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Axelrod: President Obama Has “On Several Occasions Directly Confronted” Mubarak on Human Rights for the Past 2 Years “To Get Ahead of This” — In a network exclusive interview to air on Nightline tonight, we sat down this afternoon with White House senior adviser David Axelrod …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Firedoglake, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Pajamas Media
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Liveblog - Egypt's protests erupt — on January 28th, 2011. … Follow staff tweets on the protests from Egypt and Doha. — Watch Al Jazeera English broadcasting live from Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. — View a gallery of photos from the past four days of protests.

Protests in Egypt - live updates — • President Mubarak will form new government on Saturday — • Officials say US is reviewing $1.5bn aid to Egypt — • Mohamed ElBaradei has been detained — • Teargas and rubber bullets used in crackdown — • Read a full summary of the latest developments
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Time, almasryalyoum.com, wikileaks.ch, Guardian, Politics Daily, The Atlantic Online, The Peking Duck, The Hill, News Desk, Political Punch, Hit & Run, Hullabaloo, CBC News, The Daily Dish, Washington Post, Reuters, Firedoglake, The Nation, Mediaite, The Agonist, Big Peace, Open Left, Alas, a blog, Comments from Left Field, Speakeasy, Boing Boing and zunguzungu

Why Would an American President Tout Mubarak's Regime? — Two weekends ago, I was at a wedding, and another guest mentioned that he was being “good,” and honoring his wife's request that he not check his Blackberry or Twitter feed. Knowing that the Ravens-Steelers NFL Playoff game was underway …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway


Mubarak Orders Ministers to Resign but Backs Armed Response to Egypt Protests — CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt appeared on television late Friday night and ordered his government to resign, but backed his security forces' attempts to contain the surging unrest around the country …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Lede, The Informer, News Desk, ABCNEWS, Aljazeera, Guardian, Boing Boing, The Nation, DownWithTyranny!, Wonkette, Raw Story, BLACKFIVE, The Politico, Online NewsHour, The Daily Beast, Wonk Room, Weasel Zippers, nancynall.com, Ben Smith's Blog, The Daily Dish, Jihad Watch, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Christian Science Monitor, FrumForum, Swampland, Prairie Weather, The Maddow Blog and Neptunus Lex


Liveblogging Egypt: Day 1 — Tracking the ongoing demonstrations and government response in Egypt — Egypt's fourth day of nationwide protests has ended in uncertainty. Police have withdrawn from much of Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria, the largest centers of protest, and the Egyptian military has moved in.
Discussion:
Foreign Policy, Associated Press, The Daily Dish, CNET News, Little Green Footballs and Samizdata.net, more at Techmeme »

Egyptian government on last legs, says Mohamed ElBaradei — Exclusive: Mohamed ElBaradei says he is sending a message ‘to the Guardian and to the world’ — The Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei warned President Hosni Mubarak today that his regime is on its last legs …


Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising
Discussion:
Hit & Run, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and Atlas Shrugs

Egypt protests show George W. Bush was right about freedom in the Arab world
Discussion:
Wonk Room, Commentary and Elliott Abrams

Egypt Leaves the Internet
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, GigaOM, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Danger Room, National Review, newsfeed.time.com, Threat Level, Washington Post, msnbc.com, BBC, ReadWriteWeb, technosociology, Arabist.net, PC World, Political Punch, DCist, Examiner, Ya Libnan, Cato @ Liberty, The Moderate Voice, Blogcritics, Top World Stories, The Atlantic Online, Telegraph, Gizmodo, CNN, alicublog, Pajamas Media, Online NewsHour, Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Informed Comment, BGPmon.net Blog, FP Passport, Mediaite, Wake up America, TechCrunch, Marginal Revolution, Associated Press, Newshoggers.com, Mish's Global Economic …, Global Voices in English and Hit & Run, more at Techmeme »

Seizing a Moment, Al Jazeera Galvanizes Arab Frustration
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CFR.org, Salon, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, Wonkette, The Note, No More Mister Nice Blog and RubinReports, more at Mediagazer »

A careful briefing — Robert Gibbs, like all White House press …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and The Plum Line

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Mubarak?
Discussion:
New York Times, Weekly Standard, American Power and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Unrest in Egypt: President Mubarak dissolves Cabinet after night of protests
Discussion:
Fox News, Pajamas Media, Patterico's Pontifications, Opinion L.A., New York Times, Examiner and Parker Spitzer

Who's doing Mubarak's bidding in Washington?
Discussion:
The Hill and Ben Smith's Blog


The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape — Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad. Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding. — Post Comment — Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.
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THE ODIOUS GOP PLAN TO REDEFINE RAPE.... Last week, after a rather pointless vote to repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans announced their second major initiative: the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” — It was additional evidence that the new House GOP majority …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice


