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.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, The Plum Line, ThinkProgress, No More Mister Nice Blog, Talking Points Memo, Swampland and Mediaite
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:
The Fix, Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
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 …
Discussion:
Salon, The Daily Caller and FrumForum
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:
Firedoglake, The New Republic, New York Magazine, Weigel, Washington Post and Salon
David Halberstam / Commentary:
Respectable Means for Unrespectable Ends
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....
BARBOUR WELL POSITIONED TO WRAP UP THE RACIST VOTE....
Discussion:
Yglesias, TPMDC, Balloon Juice, Wonkette 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
RELATED:
The Huffington Post:
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Opponents Taking Revenge On Russian Arms Treaty
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Opponents Taking Revenge On Russian Arms Treaty
Discussion:
The Daily Dish and Hullabaloo
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Republican Sen Kyl: No plans to repeal 'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal
Republican Sen Kyl: No plans to repeal 'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal
Discussion:
The Politico, Washington Monthly and Salon
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Russia Warns Senate Not to Amend Arms Control Treaty
Russia Warns Senate Not to Amend Arms Control Treaty
Discussion:
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
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 …
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah, Hot Air, Don Surber, Althouse, Creative Minority Report, theblogprof, Pat Dollard, The Gateway Pundit and The Right Scoop
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.”
RELATED:
CBS News:
State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning — Steve Kroft Reports On The Growing Financial Woes States Are Facing — (CBS) By now, just about everyone in the country is aware of the federal deficit problem, but you should know that there is another financial crisis looming involving state and local governments.
Discussion:
The Right Scoop, Hot Air, Firedoglake, The Foundry, Wonk Room, 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, Hot Air, Swampland and Taylor Marsh
RELATED:
Fhardingj / CNN:
CNN Poll: Three-quarters approve of new tax cut law
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, Maggie's Farm and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
David Hatch / NationalJournal.com:
Democratic FCC Regulators Throw Support Behind Net Neutrality Rules
Democratic FCC Regulators Throw Support Behind Net Neutrality Rules
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Tech Daily Dose, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The Page and The Daily Caller
Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time
Discussion:
Raw Story and The Mahablog, more at Techmeme »
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:
Hit & Run, Salon, The Moderate Voice, Prairie Weather, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Danger Room, Hot Air, Raw Story, Emptywheel, Instapundit, BlogPost and ThinkProgress
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
A Tough Season for Believers
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Balloon Juice and The New Republic
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?
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
The Atlantic Online:
Preparing for Mass Evacuation From Korea — As the Korean peninsula enters what U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates calls “a difficult and potentially dangerous time,” the long-dormant Korean conflict is rumbling back into the public consciousness. Government officials from the U.S. …
RELATED:
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
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.
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
Lyndsey Layton / Washington Post:
Food-safety measure passes Senate in Sunday surprise — A bill that would overhaul the nation's food-safety laws for the first time since the Great Depression came roaring back to life Sunday as Senate Democrats struck a deal with Republicans that helped overcome a technical mistake …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Shopfloor, The Hill, The Atlantic Online, Ezra Klein, Shakesville, Pat Dollard and The Politico
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
Holly Bailey / Yahoo! News:
Schwarzenegger says he'd like a job working for Obama — Is Arnold Schwarzenegger angling for a job in the Obama administration? — In an interview with editors at the Los Angeles Times, the outgoing California governor said he was in “no rush” to find a new job when his term ends next month.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit and GigaOM
Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
Tea Party Discontent Bubbles to the Surface — Discontent Boiling Over Tax Cuts Bill and House GOP Committee Leadership Positions — The new Congress hasn't been seated yet but signs of a rift are already beginning to emerge between Republican leaders and Tea Party groups …
Discussion:
The Agonist and Left Coast Rebel