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:
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 Caucus, The Fix, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Yglesias, Hullabaloo, Little Green Footballs, Daily Kos, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Shakesville
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.
Discussion:
Democracy in America
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 …
The Huffington Post:
Haley Barbour's Account Of Civil Rights Era In Mississippi Assailed By NAACP, Historians — What's Your Reaction: … WASHINGTON — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has set off a firestorm of controversy over his comments on the civil rights era in his hometown of Yazoo City …
Discussion:
Yglesias, The Atlantic Online, National Review, Weigel, Wonkette and Oliver Willis
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:
Weigel, Firedoglake, The New Republic, Salon, New York Magazine and Washington Post
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 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:
Boston Globe, The Hill, Hot Air, The Greenroom, democracyarsenal.org, Eunomia, National Review, The Politico and Outside the Beltway
RELATED:
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 …
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:
Epicenter, Don Surber, GigaOM, The Foundry, Post Tech, The Daily Caller, Associated Press, Commentary, Maggie's Farm and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
F.C.C. Poised to Pass Net Neutrality Order
Discussion:
Gawker, Blue Wave News, Post Tech and Truthdig, more at Techmeme »
Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time
Discussion:
Raw Story and The Mahablog, more at Techmeme »
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
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:
New York Times, Hit & Run, Eschaton and Balloon Juice
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.”
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, Danger Room, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, Hit & Run, Emptywheel, BlogPost, Instapundit, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Prairie Weather, Raw Story and ThinkProgress
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:
Right Turn, AmSpecBlog and Das Krapital
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
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
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Romney's Conservative Problem — Mitt Romney's been looking weaker and weaker in our 2012 Presidential polling over the last couple months and it's pretty easy to identify the reason why: he has a major problem with conservatives and there's no evidence it's getting any better.
Discussion:
Hot Air and National Review
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:
Opinion L.A. and Outside the Beltway
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, ThinkProgress, National Review and No More Mister Nice Blog
Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box:
Census data likely to bring more bad news for Democrats on Tuesday — Democrats are expected to get more bad news when the census data is released Tuesday. — Republicans netted 63 House seats in the 2010 election, and now several heavily Democratic states are projected …
Discussion:
The Politico and CNN
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