On Sputnik vs. Spudnut — Please read this article by the Hoover Institution's Research Fellow Peter Schweizer. Schweizer, who has written extensively on the subject of the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, offers a Washington Post writer an important refresher on the real history of Sputnik …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, USA Today and TPMDC
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Sarah Palin Schools the Washington Post on History
Discussion:
PostPartisan and Conservatives4Palin


Republicans terrified of tea — When Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was named to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, one of her Republican colleagues responded this way: “Is that a punchline?” Another simply said, “Jumbo shrimp. Oxymoron.” — Neither dared to attach his name to his comment.
Discussion:
Grim's Hall, CNN, Washington Monthly, The Blotter, The New Republic and FrumForum
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‘Tea party’ gathering a tepid draw among senators
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars and Mother Jones

U.S. Democrats and pro-Israel lobbies slam Republican Senator's call …
Discussion:
Right Turn, Mondoweiss and AmSpecBlog


TNT apologizes for Tracy Morgan's lewd comments on Palin — UPDATE: TNT sponsor AutoTrader.com is complaining to the network about being stuck in the middle, literally, of Tracy Morgan's lewd remarks about Sarah Palin on last night's edition of Inside the NBA.
Discussion:
NO QUARTER, PopEater, Salon, iOwnTheWorld.com, Pajamas Media, The Other McCain and AOL News
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TNT apologizes for Tracy Morgan's crude Sarah Palin remark
Discussion:
newsfeed.time.com and Wonkette

VFW WILL DEFEAT BACHMANN PLAN — “NO WAY, NO HOW, WILL WE LET THIS PROPOSAL GET ANY TRACTION IN CONGRESS.” — America's oldest and largest major combat veterans' organization announced it will do everything within its power to defeat a plan introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and TPMDC
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Bachmann plan would cut veterans benefits
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Monthly, Minnesota Independent and TPMDC


Too young not to work, too old to get a job — Pew's new report on long-term unemployment is sobering stuff: … The interplay between age and unemployment really worries me. On some level, we have a rosy view of “structural unemployment”: It's a guy in Reno, Nev., who has skills better suited …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo

Fla. rep failed to explain thousands in expenses — MIAMI (AP) — Freshman U.S. Rep. David Rivera, who is facing a state criminal investigation of his finances, paid himself more than $60,000 in unexplained campaign reimbursements over the eight years he served in the state legislature …
Discussion:
Ballot Box and Taegan Goddard's …

Downgrading America — Karl Smith on the possibility that ratings agencies will downgrade U.S. debt from its current AAA rating: … I can't speak for Obama, but I have a feeling that the significance would be: zero. Granted, there's symbolic importance to something like this …
Discussion:
Modeled Behavior and The Atlantic Online
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World Grows Jittery About American Debt
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online

Biden thinks The Onion's spoofs of him are ‘hilarious’ — A mock photo of Vice President Joe Biden washing a Trans-Am shirtless. Strange? Distasteful? Crossing the line? — Not so, Biden says. — “I think it's hilarious,” Biden told Yahoo! in a wide-ranging interview Thursday.
Discussion:
Political Punch, Fox News, Indecision Forever, Washington Post and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »


A big warning sign for Mitt Romney — An array of Republican heavyweights who backed Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid are not yet committed to - and in some cases, downright skeptical of - the former Massachusetts governor's all-but-certain 2012 campaign.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Commentary, Conservatives4Palin and FrumForum


Jordanian protesters demand political reforms — (Reuters) - Islamists, leftists and trade unionists gathered in central Amman Friday for the latest protest to demand political change and wider freedoms. — A crowd of at least 3,000 chanted: “We want change.”
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The Atlantic Online and Weasel Zippers

Bush takes swing at former press secretary — Washington (CNN) - Former President George W. Bush is landing a stinging jab at his former longtime aide and press secretary, Scott McClellan, saying the man who served as the public face of his administration for three years was irrelevant.
Discussion:
The Political Carnival


Obama's Sputnik Moment — On Tuesday President Obama said we were entering “our generation's Sputnik moment”: … This is only half right. It's true that after the launch of Sputnik science and math education became an American obsession, but that's not what got us to the moon.
Discussion:
Yglesias and Outside the Beltway

Who Are We in This ‘Sputnik Moment’? — One of the difficulties progressives face is trying to make centralized planning sound like a good idea. Even the president, with all his rhetorical genius and majestic vagueness, can struggle with the task. So from time to time …
Discussion:
alicublog

Furor at Washington U. nixes Bristol Palin appearance — Anger over a decision to pay Bristol Palin several thousand dollars in student fees to talk to Washington University students about abstinence led to a decision Thursday night to nix Palin's appearance on a panel here next month.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Student Life, The Gateway Pundit, Wonkette and Right Wing News