Top Items:
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Rep. Weiner: ‘I just needed a drink’ after GOP response — One Democratic congressman says he was ready to hit the bottle after hearing the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union Tuesday night. — Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.), who is known for his outspokenness …
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel, Weasel Zippers, TPMDC, Gawker, Althouse and FrumForum
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Ross Douthat:
The Politics of Evasion — If you were a visitor from Mars, watching tonight's State of the Union address and Paul Ryan's Republican response, you would have no reason to think that the looming insolvency of our entitlement system lies at the heart of the economic challenges facing the United States over the next two decades.
Lucy Madison / CBS News:
Poll: High Marks for Obama's State of the Union Speech — An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of President Obama's overall message in his State of the Union on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News Poll of speech watchers. — According to the poll, which was conducted online …
Discussion:
The Politico, CNN, Booman Tribune, msnbc.com, greenbergresearch.com, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Salon, PostPartisan, The Huffington Post, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Firedoglake, Guardian, News Hounds, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, Pajamas Media, Right Turn, The New Republic, The Other McCain, The Daily Caller, Ideas Market, The Political Carnival, Washington Monthly, Ballot Box, Minnesota Independent, Crooks and Liars, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Nice Deb, Fire Andrea Mitchell!, AMERICAblog Elections, iOwnTheWorld.com, FrumForum, Politics Daily, The Gateway Pundit, Newsweek, The Page, The Moderate Voice and JammieWearingFool, more at Mediagazer »
Keach Hagey / The Politico:
Michele Bachmann's turn — Rep. Michele Bachmann may fall into that media-savvy cadre of politicians who, as the saying goes, has never met a camera she didn't like, but Tuesday night many Americans got the impression she was talking into the wrong camera. — Bachmann delivered …
Discussion:
CNN, The Caucus, Mediaite, Media Matters for America, Gawker, Liberal Values, The Daily Caller, Politics Daily, AOL News, Taylor Marsh, Balloon Juice and FrumForum
Gawker:
Dennis Kucinich Sues Congressional Cafeteria Over Olive Pit — Congressman Dennis Kucinich bought a sandwich from the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria in April 2008, and bit into it only to find an unpitted olive that cracked a tooth. This month, he sued the cafeteria for selling “dangerous” sandwiches.
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Post, Raw Story, Law Blog, Salon, Wonkette, FishbowlDC and Overlawyered
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Sabrina Eaton / Plain Dealer:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich sues cafeteria over olive pit in sandwich — Rep. Dennis Kucinich has sued a U.S. House of Representatives cafeteria for selling him a sandwich wrap that caused dental damage when he bit into an olive pit, according to a Jan. 3 lawsuit filed in Superior Court for the District of Columbia.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Pajamas Media and FrumForum
USA Today:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich files lawsuit over olive pit — Rep. Dennis Kucinich has filed a lawsuit over a sandwich he bought at a congressional cafeteria. — Kucinich, D-Ohio, bit into an olive pit in a sandwich wrap in April 2008, which he said led to “serious and permanent dental and oral injuries …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller and Fire Andrea Mitchell!
Gallup:
Americans Oppose Cuts in Education, Social Security, Defense — Large plurality call for Congress to agree on deficit reduction before raising debt limit — PRINCETON, NJ — Prior to the State of the Union address, a majority of Americans said they favor cutting U.S. foreign aid …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Top of the Ticket, Hot Air, The Plum Line, Daily Kos, The Hill, Politics Daily and New York Times
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Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:
Sen. Graham: We Need to Act Like U.S. Troops And Raise The Social …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS
Washington Post:
A disappointing State of the Union address
Discussion:
New York Times, Pajamas Media, Commentary, Don Surber and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Cantor jabs at Reid on Social Security reform
Discussion:
Liberty Pundits Blog, Daily Kos and The Politico
CBO's Latest 10 Documents:
BUDGET AND ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: FISCAL YEARS 2011 THROUGH 2021 — Text-only. — The United States faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges. The economy has struggled to recover from the recent recession, which was triggered by a large decline in house prices and a financial crisis …
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Erik Wasson / The Hill:
CBO: Deficit widened to $1.5 trillion this year
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, The Politico, Questions and Observations, Right Pundits, The Hill and Scared Monkeys
Corey Boles / Wall Street Journal:
Budget Deficit Is Expected to Hit $1.48 Trillion
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and FrumForum
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Against Obligatory Editorials — He still loves his wife. But after 25 years of marriage, he has lost his enthusiasm for sex with her. Still. It is Valentine's Day. And she has been hinting. So he takes her to a nice dinner, uncharactertistically orders an after-dinner drink …
Discussion:
USA Today
CNN:
Protesters in Egypt greeted by a police crackdown — Are you in Egypt? Share your protest images with CNN iReport. — Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Protesters taking to the streets in Egypt on Wednesday felt the wrath of security forces, a day after an unparalleled display of public rage …
Discussion:
National Review, The Lede, Mashable! and Israel Matzav
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Laura Rozen / The Politico:
Obama and unrest in the Arab world
Discussion:
FP Passport, Pundits Blog, Taylor Marsh, The Daily Dish and New York Times
Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:
