Top Items:
Michael Hastings / Rolling Stone:
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators — The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Foreign Policy, Mediaite, The Atlantic Online, Danger Room, National Review, New Atlanticist, Washington Post, Hot Air, The Washington Note, SWJ Blog, The Politico, Confederate Yankee, democracyarsenal.org, Salon, ABCNEWS, New York Times, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Taylor Marsh, The Raw Story, Newshoggers.com, AOL News, Swampland, Democracy in America, New York Magazine, Ben Smith's Blog, Hullabaloo, Projo 7 to 7 News Blog, Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway, WPRI.com Blogs, Dependable Renegade, Politics, Oliver Willis and Gawker
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Jay Solomon / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Fears Tripoli May Deploy Gas As Chaos Mounts — WASHINGTON—The government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi hasn't destroyed significant stockpiles of mustard gas and other chemical-weapons agents, raising fears in Washington about what could happen to them—and whether they may be used—as Libya slides further into chaos.
Discussion:
Maggie's Notebook, The Lonely Conservative, Outside the Beltway, Babalú Blog and Sweetness & Light
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New York Times:
Qaddafi Strikes Back as Rebels Close In on Libyan Capital — BENGHAZI, Libya — Thousands of mercenary and irregular forces struck back at a tightening circle of rebellions around the capital, Tripoli, on Thursday, trying to fend off an uprising against the 40-year rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi …
Discussion:
CNN, Foreign Policy, Hot Air, Don Surber, Bloomberg, Mish's Global Economic …, Pajamas Media, Ben Smith's Blog, FP Passport, AOL News, FrumForum and The Daily Caller
Barbara Starr / CNN:
Official: U.S. military options for Libya being planned
Official: U.S. military options for Libya being planned
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications and The Greenroom
The Independent:
Tripoli: a city in the shadow of death
Tripoli: a city in the shadow of death
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Guardian, Aljazeera, Al Jazeera Blogs, Shanghaiist, The Field on the Narcosphere, Libya February 17th and The Lede
CNN:
Report: Libyan capital deserted; opposition seizes major city
Report: Libyan capital deserted; opposition seizes major city
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE, This Just In and Parker Spitzer
Russ Buettner / New York Times:
Records Say Fox News Chief Told Employee to Lie — It was an incendiary allegation — and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation …
Michelle Malkin:
Video: Rhode Island union supporter to cameraman - “I'll f**k you in the ass, you faggot” — The hits keep on coming. Here's another fine specimen of Big Labor civility: — At AFSCME's “solidarity” rally in Providence, Rhode Island on Tuesday, a cameraman was accosted by a fuming pro-union protester.
The United States Department of Justice:
Texas Resident Arrested on Charge of Attempted Use of Weapon of Mass Destruction … WASHINGTON - Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and resident of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested late yesterday by FBI agents in Texas on a federal charge of attempted use of a weapon …
Discussion:
National Review, Pajamas Media, Weasel Zippers, NO QUARTER, USA Today, Oliver Willis, The Foundry, Emptywheel, The Gateway Pundit, msnbc.com, Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs
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Chris Frates / The Politico:
Lobbyists: White House sends meetings off-site to hide them — Caught between their boss's anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the reality of governing, President Barack Obama's aides often steer meetings with lobbyists to a complex just off the White House grounds - and several of the lobbyists involved …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, USA Today, Swampland, YID With LID, Top of the Ticket, Pajamas Media, Fausta's Blog, Wall Street Journal, The Foundry, Sister Toldjah, Maggie's Notebook, Michelle Malkin, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Weasel Zippers, Fire Andrea Mitchell!, RedState, Pundit Press, Betsy's Page, The Lonely Conservative, Verum Serum and iOwnTheWorld.com
tax.com:
Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who ‘Contributes’ to Public Workers' Pensions? — When it comes to improving public understanding of tax policy, nothing has been more troubling than the deeply flawed coverage of the Wisconsin state employees' fight over collective bargaining.
Discussion:
Newshoggers.com
Mother Jones:
Nebraska Resurrects “Justifiable Homicide” Abortion Bill — A state legislator pushes a bill that's even more sweeping than the South Dakota proposal that sparked a national controversy. — Post Comment — Just when abortion rights supporters thought they had beaten a controversial bill …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Yglesias, Pharyngula, Outside the Beltway, Sky Dancing, The Raw Story, Indecision Forever, Iowa Independent and FrumForum
RELATED:
Lynda Waddington / Iowa Independent:
Iowa bills open door for use of deadly force to protect the unborn
Iowa bills open door for use of deadly force to protect the unborn
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, Shakesville and Joe. My. God.
Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times:
Report: GOP budget cuts would hit U.S. economy — Goldman Sachs analysis says Republicans' $61 billion in cuts would trim U.S. economic growth by half this year. Rep. John Boehner and others reject the report. — Reporting from Washington — Spending cuts approved by House Republicans …
Discussion:
Free exchange, TalkLeft and Mother Jones
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Jonathan Bernstein / The New Republic:
Policy Paralysis — How John Boehner made a government shutdown inevitable.
Policy Paralysis — How John Boehner made a government shutdown inevitable.
Discussion:
New York Times, Ezra Klein, Open Congress, A plain blog about politics and The Maddow Blog
kff.org:
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — February 2011 — In the wake of the health reform repeal vote in the U.S. House and the ongoing legal challenges over the individual mandate, nearly half the country either believes that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) …
RELATED:
Jennifer Haberkorn / The Politico:
Repeal has Americans flummoxed
Repeal has Americans flummoxed
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Daily Kos
Matt Bai / New York Times:
How Chris Christie Did His Homework — Like a stand-up comedian working out-of-the-way clubs, Chris Christie travels the townships and boroughs of New Jersey, places like Hackettstown and Raritan and Scotch Plains, sharpening his riffs about the state's public employees …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, GOP 12, The Atlantic Online, Politics, The Page and Felix Salmon
Peter Wehner / Commentary Magazine:
The Most Disturbing Personality on Cable Television — In the past few weeks Glenn Beck has spoken about the coming caliphate that he believes is about to envelope most of the world. He then dilated on the anti-Christ with a man who says he has “new prophetic understanding into the end times.”
Discussion:
Right Turn, Little Green Footballs and FrumForum
JSOnline:
Madison police chief troubled by Walker's comments on protesters — By Sharif Durhams of the Journal Sentinel — Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said Thursday that he found comments by Gov. Scott Walker made about protesters at the state Capitol during a prank phone call “very unsettling and troubling.”
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Wonkette, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, TPMDC and The Maddow Blog
RELATED:
Luis Martinez / ABCNEWS:
Boeing Wins $35B Pentagon Contract — Decision Follows Decade of Wrangling; EADS, Alabama Lose Out; 50,000 Jobs in Washington, Kansas — After a decade of wrangling and fierce lobbying, the Pentagon today awarded Chicago-based Boeing a $35 billion contract to being replacing the Air Force's aging aerial refueling tanker fleet.
Discussion:
The Politico
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Rasmussen Reports:
67% Disapprove of Legislators Fleeing Wisconsin to Avoid Vote — Half of America's voters favor public sector unions for government workers, but they strongly oppose the tactic by Wisconsin state senators to flee their state to prevent a vote that would limit the rights of such unions.
Reid Wilson / NationalJournal.com:
McCain's Shift Makes Him Senate's Most Conservative — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. — The politician who once best exemplified the idea of a “maverick” independent has shifted so far to the right that he is now tied …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, The Caucus, Salon, Indecision Forever, Hot Air, The Atlantic Online and New York Magazine
Teddy Schleifer / The Daily Princetonian:
Daniels '71: Into the spotlight — After Mitch Daniels '71 was arrested, indicted and convicted on charges of drug use as an undergraduate in May 1970, he said that he thought his aspiring political career was doomed. “Any goal I might have had for competing for public office were shot,” …
Discussion:
Cincinnati.com, Politics Daily, USA Today, Ben Smith's Blog, The Politico and CNN
Douglas Feiden / NY Daily News:
UFT spends millions on dinners, parties, parking, coffee as thousands of teachers face layoffs — As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned. — Free-spending United Federation …
Discussion:
The Lonely Conservative, JammieWearingFool and POWIP
Michael Monk / Firedoglake:
Will Obama Find Those Shoes? — In the “flashback quote of the day” at Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, he highlights words from candidate Barack Obama, made in a 2007 speech (and referenced in Slate). That quote is as follows (spoken word differs slightly from the prepared text quoted by others …
Ezra Klein:
Andy Stern: ‘It may not end beautifully in Wisconsin.’ — Last year, Andy Stern retired as the president of SEIU, the service employees union that he'd built into a 2.2 million member heavyweight. During his tenure, Stern was known — and sometimes reviled — for his efforts to reform organized labor …
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel and Wonkette