Top Items:
Myglesias / Yglesias:
Haley Barbour's Affection for the White Supremacist Citizens' Council — Andrew Ferguson's profile of Haley Barbour reveals that the guy is dangerously ignorant about the history of race in his state: … Fortunately, it's actually possible to look at the archives of the Citizens Council newspaper published right in Mississippi.
RELATED:
Ben Smith / The Politico:
The watermelon thing — Race is a hard issue for older conservative politicians from the Deep South seeking national office. The roots of Southern Republicanism are in the segregationist split from the Democratic Party, and so there's no presumption of innocence, and no second chance, as Trent Lott learned.
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Barbour Spokesman: Mississippi Gov. Is Not Racist — I just spoke with Dan Turner, the official spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), who responded in strong terms to criticism of Barbour's recent praise for the segregationist Citizens Council groups of the Civil Rights era.
Discussion:
Yglesias, The Caucus, The Fix, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Hullabaloo, Weigel, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Barbour Praises Civil Rights-Era White Supremacist Citizens Councils — Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), a potential Republican presidential candidate, has an interesting perspective on the tumults of the civil rights era that swept through his Deep South state. — As Barbour recalls …
Myglesias / Yglesias:
Yazoo City Citizens' Council Was a White Supremacist Organization — As we saw below, the Citizens' Council movement that Haley Barbour credits with keeping the peace in 1960s Mississippi was a white supremacist organization. That's true of Citizens' Councils in general, and Citizens' Councils in Mississippi in particular.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Weigel, Firedoglake, The New Republic, Salon, New York Magazine and Washington Post
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Barbour doesn't remember Civil Rights era being ‘that bad’ — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says he doesn't remember the Civil Rights era being “that bad,” citing his attendance at a Martin Luther King Jr. rally nearly 50 years ago. — “I just don't remember it as being that bad,” Barbour …
David Halberstam / Commentary:
Respectable Means for Unrespectable Ends
Discussion:
Eschaton, Daily Kos and Balloon Juice
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
BARBOUR WELL POSITIONED TO WRAP UP THE RACIST VOTE....
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, TPMDC, Wonkette, Talking Points Memo and AOL News
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP senators concede arms treaty will secure enough votes to pass — Republican senators say privately they expect the Senate to ratify the New START treaty this week, which would hand President Obama his third major victory of the lame-duck session. — GOP senators — including those who plan …
Discussion:
The Hill, Hot Air, The Greenroom, National Review, Eunomia and Outside the Beltway
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Brent Baker / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Nina Totenberg: ‘I Was At - Forgive the Expression - a Christmas Party...’ — “I was at - forgive the expression - a Christmas party,” NPR reporter Nina Totenberg interjected on Inside Washington in the weekend's oddest cautionary separation from a common description for a common event …
Jamison Foser / Media Matters for America:
60 Minutes' one-sided, GOP-friendly report on state budgets — Did Chris Cristie's speechwriters script this CBS report on state budget deficits? It certainly reads that way. — In 2,600 words about state deficits, you won't find the phrase “tax cuts.”
Discussion:
AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Crooks and Liars, AFSCME, Open Left and Daily Kos
RELATED:
CBS News:
State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning
Discussion:
Wonk Room, Firedoglake, The Foundry, Commentary, theblogprof and Eduwonk
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Poll: Obama rebounding — President Barack Obama may be staging a comeback in the eyes of the American people, a new poll suggests. — In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday, 48 percent of Americans say they approve of how Obama is handling his job, while 48 percent disapprove.
Discussion:
CNN, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, Swampland and Taylor Marsh
RELATED:
Fhardingj / CNN:
CNN Poll: Three-quarters approve of new tax cut law
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, Taylor Marsh and Weigel
Robert M. McDowell / Wall Street Journal:
The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom — ‘Net neutrality’ sounds nice, but the Web is working fine now. The new rules will inhibit investment, deter innovation and create a billable-hours bonanza for lawyers. — Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) …
Discussion:
Don Surber, The Foundry, GigaOM, Post Tech, The Daily Caller, Associated Press, Commentary, Maggie's Farm and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time
Discussion:
Raw Story and The Mahablog, more at Techmeme »
Manu Raju / The Politico:
Mitch McConnell plans power plays against Democrats — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a warning for Democrats seething over his shrewd political tactics: Get used to it. — “There's much for them to be angst-ridden about,” McConnell said with a chuckle. “If they think it's bad now, wait 'til next year.”
