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.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
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:
New York Times, The Fix, Washington Monthly, Yglesias, Little Green Footballs, Hullabaloo, 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:
Firedoglake, Weigel, The New Republic, New York Magazine, Washington Post and Salon
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
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:
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:
Scared Monkeys, Sister Toldjah, Hot Air, Don Surber, Althouse, Creative Minority Report, The Gateway Pundit, theblogprof, Pat Dollard 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.”
Discussion:
AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Crooks and Liars, AFSCME, Open Left and Daily Kos
RELATED:
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
CBS News:
State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning
State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Right Scoop, Firedoglake, The Foundry, Wonk Room, Commentary, theblogprof and Eduwonk
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 »
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
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, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Danger Room, Hot Air, Prairie Weather, Emptywheel, Raw Story, Instapundit, BlogPost and ThinkProgress
Anita Kumar / Virginia Politics Blog:
Marshall seeks to ban gays from Virginia National Guard — Following this weekend's vote by the Senate to allow gays to openly serve in the military, Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince WIlliam) said he is drafting a bill for the 2011 legislative session that would ban them from serving in the Virginia National Guard.
Discussion:
Wonkette, Outside the Beltway and Towleroad News #gay
RELATED:
Seth McLaughlin / Washington Times:
Virginian: Bar gays from National Guard
Virginian: Bar gays from National Guard
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Right Wing Watch
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?
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:
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
WISH-TV:
Skillman won't launch gubernatorial bid in 2012 — INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indiana Lieutenant. Governor Becky Skillman announced Monday that she will not run for Governor in 2012. — “With much disappointment, I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for Governor in 2012.
Discussion:
Cubachi, The Fix and Ballot Box
RELATED:
Kasie Hunt / The Politico:
Pence announcement looms in January
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, Shopfloor, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The Atlantic Online, Ezra Klein, Shakesville, Pat Dollard and The Politico
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