memeorandum: Administration treads carefully on Libya, Bahrain pro-democracy protest violence (Bridget Johnson/The Hill)

1:35 PM ET, February 20, 2011

Top Items:

Nick Meo / Telegraph:

Libya protests: 140 ‘massacred’ as Gaddafi sends in snipers to crush dissent — Women and children leapt from bridges to their deaths as they tried to escape a ruthless crackdown by Libyan forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. — Snipers shot protesters, artillery and helicopter gunships …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

BBC:

Libya unrest: Scores killed in Benghazi ‘massacre’ — Details have emerged of huge casualty figures in the Libyan city of Benghazi, where troops have launched a brutal crackdown on protesters. — More than 200 people are known to have died, doctors say, with 900 injured.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Outside the Beltway and Libya February 17th

New York Times:
Libyan Forces Again Fire on Residents at Funerals

Discussion: EA WorldView and Don Surber

Aljazeera:
Libya unrest death toll ‘tops 200’

Discussion: DownWithTyranny! and Chicago Boyz

The Independent:
Gaddafi: What now for Libya's dictator, and where does Britain stand?

Discussion: Reuters, Firedoglake, Guardian, BBC and Libya February 17th

Anthony Shadid / New York Times:
Cycle of Suppression Rises in Libya and Elsewhere

Discussion: New York Magazine and CNN

Pejman Yousefzadeh / A Chequer-Board of Nights …:

Everyone Should Have Seen This Coming — Consider the following from this profile of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (all emphasis mine): … As the excerpt, and the highlighted material makes clear, Walker has been an open book as a politician. He has never tried to disguise his stance …

Discussion: POWIP and The Other McCain

Wall Street Journal:
Protests Fail to Sway Wisconsin Governor

Discussion: Truthdig

Michelle Malkin:
Photo gallery: What Big Labor protesters are teaching kids (language warning); Update …

Discussion: UrbanGrounds, The Gateway Pundit, BLACKFIVE, Pajamas Media and Pundit & Pundette

Monica Davey / New York Times:
For Wisconsin Governor, Battle Was Long Coming

Discussion: Politics Daily, Crooks and Liars, Prairie Weather, Sky Dancing, New York Magazine, Runnin' Scared and JSOnline

Charles Lane / PostPartisan:
Tyranny in Wisconsin, Part 4

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, Mediaite, Modeled Behavior, Da Techguy's Blog, Mother Jones, GayPatriot and Taylor Marsh

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Ryan: Any short-term funding bill will have to include spending cuts — The Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee said Sunday that any spending bills passed next month - even short-term measures - will include spending cuts. — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Congress will likely avoid …

Discussion: The Politico

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Lugar opposes House budget bill — A senior Senate Republican on Sunday rejected the spending bill approved by House Republicans on Saturday. — Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said the size of the $61 billion in cuts proposed by the House is “reasonable,” but he wouldn't support the bill as it stands.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Schumer: GOP puts Congress on course for inevitable shutdown

Discussion: CNN

Angella Johnson / Daily Mail:

I was a mob sex attack victim in Tahrir Square... just like Lara Logan — I was especially horrified to read of CBS journalist Lara Logan's sex ordeal as she reported on Egyptians celebrating the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak - because I too was a victim.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Stars and Sewers — Rarely have we seen such epic clashes between the forces of light and darkness. — We watch in awe as revolutions somersault through the Middle East. We see instantaneous digital communication as a weapon against oppression and, in the hands of tyrants who tap into its power, as a weapon for oppression.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Karoli / Crooks and Liars:

Wisconsin Protesters Breitbarted Over Bogus Teachers' Excuses — Fox News broke this bulletin about an hour ago. It stems from a video posted by the MacIver Institute Wisconsin alleging that a doctor is signing bogus excuses for teachers protesting in Madison.

Discussion: The Right Sphere, Biased BBC, ABCNEWS, Right Wing News, Outside the Beltway, Big Journalism, iOwnTheWorld.com, Left Coast Rebel, American Power, Pundit Press, MacIver Institute, Pajamas Media and Daily Kos

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
At the Wisconsin protest, doctors offer to write excuse notes for teachers who called in sick.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Pundit Press, Instapundit and A Chequer-Board of Nights …

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Video: Doctors handing out fake medical excuses at WI union protest

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Jawa Report, Instapundit, The Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Fire Andrea Mitchell!

Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box:

DNC chairman: Wisconsin governor waging war on public workers — RICHMOND, Va. — Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine laid into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) Saturday night, telling a crowd of Democratic activists that what's happening in that state amounts to a declaration of war on public workers.

Discussion: Confederate Yankee and Weasel Zippers

New York Times:
Dueling Protests in a Capital as Nothing Much Gets Done

Discussion: Agence France Presse, The Impolitic, TPMDC, Washington Monthly, Mercury Rising, Right Turn, CBS News, National Review, The Gateway Pundit, Instapundit and New York Times

Jen DiMascio / The Politico:

Rumsfeld blasts Obama's world image — Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disputes the notion that President Barack Obama has made America more popular around the globe than it was under his former boss, President George W. Bush. — Asked on CNN's “State of the Union” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Denise Dick / Vindicator:

Facebook remark wasn't racist, Hagan says — A Broadview Heights woman is accusing state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of using a term that some believe has a racist connotation on a social networking site. — Hagan, D-60th, of Youngstown, used the term “buckwheat” in a Facebook posting Saturday.

Discussion: Moe Lane

Daily Mail:

Extremist cleric to lead White House protest calling for Muslims to ‘rise up and establish Islamic state in America’ — A hardline Muslim cleric who sparked anger across the U.S. with his anti-American comments in a television interview this month is to hold a protest outside the White House.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch

Bridget Johnson / The Hill:

Administration treads carefully on Libya, Bahrain pro-democracy protest violence — The Obama administration remained careful Sunday on its responses to government crackdowns on pro-democracy demonstrations in Libya and Bahrain. — Some observers have placed the death toll as high as 200 in Libya …

Discussion: The Politico

E.S. Browning / Wall Street Journal:

Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short — The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn't a pretty sight. — The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases. — The median household headed …

Discussion: Vox Popoli and FrumForum

Frank Rich / New York Times:

The G.O.P.'s Post-Tucson Traumatic Stress Disorder — SIX weeks after that horrific day in Tucson, America has half-forgotten its violent debate over the power of violent speech to incite violence. It's Gabrielle Giffords's own power of speech that rightly concerns us now.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Daily Kos, Booman Tribune and Crooks and Liars