Top Items:
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Scalia: No plans to attend Obama's State of the Union address — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told The Hill on Monday evening that he does not plan on attending the State of the Union address on Tuesday. — The conservative-leaning jurist said that he hasn't “gone to the State …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Fox News, The Politico, Daily Pundit, CBS News and Outside the Beltway
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Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Supreme Court won't be fully represented at State of the Union — The Supreme Court finds itself again in the political limelight, a place most justices try to avoid. — A combination of events, concluding with the question of which justices will attend President Obama's State …
Discussion:
The Hill, Sister Toldjah, Salon, ACS Blog and The Atlantic Online
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Clarence Thomas revises disclosure forms
Clarence Thomas revises disclosure forms
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and Politics Daily
Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
Thomas Cites Failure to Disclose Wife's Job
Thomas Cites Failure to Disclose Wife's Job
Discussion:
JONATHAN TURLEY and Prairie Weather
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Obama won't endorse raising retirement age or reducing Social Security benefits — President Obama has decided not to endorse his deficit commission's recommendation to raise the retirement age, and otherwise reduce Social Security benefits, in Tuesday's State of the Union address …
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Russell Berman / The Hill:
Rep. Eric Cantor: ‘No bailout of the states’ — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) issued a new threat against a federal bailout for ailing state governments Monday as GOP leaders girded for a confrontation with President Obama over spending. — Heading into Tuesday's State of the Union address …
Discussion:
CNN, The Politico and Connecting.the.Dots
Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
GOP House stands ‘unapologetically for life,’ says Cantor — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) vowed Monday to leverage the “biggest and the most pro-life freshman class in memory” to institute a “permanent government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion.”
Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
White House Says Chinese Folk Song Played During State Dinner Was Not An Insult; Experts Divided — Ivories that were tickled last Wednesday night at the White House are, to some conservative media, no laughing matter. — At the White House State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Human Events, Speakeasy, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, HotAirPundit and Asiaone
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
Carol Browner to leave White House — Carol M. Browner, President Barack Obama's energy adviser, plans to leave the White House in coming weeks, White House officials said Monday night. — Browner, who is Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, was EPA administrator …
Discussion:
The Hill, Hot Air, New York Times, The Caucus, Michelle Malkin, Grist, Wall Street Journal, Wonkette, Politics Daily, The Hill, Political Punch and Washington Post
Evan Perez / Wall Street Journal:
White House Lawyer Tapped for Solicitor General
White House Lawyer Tapped for Solicitor General
Discussion:
Weekly Standard and The Fix, more at Techmeme »
Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
Pre-State of the Union, Democratic Talking Heads Briefed at White House
Pre-State of the Union, Democratic Talking Heads Briefed at White House
Discussion:
American Thinker and Daily Kos
National Archives and Records Administration:
National Archives Discovers Date Change on Lincoln Record — Thomas Lowry Confesses to Altering Lincoln Pardon to April 14, 1865 — Washington, DC...Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero announced today that Thomas Lowry, a long-time Lincoln researcher from Woodbridge, VA …
The Hill:
GOP to push for D.C. gay marriage ban — House conservatives say they will pursue legislation that would ban gay marriage in the nation's capital. — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), told The Hill that he will push for a vote on the controversial issue in the 112th Congress.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway and AMERICAblog Gay
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Chris Johnson / Washington Blade:
Gibbs dodges question on Obama's early marriage support
Gibbs dodges question on Obama's early marriage support
Discussion:
Lez Get Real, Mediaite, AMERICAblog Gay and Pam's House Blend
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Report: George W. Bush aides violated Hatch Act — During the 2006 midterm elections, White House political aides to President George W. Bush engaged in widespread violations of a federal law which limits partisan political activity by government employees, a long-running federal investigation has found.
