Top Items:
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Sarah Palin on Barack Obama speech: ‘WTF’ — Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday night that President Barack Obama's call for “winning the future” during his State of the Union address is best framed by the acronym it shares with a much different phrase — “wtf.”
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Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
Whoa!... Sarah Palin on Obama's SOTU Speech: “WTF Was Spot-On... There Were a Lot of WTF Moments In That Speech” (Video) — Sarah Palin on Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech. — “His theme of WTF was spot-on.” — Sarah Palin on Barack Obama's State of the Union Address:
Discussion:
Hot Air, Wall Street Journal and iOwnTheWorld.com
Alvin Felzenberg / US News:
Obama's State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism — If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama's second State of the Union address contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Smart Politics, Taylor Marsh, Betsy's Page, Outside the Beltway, American Glob, Blue Crab Boulevard and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Was that plagiarism in Obama's State of the Union? — Writing a major political speech like Tuesday's Obama State of the Union Address is an extremely complex undertaking typically lasting weeks and involving contributions from dozens of people by the end of the prose assembly process …
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool, iOwnTheWorld.com, Wonkette and blogs.telegraph.co.uk
Tom Kavanagh / Politics Daily:
Palin on Obama's ‘Winning the Future’: WTF Is a ‘Spot On’ Abbreviation … Sarah Palin says watching President Obama's State of the Union address was a “WTF” moment, in more ways than one. — “His theme last night was WTF — ‘winning the future,’ ” she told Greta Van Susteren Wednesday on Fox News Channel's “On the Record.”
Discussion:
TigerHawk
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
‘WTF,’ says Palin of President Obama's ‘Win the Future’ State of the Union
‘WTF,’ says Palin of President Obama's ‘Win the Future’ State of the Union
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Aharding / CNN:
DeMint open to 2012 presidential bid, advisers say — Washington (CNN) - News that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint will travel to Iowa on March 26 to address a conservative forum organized by Rep. Steve King is sparking another round of chatter that DeMint might launch a dark horse bid for the White House in 2012.
Discussion:
The Politico, Taegan Goddard's … and National Review
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Craig Robinson / The Iowa Republican:
TIR Exclusive: Sen. Jim DeMint is Iowa Bound
TIR Exclusive: Sen. Jim DeMint is Iowa Bound
Discussion:
GOP 12, CNN, The Hill, Hotline On Call and TPMDC
CNN:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — ELIOT SPITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening and welcome to the show. I'm Eliot Spitzer. Kathleen Parker is on assignment tonight. She's in Washington and in just a moment she'll be with us with breaking news …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
SOTU not exceptionalist enough? — If there's one thing President Obama did go on about a bit about in the State of the Union, it was American exceptionalism — as the National Journal's Ron Fournier noted at some length. — Two who didn't entirely notice were Speaker John Boehner and Kathleen Parker.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and The Plum Line
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Boehner: Saying retirement age needed to be raised was ‘mistake’
Boehner: Saying retirement age needed to be raised was ‘mistake’
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and Daily Kos
BBC:
Uganda gay rights activist David Kato killed — David Kato led condemnation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill — A Ugandan gay rights campaigner who last year sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual has been beaten to death, activists say. — Police have confirmed the death …
Discussion:
Box Turtle Bulletin, Pharyngula, Comments from Left Field and Harry's Place
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Jeffrey Gettleman / New York Times:
Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Is Beaten to Death
Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Is Beaten to Death
Discussion:
BlogPost, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Pam's House Blend
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
To target Fox News over ‘Nazi’ label, rabbis make use of Murdoch's other media — A coalition of rabbis wants Fox News chief Roger Ailes and conservative host Glenn Beck to cut out all their talk about Nazis and the Holocaust, and it's making its views known in an unusual place.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Guardian, Parker Spitzer, Outside the Beltway, News Hounds, nancynall.com, Reuters and FrumForum, more at Mediagazer »
Adam Sorensen / The Page:
O, Mark Salter!! — McCain wordsmith revealed as “anonymous” author of “O” the novel. — Confirmed by sources, but there were lots of in-plain-sight clues that led to Salter's Maine door. —Simon and Schuster topper Jonathan Karp was Salter's editor on books he did with Senator McCain.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Politico, Ben Smith's Blog, CNN, Swampland, Taegan Goddard's …, The Awl and National Review
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Gingrich, Bush support bankruptcy for states — A split between prominent Republicans emerged Thursday over whether Congress should allow states to declare bankruptcy. — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Congress should authorize …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and The Agonist
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Wall Street Journal:
What Caused the Financial Crisis? — Congress's inquiry commission is offering a simplistic narrative that could lead to the wrong policy reforms. — Today, six members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission—created by the last Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis—are releasing their final report.
