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, ABCNEWS, The Politico, Politics Daily, The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, BlogPost, Taylor Marsh, Democracy in America, democracyarsenal.org, Mother Jones, AOL News, Projo 7 to 7 News Blog, Parker Spitzer, The Atlantic Online, New York Magazine, Politics, The Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, WPRI.com Blogs, Dependable Renegade and Oliver Willis
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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.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Nice Deb and Founding Bloggers
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Michelle Malkin:
Video: CWA union thug strikes young female FreedomWorks activist; Updated — This is Tabitha Hale, a young conservative activist/original Tea Party organizer/blogger who works for Washington, D.C.-based FreedomWorks. I know her from her great grass-roots work with Smart Girl Politics when the Tea Party movement was just emerging.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, RedState, Liberty Pundits Blog, Examiner, Common Sense Political Thought, Boston Globe, UNCOVERAGE.net, Townhall.com, Big Journalism, Fire Andrea Mitchell!, theblogprof, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Hot Air, Mofo Politics, Doug Ross, Human Events, NewsReal Blog, The Sundries Shack, Cold Fury, The Gateway Pundit, Moe Lane, Breitbart.tv, AmSpecBlog, POWIP, Weasel Zippers, Red White Blue News, The Other McCain, JammieWearingFool, Wall Street Journal, American Power, No Runny Eggs, Sister Toldjah, protein wisdom, The Daley Gator, Pajamas Media, Da Techguy's Blog and Instapundit
Tabitha Hale / RedState:
Union Thuggery Descends On FreedomWorks — Today, union thugs descended on the FreedomWorks office. It was the middle of the day, and there was some excitement outside as all the buses pulled up and people started to fill the courtyard. We decided to go out and show our support for freedom.
Discussion:
Salon, Wonkette, TBogg, Right Wing News, Fire Andrea Mitchell!, Scared Monkeys, Moe Lane, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, UNCOVERAGE.net and Pajamas Media
Kyle Cheney / Boston Herald:
Capuano ‘bloody’ comment becomes flashpoint in union flap
Capuano ‘bloody’ comment becomes flashpoint in union flap
Discussion:
Right Wing News, Maggie's Notebook, Weasel Zippers, AmSpecBlog, theblogprof and The Gateway Pundit
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 …
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KOLD-TV:
Lubbock man arrested: weapon of mass destruction charge — LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - FBI agents arrested a Lubbock man on charges of Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The full text of an official statement is copied below. — WASHINGTON - Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20 …
Discussion:
Emptywheel, The Foundry, msnbc.com, National Review and The Gateway Pundit
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Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Neither Party Has Edge on Federal Budget Dealings — Americans favor compromise over budget shutdown by 2-to-1 margin — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are closely divided over whether the Republicans in Congress (42%) or President Obama and the Democrats (39%) are doing the better job …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, TPMDC, Top of the Ticket, CNN and The Hill
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Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Slash spending but avoid shutdown
Poll: Slash spending but avoid shutdown
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Swampland, New York Times, The Hill and Washington Post
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:
Ezra Klein, The Maddow Blog and A plain blog about politics
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:
Iowa Independent, Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville, Joe. My. God. and FrumForum
The Independent:
Tripoli: a city in the shadow of death — Gunfire in the suburbs - and fear, hunger and rumour in the capital Thousands race for last tickets out of a city sinking into anarchy — Robert Fisk, with the first dispatch from Libya's war-torn capital, reports
Discussion:
Guardian, Aljazeera, Al Jazeera Blogs, The Daily Dish, Shanghaiist, The Field on the Narcosphere, Libya February 17th and The Lede
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Liberals to stage Tea Party-like revolts against GOP spending cuts — Democratic strategists believe their Tea Party moment has arrived. — Working with labor unions and liberal groups, they are using the Presidents Day congressional recess to organize a public backlash against billions of dollars in cuts to federal programs.
Discussion:
The Politico, Fox Nation, protein wisdom, Prairie Weather, Weasel Zippers, Wake up America and POWIP
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:
Wonkette
Lauraklairmont / CNN:
Poll suggests challenging re-election for Hatch — Washington (CNN) - A new poll suggests that Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah could have a tough road ahead of him as he makes a bid next year for a seventh term in office. — A survey by UtahPolicy.com indicates that 31 percent …
Discussion:
Cubachi and Liberty Pundits Blog
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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.
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, The Gateway Pundit, GayPatriot and JSOnline
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Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Pushes Mortgage Deal — Obama Proposal Seeks Multibillion-Dollar Settlement of Loan-Servicing Cases — The Obama administration is trying to push through a settlement over mortgage-servicing breakdowns that could force America's largest banks to pay for reductions in loan principal worth billions of dollars.
Discussion:
Felix Salmon, naked capitalism, Mish's Global Economic …, Emptywheel, Sweetness & Light, UNCOVERAGE.net, The Page and Calculated Risk
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:
The Atlantic Online and The Page
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:
Politics Daily, Ben Smith's Blog, Cincinnati.com, CNN and The Politico
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:
Indecision Forever, Hot Air, The Caucus and New York Magazine
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) …
Discussion:
Kaiser Health News, The Atlantic Online, Swampland and Daily Kos
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 …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and The Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »
John / Power Line:
The Left's War on the Kochs — The most extraordinary story in the news these days is the all-out assault that the Left is mounting against Charles and David Koch and their company, Koch Enterprises. A day doesn't go by—hardly an hour goes by—without some new attack being launched against these two lonely libertarians.
Discussion:
Hit & Run, GayPatriot, The Caucus, The Impolitic, Sky Dancing, Booman Tribune, The Other McCain, TBogg, Yahoo! News, Nice Deb, The Democratic Daily, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin and ABCNEWS
Associated Press:
Wis. Assembly agrees to deal ending debate — MADISON, Wis. — Republicans and Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly have agreed to a deal that will limit further debate on a bill taking away collective bargaining rights for public workers and lead to a vote on the measure later Thursday.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Politics Daily, The Hill, Right Turn, Wonk Room and JSOnline
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, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, TPMDC and TPMMuckraker
Aaron Klein / WorldNetDaily:
Obama's mystery links to Gadhafi uncovered — Prez fails to call for dictator's removal despite reports of attacks on citizens — JERUSALEM - As pressure mounts on the White House to intervene to stop Moammar Gadhafi's bloody crackdown in Libya, many commentators have been wondering …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Maggie's Notebook, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit and Fox Nation
Nick Bunkley / New York Times:
G.M. Reports an Annual Profit, Its First Since 2004 — DETROIT — General Motors, which nearly collapsed from the weight of its debts two years ago before reorganizing in a government-sponsored bankruptcy, said Thursday that it earned $4.7 billion in 2010, the most in more than a decade.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, protein wisdom, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, The New Republic, Wonkette and Outside the Beltway