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Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Bush White House Broke Elections Law, Report Says
Bush White House Broke Elections Law, Report Says
Discussion:
Sunlight Foundation Blog, The Hill and Oliver Willis
Jim Miklaszewski / msnbc.com:
NBC: U.S. can't link accused Army private to Assange — Military also denies allegations that Bradley Manning is being mistreated — Below: — U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected …
Reuters:
Financial Crisis Commission Finds Cause For Prosecution Of Wall Street — The bipartisan panel appointed by Congress to investigate the financial crisis has concluded that several financial industry figures appear to have broken the law and has referred multiple cases to state or federal authorities …
Discussion:
Wonk Room, New York Times, naked capitalism and Calculated Risk
Bob Herbert / New York Times:
Raising False Alarms — If there's a better government program than Social Security, I'd like to know what it is. — It has gone a long way toward eliminating poverty among the elderly. Great numbers of them used to live and die in ghastly, Dickensian conditions of extreme want.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
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Kos / Daily Kos:
Poll: Cut Social Security benefits or raise payroll cap? Not even close
Poll: Cut Social Security benefits or raise payroll cap? Not even close
Discussion:
Wonk Room and ThinkProgress
Robert M. Danin / Foreign Policy:
NastyLeaks — Far from a triumph for transparency, the Palestine Papers are a victory for the enemies of peace in the Middle East — but only if Palestinian leaders embrace Al Jazeera's narrative. — The Palestine Papers — more than 1,600 internal Palestinian documents summarizing negotiations …
Discussion:
Guardian, Firedoglake and The Lede
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The Politico:
Left laments Barack Obama's move to center — President Barack Obama plans to play up a bright future with congressional Republicans by channeling his 2008 campaign message of post-partisanship in his State of the Union address — but the liberal wing of his party isn't quite seeing the light.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh and JammieWearingFool
RELATED:
Amy Forliti / Associated Press:
Ventura sues over body scans, pat-downs — Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration on Monday, alleging full-body scans and pat-downs at airport checkpoints violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Discussion:
Pirate's Cove
Ross McGuinness / Metro.co.uk:
Dentist uses sexy dresses to distract patients — Advanced drugs can cure many ills, new technology can revolutionise surgery but sometimes a low-cut, sorry lo-tech, solution is all you need - one dentist has bought herself and her ten nurses tight-fitting, cleavage-maximising dresses to distract worried patients while they work.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and JammieWearingFool
CNN:
CNN Poll: Americans more optimistic on state of nation — Washington (CNN) - Hours before President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address before Congress, a new national poll indicates a surge in optimism about the state of the nation. — According to a CNN/Opinion Research …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Taegan Goddard's … and The Political Carnival
Paul Krugman:
The War on Demand — Something really strange has happened to the debate over economic policy in the face of the Great Recession and its aftermath — or maybe the real point is that events have revealed the true nature of the debate, stripping away some of the illusions.
Discussion:
Grasping Reality …, Modeled Behavior and Yglesias
Teri Buhl / The Atlantic Online:
E-mails Show Bear Stearns Cheated Clients Out of Billions — Lawsuit alleges the bank took extreme measures to defraud investors, and now JPMorgan may be on the hook Former Bear Stearns mortgage executives who now run mortgage divisions of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America …
Discussion:
The Big Picture
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blog:
2012 siren: Barbour to South Carolina — Mississippi Gov Haley Barbour will visit the Republican-heavy Upstate of South Carolina Wednesday for two private events with local GOP officials to discuss a potential presidential run, POLITICO has learned. — Barbour will meet with Republicans first in Greenville and then in Spartanburg.
Discussion:
GOP 12
Simmi Aujla / The Politico:
Bachmann: SOTU rebuttal is not a ‘competition’ with Ryan — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said her rebuttal to the president's State of the Union address tomorrow isn't a “competition” with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who's delivering the official Republican response. — “This is not a competition,” Bachmann said.
Discussion:
The Fix, Washington Monthly, CNN and Minneapolis Star Tribune
Andrew Ross Sorkin / DealBook:
A Hefty Price for Entry to Davos — What's the price tag to be a Davos Man? — Chief executives, government leaders and academics around the world are headed to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting this week — a heady power gathering that mixes business, politics and Champagne in the Swiss Alps.
Discussion:
driftglass and Big Peace
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
AZ lawmaker: Roe v. Wade a factor in shootings — The aftermath of the Arizona shootings have featured disputes over the role that gun laws or political rhetoric could have played in the violence. — But an Arizona lawmaker offered another source of blame: Roe v. Wade.
Discussion:
theblogprof, Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog and TPMDC