Loughner researched lethal injection before Tucson shooting, sources say — TUCSON — In the weeks and days before the shooting rampage in Tucson, suspect Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet on his computer in what investigators believe was an effort to prepare for his alleged assassination attempt …
Discussion:
The Politico, Los Angeles Times, Scared Monkeys, Raw Story, TPMMuckraker, Hullabaloo, msnbc.com and FrumForum
Paul Krugman:
The Ryan Response — ... was as bad as you might expect. Lots of breast-beating about deficits; you'd never know that no leading Republican, Ryan very much included, has offered a serious proposal to cut the deficit. Some cooked statistics about federal spending. And then there was this curious assertion:
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Cubachi:
Marco Rubio announces he's co-sponsoring DeMint's Obamacare repeal bill — I don't know how anyone can label Senator Marco Rubio an establishment guy, just because he is not willing to join a Tea Party Caucus. — Anyway, would an establishment figure co-sponsor any bill with Senator Jim DeMint …
Discussion:
Liberty Pundits Blog
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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Axelrod mocks Tea Party response: ‘Am I looking at the right camera?’ — A top White House adviser gently mocked the Tea Party response to the State of the Union delivered by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Tuesday night. — White House senior adviser David Axelrod joked …
Discussion:
CNN, TPMDC and Weasel Zippers
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Erick Erickson / RedState:
The Bachmann Speech
Discussion:
CNN, Right Pundits, Riehl World View and FrumForum
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE MISSING DEPTH OF THOUGHT.... I've long considered Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) the Republican version of John Edwards. After one largely underwhelming term, in which he didn't tackle any noteworthy policy initiatives and failed to distinguished himself as an expert in an area …
Discussion:
TPMDC
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Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Why an Unexceptional Speech Got an Exceptional Response — The early returns are in, and it's a landslide. — Snap polls (surveys with a small sample size taken immediately after a speech or event) almost always show a positive reaction to the State of the Union address.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
ABCNEWS:
Sen. Harry Reid Says Earmarks Will Return, Despite Obama's State of the Union Vow — Senate Democratic Leader Concedes GOP Can Force Health Care Repeal Vote — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told ABC News that earmarks will return to Capitol Hill despite President Obama's vow …
Discussion:
Hot Air
Bob Unruh / WorldNetDaily:
Game-changer! Arizona to pass 2012 eligibility law — Obama will have to produce birth certificate to run again — It could be a game-changer. — A plan in Arizona to require presidential candidates to prove their eligibility to occupy the Oval Office is approaching critical mass, even though it has just been introduced.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, HillBuzz.org, Weasel Zippers and Vox Popoli
Telegraph:
Moscow airport bomb: suicide bombers were part of squad trained in Pakistan — The two suicide bombers who carried out the Moscow attack were thought to be part of a suicide squad trained in Pakistan's al-Qaeda strongholds sent to the capital to target the city's transport system.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and FrumForum
NPR:
The State Of The Union, In Your Words — Right after President Barack Obama finished his State of the Union address, we asked our listeners to describe his speech in three words. We received responses from more than 4,000 of you. We've run them through a word cloud generator and this is what all of you said:
Discussion:
Federal Eye, Gawker, Wonkette and The Wire
The Note:
Feisty Issa Spars with Committee Members over Procedures in First Oversight Hearing — ABC News' Arlette Saenz reports: After last night's show of civility across party lines at the State of the Union, Rep. Darrell Issa's first Oversight Committee hearing on bailouts and the foreclosure crisis started with a bout over procedure.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and National Review
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
The President as Micromanager — While watching the speech, I tweeted that “Obama sounds remarkably similar to the CEOs I used to listen to on earnings calls: the ones with mediocre EPS and a failing business model.” This wasn't a crack at Obama, or Democrats; it was a reaction to the content.
Discussion:
CNN
Barbara Ehrenreich / Los Angeles Times:
A call to protest ignites a call to arms — The reaction to Frances Fox Piven's essay urging the unemployed to protest for change shows that we are no longer a democracy but a tyranny of the heavily armed. — Why are Americans such wusses? Threaten the Greeks with job losses and benefit cuts …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Instapundit, The Political Carnival and National Review
Pete Kasperowicz / Ballot Box:
House votes to end publicly financed presidential campaigns — The House today approved legislation that would end public financing of presidential campaigns by eliminating the option taxpayers have to donate $3 of their tax payments to a presidential campaign fund.
Discussion:
The Politico
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Dear commenters, Steve Doocy is reading — One of the themes of the Esquire profile of Roger Ailes, with which Ailes cooperated, is that Ailes reads ever word written about him. — You might think that was an exaggeration. But apparently he does, or someone over on Sixth Avenue does.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Gawker, Swampland, Balloon Juice and Esquire, more at Mediagazer »
Chris Lawrence / CNN:
Marines change commander at facility where WikiLeaks suspect held — Washington (CNN) — The Marines have changed the commander in charge of the detention facilities at Quantico, Virginia, days after the attorney for WikiLeaks suspect PFC Bradley Manning filed a complaint that he is being unfairly treated in detention.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TPMMuckraker and Emptywheel
Ezra Klein:
We won't always be the biggest — This bugged me last night, and it's worth talking about today: One of the first big applause lines of the speech came when Barack Obama said, “For all the hits we've taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest …
Discussion:
Yglesias
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