
Discussion:
ABCNews.com, The Strata-Sphere, The Corner on National …, The Foundry, Dennis the Peasant, Tim Blair and Say Anything
Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone:
Wall Street's Bailout Hustle — Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for another crash — On January 21st, Lloyd Blankfein left a peculiar voicemail message on the work phones of his employees at Goldman Sachs.
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:
So I went to the White House today... I was invited to a progressive media get together at the White House today. It's freezing in DC, nice and windy, and the snow is still everywhere, except now it's turning black and nasty. There were guys with forced water machines trying to blow the remnants of snow off the White House driveway.
RELATED:
Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune:
Meet the Flintstones — Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Sixteen Senators Now Calling For Vote On Public Option — Sixteen and counting. — Senators Barbara Boxer, Jack Reed and Tom Udall have all now signed the letter pushing for a reconcilation vote on the public option, the group organizing the push confirms, bringing the total of Senators …
Pew Center on the States …:
The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded State Retirement Systems and the Road to Reform — $1 trillion. That's the gap at the end of fiscal year 2008 between the $2.35 trillion states had set aside to pay for employees' retirement benefits and the $3.35 trillion price tag of those promises.
Discussion:
EconLog
Marist Poll:
2/18: More Than A Quarter of Employees Concerned About Future Job Loss — 26% of employed American residents report they are concerned about losing their job in the next year. — This includes 11% who say they are very concerned and 15% who are concerned.
Discussion:
Real Time Economics
Eric Bradner / courierpress.com:
Sources: Ellsworth to run for Senate, state Rep. Van Haaften for Congress — INDIANAPOLIS — U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth will run for Senate, and state Rep. Trent Van Haaften will seek his seat in Congress, multiple Democratic sources said Thursday morning. — As Democrats have searched …
Nick Gillespie / Hit & Run:
Dramatic Olbermann vs. Dramatic Chipmunk — No one is more self-dramatizing on cable news than male hysteric, unsolicited janitor of Cooperstown, and Countdown host Keith Olbermann, who includes more special effects during his Castro-length “Special Comment” segments than Mikhail Kalatozov did in I Am Cuba …