memeorandum: Supreme Court to decide on right to lie about military honors (David G. Savage/Los Angeles Times)

9:35 AM ET, February 21, 2012

Top Items:

The Origin of the Heartland Documents — Climate Change , Global Warming , Heartland Institute , Heartland Institute Leaked Documents , Green News — Since the release in mid-February of a series of documents related to the internal strategy of the Heartland Institute to cast doubt on climate science …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Heartland Institute, DeSmogBlog, The Spectacle Blog, EU Referendum, Climate Etc., blogs.forbes.com/stevezwick, Watts Up With That?, Guardian, Little Green Footballs, iOwnTheWorld.com, Reuters, Ecocentric, Greg Laden's Blog and Tim Blair

Andrew C. Revkin / Dot Earth:

Peter Gleick Admits to Deception in Obtaining Heartland Climate Files — Peter H. Gleick, a water and climate analyst who has been studying aspects of global warming for more than two decades, in recent years became an aggressive critic of organizations and individuals casting doubt …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Right Wing News, Watts Up With That?, Guardian, The Huffington Post, Vox Popoli, Instapundit and TBogg

Steven Bertoni / Lists:

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican — This story is part of a larger profile appearing in the March 12th, 2012 issue of FORBES magazine. The complete cover story will appear online beginning Wednesday, February 22nd.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Monthly, Ballot Box, DownWithTyranny! and Political Insider

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Santorum Expands Lead, but Romney Gets Electability Vote — Fifty-eight percent of Republicans say Romney has best chance to beat Obama — PRINCETON, NJ — Rick Santorum now holds a 10-percentage-point lead in Gallup's Daily tracking of national Republicans registered voters' preferences for the 2012 GOP nomination.

Discussion: Reuters, Arizona Republic, Lists, Towleroad News #gay, Daily Kos and FiveThirtyEight

Susan Page / USA Today:

Poll: Republican voters oppose a ‘brokered’ convention — WASHINGTON - While most Republicans wish they had different choices in the party's presidential field, a nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds overwhelming resistance to the idea of an old-styled brokered convention that would pick some new contender as the nominee.

Discussion: Washington Post, ABCNEWS, