memeorandum: Treasury's plan to fix the mortgage mess (Felix Salmon)

12:55 PM ET, November 24, 2010

Top Items:

Obama: 'I Don't Think About Sarah Palin' — “Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party and I respect those skills,” Obama said. “But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president. And my attitude has always been …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Ben Smith's Blog, The Caucus, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, Fox Nation, Right Wing News, The Page, Mediaite, Raw Story, TPMDC, msnbc.com, HotAirPundit and FrumForum

Marist Poll:

11/24: Looking to 2012: 48% Plan to Vote Against Obama — If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Barack Obama would have his work cut out for him. 48% of registered voters nationwide report they plan to definitely vote against Mr. Obama while 36% say they will definitely vote for him. 16% are undecided.

Discussion: CNN and The Atlantic Online

Elizabeth Wurtzel / The Atlantic Online:
Sarah Palin, Riot Grrrl

Discussion: Boston Herald, sisu, JustOneMinute, The Confluence, Althouse, Human Events, Liberty Pundits Blog and Whiskey Fire

Click Orlando l Orlando News …:

Woman: TSA Agents Singled Me Out For My Breasts — Travelers Plan To Boycott TSA's Latest Security Measure Aiming To Clog Security Lines — ORLANDO, Fla. — The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the agency will look further into allegations that two male TSA workers picked …

Discussion: Proof Positive, YID With LID, Infowars, HillBuzz.org, The Gateway Pundit and The Other McCain

Jordy Yager / The Hill:
Next step for body scanners could be trains, boats, metro

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Associated Press, iOwnTheWorld.com, Say Anything, Shakesville, Wake up America, Pirate's Cove, Outside the Beltway, Patterico's Pontifications, Michelle Malkin, protein wisdom, Fausta's Blog, Vox Popoli, The Note, FrumForum, The Gateway Pundit, LewRockwell.com Blog and Don Surber

Hugo Martin / Money & Company:
Poll finds 61% oppose new airport security measures

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Zogby, LewRockwell.com Blog and Slate

Lymari Morales / Gallup:
Most U.S. Air Travelers OK Sacrificing Privacy for Security

Discussion: CNN, The Hill and This Just In

Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:

PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP leader reaps $200 million — WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks - money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest - was short-lived. — Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Suburban Guerrilla and The Political Carnival

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

REMEMBER THE GOP'S EARMARK BAN?.... It's been about a week since Senate Republicans agreed to impose an earmark moratorium on themselves. How's it going to so far? Not well. … Kyl's office insists the senator's earmark isn't an earmark. It's just a specific spending provision Kyl quietly inserted …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Dennis the Peasant and Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Passage of earmark ban in doubt

Discussion: Booman Tribune and FrumForum

The Note:

Sarah Palin Responds to Bristol's Loss On ‘Dancing With The Stars’ — ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: — Sarah Palin responded to her daughter Bristol's third place finish on “Dancing With The Stars” tonight as she exited the first stop on her book tour. — “I haven't talked to her yet.

Discussion: TBogg and The Page

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
New Palin Book Offers a Road Map for a Run Against Obama

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

John / Power Line: Who's Ignorant? — Dumb liberal op-ed pieces are legion …

National Opt-Out Day:

NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY! — It's the day ordinary citizens stand up for their rights, stand up for liberty, and protest the federal government's desire to virtually strip us naked or submit to an “enhanced pat down” that touches people's breasts and genitals in an aggressive manner.

Discussion: Gothamist, CNN, Hot Air, Infowars, New York Magazine, Gizmodo, Focal Point, pandagon.net, Runnin' Scared, newsfeed.time.com, The Daily Caller, News Desk, ABCNEWS, Boing Boing and The Politico

Emptywheel:

Fines and “Resolving this Mess” — Yves does a thorough smackdown on the departing Michael Barr's description of all the things the government is going to get to the bottom of the foreclosure fraud problem, noting that the foreclosure task force simply isn't investigating the problem …

Discussion: TalkLeft and Bloomberg

Felix Salmon:
Treasury's plan to fix the mortgage mess

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Emptywheel

Yves Smith / naked capitalism:
Foreclosure Task Force: Worse Than Stress Tests?

Discussion: Rortybomb, Corrente and Emptywheel

New York Times:

U.S. to Send Carrier for Joint Exercises Off Korea — WASHINGTON — President Obama and South Korea's president agreed Tuesday night to hold joint military exercises as a first response to North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean military installation, as both countries struggled …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, ThinkProgress, Commentary, New York Magazine, American Prospect, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, TalkLeft, The Page and The Politico

Mark McDonald / New York Times:
Anxiety in Seoul as Civilian Deaths Are Reported

Discussion: Firedoglake, Infowars, American Spectator, Barcepundit, Pajamas Media and Macsmind

Neil Irwin / Washington Post:

Fed lowers economic expectations for 2011 — Unemployment is set to remain higher for longer than previously thought, according to new projections from the Federal Reserve that would mean more than 10 million Americans remain jobless through the 2012 elections - even as a separate report …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Ezra Klein, Questions and Observations, Pat Dollard, Taegan Goddard's …, New York Magazine and Dennis the Peasant

Jim Geraghty / National Review: Federal Reserve to Obama: Yeah, You're Probably Doomed

Matt Bai / New York Times:

Pat-Down Dispute Shows Mistrust of Government — The latest controversy to envelop the Obama administration is only partly about the specific rules governing body scanners and pat-downs. It has to do, too, with the federal agency Congress created to deal with airline security and the tension …

Discussion: Hit & Run, Prairie Weather and Althouse

Myglesias / Yglesias: Trust in Government — Matt Bai muses:

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

GOP lawmakers under pressure to decline government health plan — Congressional Republicans who assailed the Democrats' healthcare law in the run-up to the midterm elections are facing pressure to decline government-provided coverage when they take office. — GOP Reps.-elect Bobby Schilling …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Public Policy Polling, Wonkette, Prairie Weather and FrumForum

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
House Dem dares GOP on healthcare repeal

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Monthly, Wonk Room, Plain Dealer, The Huffington Post, The Other McCain, Say Anything and Pat Dollard

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:

Don't touch my junk? Grow up, America. — My family, as it happens, is taking the bus to Grandma's this Thanksgiving. But our choice of transportation has nothing to do with anxiety about leering security screeners or fear of pat-downs. — The uproar over the new procedures is overblown and immature.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, Shakesville, Firedoglake, VatorNews and msnbc.com

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

HarperCollins settles Gawker suit over leaked Palin excerpts — HarperCollins settled a lawsuit Tuesday night with Gawker Media over the site's publication of leaked images from Sarah Palin's new book, “America by Heart.” — Gawker posted the Palin excerpts on Friday and even mocked …

Discussion: Cubachi, Ben Smith's Blog, Liberty Pundits Blog, The Daily Caller and Hot Air, more at Mediagazer »

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:
Gawker Agrees Not to Repost Palin Excerpts

Discussion: Gothamist, Ruby Slippers and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Justin Fox:

The Real Story Behind Those “Record” Corporate Profits — Corporate profits hit a new record in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year. At least, that was the headline after the data were released Tuesday. It was kind of a meaningless distinction: In a growing economy …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Balloon Juice, ThinkProgress, Firedoglake and Gawker

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:

Bobby Jindal: Make Congress part-time — Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal wants members of Congress to stay home more often. — “We used to pay farmers not to grow crops, let's pay congressmen to stay out of Washington, D.C.,” Jindal said in an interview with Human Events.

Discussion: Human Events, GOP 12, Nice Deb and FrumForum

Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:

Why is the Obama administration linking Israel and New START? — While the White House continues to negotiate with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) in an attempt to convince him to allow a vote on the New START treaty this year, it is also undertaking a massive effort behind the scenes to rally foreign governments …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Commentary and The Caucus

The Nation:

TSAstroturf: The Washington Lobbyists and Koch-Funded Libertarians Behind the TSA Scandal — Does anyone else sense something strange is going on with the apparently spontaneous revolt against the TSA? This past week, the media turned an “ordinary guy,” 31-year-old Californian John Tyner …

Discussion: Salon, Verum Serum and Weigel

Economist:

Closing statements — This has been a really good debate, I think—a lot racier and spikier than many of our offerings, but none the worse for that. It almost puts me in mind of PMQs. Now the guest interventions from John Samples and Andrew Sullivan are in, as are the closing statements …

Discussion: The Plum Line and The Daily Dish

George Zornick / ThinkProgress:

Washington Post Continues Media Whitewash Of Radical GOP Rep.-Elect Allen West — Over the weekend, NBC's Meet the Press featured Rep.-elect Allen West (R-FL) without mentioning the offensive Islamophobia that West made central to his congressional campaign, nor the long history …

Discussion: Washington Post

Lisa Fleisher / Metropolis:

President Palin? Gov. Christie Rolls His Eyes … Faced with the prospect of a President Sarah Palin, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — the Republican party's darling from another coast — shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I don't know, but it's an amazing world,” he said to “Late Night” …

Discussion: Say Anything and Outside the Beltway