Top Items:
New York Times:
C.I.A. Agents in Libya Aid Airstrikes and Meet Rebels — WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and contact rebels battling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's forces, according to American officials.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Mudville Gazette, Say Anything, Pajamas Media, The Volokh Conspiracy, Flopping Aces, Connecting.the.Dots, Guardian, Weasel Zippers, FrumForum, Saideman's Semi-Spew, LewRockwell.com Blog, NO QUARTER, Right Wing News, Prairie Weather, The Atlantic Online, Balloon Juice and Outside the Beltway
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Matt Negrin / The Politico:
Tapper offers Carney ‘straw men’ — The temperature in the White House briefing jumped up Wednesday afternoon as Jake Tapper and Jay Carney vented some of their frustrations with each other publicly. — At one point, Tapper dissed Carney by saying he could provide a “room full of straw men” for the White House press secretary.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret support for Libya rebels — (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Emptywheel, Wonkette, Fausta's Blog, Atlas Shrugs, The Cable, Pajamas Media, Left Coast Rebel, Another Black Conservative, Shakesville, Sky Dancing, Say Anything, ABCNEWS, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, Firedoglake, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, The Lonely Conservative, This Just In, Outside the Beltway, American Power, TPMDC, Hit & Run, BLACKFIVE, Israel Matzav, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gawker, Swampland, The Page, American Glob, National Review, New York Times, CNN and Taylor Marsh
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
On The Latest From Libya — I'm still absorbing this news and don't want to vent immediately, because there is still part of me that simply cannot believe that president Obama has already ordered covert action in Libya on one side in a civil war, and is now actively discussing whether to arm …
Discussion:
Ross Douthat, American Power, Da Techguy's Blog, JustOneMinute, JammieWearingFool, CNSNews and That's What She Said
The Politico:
Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates win no love on Capitol Hill — President Barack Obama's foreign policy “A” team — led by Cabinet secretaries Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates — failed to quiet criticism of U.S. military action in Libya Wednesday during a pair of classified briefings on Capitol Hill.
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Hot Air and The Lonely Conservative
Myglesias / Yglesias:
Good Morning Libya — Today's New York Times features Mark Mazzetti …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, TPMDC and Vancouver Sun
Washington Post:
In Libya, CIA is gathering intelligence on rebels
Discussion:
Guardian, Hot Air, ParaPundit and Danger Room
NationalJournal.com:
CIA Deploys to Libya as White House Authorizes Direct Assistance to Rebels
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Right Sphere and Big Peace
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Hillary Clinton Favorable Near Her All-Time High
Discussion:
CNN, Hot Air, The Hill, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, Shakesville and The Note
David Rogers / The Politico:
Budget deal close with $33B in cuts — Budget talks came to life Wednesday but not without new tension between the White House and Senate Democrats, worried that the administration is too quick to agree to $33 billion in cuts to move Speaker John Boehner toward what remains a very uncertain deal.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, CNN, The Other McCain, WyBlog, FrumForum, Pajamas Media, Say Anything, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Washington Post, Pundit Press, Daily Kos and The Hill
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The Politico:
Tea partiers warn GOP on dealmaking — It's not like Republicans need a reminder of the tensions within their own ranks on government spending cuts. — But if they forget what's at stake, all GOP lawmakers need to do Thursday is walk outside the Capitol, where perhaps hundreds …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Los Angeles Times and Fox Nation
Washington Post:
Republicans and Democrats begin negotiating possible budget agreement
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, New York Times, Guardian, USA Today, Wonk Room, The BLT, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Washington Wire and National Review
Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
Boehner chokes up defending DC school voucher program
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Caucus and FrumForum
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Democrats consider proposing tax hikes — Senate Democrats are discussing plans to introduce tax policy changes that they say would raise federal revenues and broaden the budget debate beyond discretionary spending cuts. — Democrats feel they have been boxed by Republicans into a debate …
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, FrumForum, Prairie Weather and JammieWearingFool
Marc Lacey / New York Times:
An Arizona Senate Race Waits to See if Giffords Emerges to Run — TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials …
Discussion:
The Agitator, USA Today and FrumForum
Abby Phillip / The Politico:
Shh! Obama gets anti-secrecy award — The president accepted a transparency award in a closed, undisclosed meeting. — President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.
Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:
Obama issues veto threat over union measure in FAA bill — President Obama has threatened to veto the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill unless a provision on union organizing is removed. — In a statement of administration policy Wednesday, the White House said the president's …
Discussion:
The Politico, The Impolitic and Wonk Room
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Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
White House Threatens To Veto Anti-Union Measure In Aviation Bill
Discussion:
laborunionreport's Diary and American Spectator
Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:
Ohio Lawmakers Pass Anti-Union Bill — The two houses of the Ohio Legislature approved a far-reaching bill on Wednesday that would hobble the ability of public-employee unions to bargain collectively and undercut their political clout. — They sent the bill to Gov. John R. Kasich …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, www2.nbc4i.com, UrbanGrounds and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
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Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:
VIDEO: Indiana GOP Rep Says Women Will Pretend To Be Raped To Get Free Abortions — Yesterday morning, the Indiana House considered an anti-abortion bill that “would put some of the tightest abortion restrictions in the nation into Indiana law.” Introduced by state Rep. Eric Turner (R) …
Benjamin Svetkey / PopWatch:
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as ‘The Governator’ — EXCLUSIVE — He's been a famous body builder. He's been a killer cyborg from the future. He's been Governor of California. And now, in this week's exclusive cover scoop, Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals his plans for the next phase …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The Wire, The Daily Caller, Right Pundits, Outside the Beltway, Show Tracker and Capitol Alert
Stack / USW Blog:
A Well-Intentioned Bad Idea — International Vice President, United Steelworkers — By now anyone who had not yet heard of the Koch brothers has been introduced to them. Every major newspaper and magazine has run an article about the brothers who until recently lived largely under …
Discussion:
laborunionreport's Diary, Moe Lane and Da Techguy's Blog
Doug McKelway / Fox News:
Report Accuses DHS of Witness Tampering and Attempted Theft of Congressional Committee Documents — A key congressional committee on oversight is accusing the Department of Homeland Security of non-cooperation, witness tampering and even attempted theft of committee documents.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Don Surber
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Mike McIntire / New York Times:
Odd Alliance: Business Lobby and Tea Party — The Tea Party does not have a presence in Indonesia, where the term evokes cups of orange pekoe and sweet cakes rather than angry citizens in “Don't Tread on Me” T-shirts. — But a Tea Party group in the United States, the Institute for Liberty …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, A plain blog about politics and Prairie Weather
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Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Poll Shows More Americans Have Unfavorable Views of Tea Party
Discussion:
The Reaction, The Daily Dish and Washington Post
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Antitrust Cry From Microsoft — The wheel of technology history turns remarkably fast. Microsoft, whose domination of the technology industry provoked a landmark federal antitrust case, is crying foul against Google and urging European Union antitrust officials to go after the search giant.
Discussion:
Law Blog and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »
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Brad Smith / TechNet Blogs:
Adding our Voice to Concerns about Search in Europe
Discussion:
The Politico, Hit & Run, Mashable!, Guardian, Engadget and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Rubio Takes the Lead — Urges Congress to authorize military action, endorse regime change. — THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained the text of a letter freshman senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent tonight to the Senate majority and minority leaders. In it, Rubio proposes that the Senate authorize …
Discussion:
Washington Wire, CNN, Say Anything, Post on Politics and Naked Politics
Travis Waldron / ThinkProgress:
With New ‘Monkey Bill,’ Tennessee Takes Evolution Education Back To Scopes — Eighty six years after the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial opened Tennessee to the debate about the teaching of evolution, the state House is trying to slam the door shut again. Tennessee's House Education Committee approved …
Discussion:
Blogcritics, Booman Tribune and Knoxville News-Sentinel
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Barney Frank: On budget, GOP in ‘cloud cuckoo land’ — Even though budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans have resumed on Capitol Hill, the war of words between the two parties is alive and well. — Perhaps no better example came Wednesday night, when sharp-tongued Rep. Barney Frank …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Wire, FrumForum and Daily Kos
Catherine / VisualizingEconomics:
Increase in Housing Quality and its effect on Home Values: 1940-2010 — Our homes have changed over the last 70 years, including homes size, building technology, family size, and a rise in standard of living. As people's income increased over the 20th century they bought bigger and better homes.
Discussion:
The Big Picture
Steve Kornacki / Salon:
The unbeatable Republican? — Massachusetts is a deeply Democratic state, one in which barely more than 15 percent of the seats in the state Legislature are held by Republicans and fewer than 15 percent of all registered voters belong to the GOP. So it's hardly surprising that national Democrats …
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