Discussion:
Economist's View and KeithHennessey.com
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Sewell Chan / New York Times:
Dissenters Fault Report on Crisis in Finance
Dissenters Fault Report on Crisis in Finance
Discussion:
KeithHennessey.com, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and The Big Picture
Daily Mail:
Airport bans toy soldier's three-inch rifle from plane... because it's a safety threat — Airport officials ordered a holidaymaker carrying a toy soldier onto a plane to remove its three-inch gun - because it was a safety threat. — Ken Lloyd was stunned when he was told he could not go on the plane …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, The Agitator and Hit & Run
Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
California Lawmaker Receives Racist Death Threat Warning ‘Rush Limbaugh Will Kick Your Ch-nk Ass’ — Last week, California State Sen. Leland Yee (D) called on right-wing hate radio host Rush Limbaugh to apologize for mocking Chinese President Hu Jintao and the Chinese language by speaking gibberish …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and San Francisco Chronicle
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Brock Keeling / SFist:
Leland Yee Receives Racist, Faxed Death Threat
Leland Yee Receives Racist, Faxed Death Threat
Discussion:
San Francisco Examiner, NBC Bay Area, NewsBusters.org and Joshua Holland's Blog
Bill Keller / New York Times:
Dealing With Assange and the Secrets He Spilled — This past June, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, phoned me and asked, mysteriously, whether I had any idea how to arrange a secure communication. Not really, I confessed. The Times doesn't have encrypted phone lines, or a Cone of Silence.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, News Desk, Threat Level, The Big Picture, Runnin' Scared, Gawker, Balloon Juice, Eschaton, The Awl, Prairie Weather and The Daily Beast, more at Mediagazer »
Jason Millman / The Hill:
HHS grants 500 new healthcare waivers — A week after Republicans announced plans to investigate waivers granted to organizations for healthcare reform provisions, President Obama's health department made public new waivers for more than more than 500 groups.
Discussion:
Questions and Observations, Pajamas Media and Weasel Zippers
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
David Axelrod: “No grand repositioning”; Obama is a “progressive” — David Axelrod chatted with around a dozen bloggers at the White House late yesterday, and I got a chance to ask him to respond to all the claims — coming from left-leaning, right-leaning and nonpartisan observers alike …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and Raw Story
New York Times:
G.O.P. Splits Over Plans to Cut Defense Budget — WASHINGTON — To hear the Republican leadership tell it, the once-sacred Pentagon budget, protected by the party for generations, is suddenly on the table. But a closer look shows that even as Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Eric Cantor …
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Page
Reid Forgrave / Des Moines Register:
Angle comes to Iowa, doesn't rule out presidential bid — Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle of Nevada descended upon the movie premiere of a conservative Christian movie in Johnston tonight, and she wouldn't say that she was running for president. — But she wouldn't say that she wasn't.
Discussion:
The Politico, The Fix, Ballot Box, Outside the Beltway, Wonkette, Hot Air, TPMDC and GOP 12
Reid Wilson / NationalJournal.com:
Where's Mitt Romney? — The 2012 presidential campaign hasn't started in earnest, and that suits the perceived front-runner just fine. — MANCHESTER, N.H. — As presidential candidates jockey for position ahead of next year's nominating contests, Republicans in New Hampshire believe …
Discussion:
Hotline On Call, Ben Smith's Blog, GOP 12, TPMDC and Taegan Goddard's …
BBC:
Yemen protests: Thousands call on president to leave — Thousands of Yemenis are demonstrating in the capital Sanaa, calling on Ali Abdullah Saleh, president for more than 30 years, to step down. — This comes after mass protests in Egypt and a popular uprising in Tunisia that ousted its long-time leader.
Discussion:
Foreign Policy, The Plum Line, Guardian, FP Passport, The Daily Dish and New York Times
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
SURPRISED BY THE DEGREE OF SURPRISE.... The day of President Obama's inauguration, the federal budget deficit left by the Republican administration was $1.3 trillion. After some additional economy-saving measures were added to the mix, the 2009 deficit reached $1.4 trillion.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Ezra Klein and The Apothecary
Carlos Lozano / L.A. NOW:
Border authorities arrest controversial Muslim cleric east of San Diego — U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.
Discussion:
AOL News, Hot Air, The Informer, Weasel Zippers, Daily Pundit, The Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch and The Jawa Report