RELATED:
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Republican Sen Kyl: No plans to repeal 'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal
Discussion:
The Politico, Salon and Washington Monthly
Lyndsey Layton / Washington Post:
Food-safety measure passes Senate in Sunday surprise
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Shopfloor, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Online, Ezra Klein, The Hill, Shakesville and Pat Dollard
Myglesias / Yglesias:
My Token Moment of Outreach to the Religious Right — Ross Douthat: … I don't spend a lot of time agreeing with the Christian right about things, but the whining about the secularization of Christmas is a point I sympathize with. If Christmas were more properly religious …
Discussion:
Eschaton
RELATED:
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
A Tough Season for Believers
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Balloon Juice and The New Republic
Washington Post:
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators. — The system, by far the largest …
Discussion:
Salon, Hit & Run, Danger Room, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Emptywheel, Prairie Weather, BlogPost, Raw Story, Instapundit and ThinkProgress
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
When Zombies Win — When historians look back at 2008-10, what will puzzle them most, I believe, is the strange triumph of failed ideas. Free-market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything — yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever. — How did that happen?
Ezra Klein:
Chris Christie's Pepsi problem — In 1975, Pepsi unleashed “the Pepsi Challenge,” a blind taste test where subjects threw back an ounce of each beverage and reported back on their favorite. Their favorite was Pepsi. — You already know what happened next: Coca-Cola developed a more Pepsi-like product called “New Coke.”
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, Right Turn and Das Krapital
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
TRENDING: Palin disses Michelle Obama over ‘dessert’ — (CNN) - Sarah Palin is again taking aim at Michelle Obama over her anti-obesity campaign, taking the opportunity in Sunday's “Sarah Palin's Alaska” to land a diss against the first lady's efforts to improve nutrition.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS and Outside the Beltway
David Weigel / Weigel:
Republicans Start Teaching Members How to Obey the Constitution — Earlier today, some Hill staffers attended the first of four staggered meetings on how to write a new clause into legislation that explains why, exactly, the legislation is constitutional. This was a big Tea Party demand …
Discussion:
A plain blog about politics
Reuters:
Israel, Palestinian Authority worked against Hamas — Leaked diplomatic cable shows extent of shared intelligence — Below: — JERUSALEM — A U.S. cable leaked on Monday said Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas's forces worked closely together against Hamas as it took over Gaza in 2007 …
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, Flopping Aces and Hot Air
Paul Waldman / American Prospect:
The Culture War Ain't What It Used to Be. — Jonathan Bernstein makes an excellent point about the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell: … With the possible exception of John McCain, pretty much every conservative knew they were going to lose this argument eventually.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, National Review, No More Mister Nice Blog and The New Republic
Tom Moran:
Christie sabotages medical marijuana program — Lisa Segal wakes up every morning locked in a fetal position, her muscles in spasm from multiple sclerosis. — She's 59 years old, and has tried everything. The only medicine that relaxes those muscles and settles her nausea is marijuana.
Terry / CNSNews:
67 Percent of Marine Combat Forces Say Putting Homosexuals in Their Units Will Hurt Their Effectiveness in the Field, Says DOD Report — (CNSNews.com) - 66.5 percent of U.S. Marine combat forces surveyed by a special Defense Department working group said that putting homosexuals in their units …
Discussion:
The Powers That Be and Weasel Zippers
The Cleveland Fed:
The Effect of Falling Home Prices on Small Business Borrowing — Small businesses continue to report problems obtaining the financing they need. Because small business owners may rely heavily on the value of their homes to finance their businesses (through mortgages or home equity lines) …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
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