Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
There Will Be Blood — Former Senator Alan Simpson is a Very Serious Person. He must be — after all, President Obama appointed him as co-chairman of a special commission on deficit reduction. — So here's what the very serious Mr. Simpson said on Friday: “I can't wait for the blood bath in April. ...
Ben Smith / The Politico:
View from Mideast: Obama's a problem — JERUSALEM — Vowing to change a region that has resisted the best efforts of presidents and prime ministers past, Barack Obama dove head first into the Middle East peace process on his second day in office. — He was supposed to be different.
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, CNN, Right Wing News, Ruby Slippers and Left Coast Rebel
RELATED:
Jackson Diehl / Washington Post:
Obama's foreign policy needs an update — For help understanding the foreign policy headlines of the past week, let's return, briefly, to the spring of 1983, when Barack Obama was a student at Columbia University. What were the burning international issues of that time?
Discussion:
Pundit & Pundette and democracyarsenal.org
Scott / Power Line:
Obama's foreign policy time warp — The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl notes that Obama's foreign policy is in crucial respects stuck in the 1980's, when Obama was a Columbia undergraduate faithfully peddling the Soviet Union's line on the nuclear freeze (my words, not Diehl's).
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog
Doug Mataconis / Outside the Beltway:
Obama Politically Tone Deaf On TSA Outrage — President Obama spoke yesterday about the outrage that has swept the country over new TSA screening procedures, and his response strikes me as being incredibly non-responsive to the concerns that people have raised about procedures that many consider to be incredibly invasive:
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and CNN
RELATED:
Scott Shane / New York Times:
Administration to Seek Balance in Airport Screening
Administration to Seek Balance in Airport Screening
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Jezebel, The Gateway Pundit and TPMMuckraker
Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:
Jindal blasts Obama administration, calls TSA searches excessive
Jindal blasts Obama administration, calls TSA searches excessive
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Samizdata.net
Mike Allen / The Politico:
TSA head: ‘Not going to change’
TSA head: ‘Not going to change’
Discussion:
Hot Air, Mediaite and Right Klik
Jimmy So / CBS News:
Clinton: I'd Avoid Airport Pat-Down if Possible
Clinton: I'd Avoid Airport Pat-Down if Possible
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys and CBS New York
Darleen / protein wisdom:
More TSA “love” ...
More TSA “love” ...
Discussion:
Examiner, The Other McCain, The Gateway Pundit, Firedoglake, theblogprof and Scared Monkeys
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
Special Underwear Makes Your Privates Invisible to TSA Scanners — Citizens, take heart: Even as our country falls under the total domination of our new TSA overlords, capitalism continues unabated. A Colorado man has developed undergarments with special body scanner-blocking fig leafs to hide your privates.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway and Israel Matzav
Felix Salmon:
The underwhelming Irish bailout — Color me underwhelmed by the Irish bailout. By all accounts it's going to be less than €100 billion — probably in the €80 billion to €90 billion range — and that sum has to cover the country's entire borrowing needs for the next three years.
Discussion:
Yglesias, FT Alphaville, DealBook, National Review and New York Times
RELATED:
Des Moines Register:
Huckabee in Iowa: Palin potentially “a force” in 2012 — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one of three 2012 GOP presidential prospects in Iowa this month, said Sunday the next one on the schedule, Sarah Palin, would be a strong contender, should she decide to run.
Discussion:
The Note, Ballot Box, The Politico, Associated Press, Taegan Goddard's … and The Political Carnival
RELATED:
Suzanne Goldenberg / Guardian:
Sarah Palin drops 2012 presidency hint with staff visit to Iowa
Sarah Palin drops 2012 presidency hint with staff visit to Iowa
Discussion:
Raw Story
Blogger Bob / The TSA Blog:
Response to “Young Boy Strip Searched by TSA” — A video is being widely circulated showing a shirtless boy receiving secondary screening from a Transportation Security Officer (TSO). A passenger filmed the screening with their cell phone and posted the video on the web.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Runnin' Scared, Raw Story, Mediaite, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Awl, Verum Serum, Hot Air, Breaking News, Right Klik, iOwnTheWorld.com and Left Coast Rebel
Joshua Miller / ABCNEWS:
Warren Buffett: Read My Lips, Raise My Taxes — Billionaire Buffett tells Amanpour Bush-era Tax Cuts for Rich Should Expire — In an exclusive interview on “This Week,” Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told Christiane Amanpour that the rich should be paying more taxes …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Caucus, Crooks and Liars, The Consumerist and European Tribune
RELATED:
Juliann Neher / Bloomberg:
Buffett Tells ABC Rich Americans Should Be Paying ‘A Lot’ More in Taxes
Buffett Tells ABC Rich Americans Should Be Paying ‘A Lot’ More in Taxes
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Right Wing News, HazZzMat, LewRockwell.com Blog and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
John Cassidy / New Yorker:
WHAT GOOD IS WALL STREET? — Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless. — A few months ago, I came across an announcement that Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank, was to be honored, along with its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, for “Advancing the Field of Asset Building in America.”
Discussion:
DealBook
Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:
'Don't ask, don't tell' study to be released day earlier than planned — Signaling the growing seriousness of the Obama administration's commitment this year to ending the military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, the Defense Department said Sunday that it will release …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Washington Monthly, Jezebel, Advocate, The Page and Federal Eye
Neil Macdonald / CBC News:
CBC Investigation: Who killed Lebanon's Rafik Hariri? — It wasn't until late 2007 that the awkwardly titled UN International Independent Investigation Commission actually got around to some serious investigating. — By then, nearly three years had passed since the spectacular public murder …
Discussion:
Backspin, Power Line and Israel Matzav
Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
The Impact Today and Tomorrow of Chalmers Johnson — Next week, Foreign Policy magazine and its editor-in-chief Susan Glasser will be releasing its 2nd annual roster of the world's greatest thinkers and doers in foreign policy. I have seen the list — and it's impressively creative and eclectic.
Discussion:
American Power, Eunomia, The Atlantic Online and The Monkey Cage
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Poll finds Obama, Romney deadlocked in 2012 matchup — A new poll shows President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a statistical dead heat for the White House. — The GOP's Romney edges Obama by one percentage point, 45-44 percent, in a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters released Monday.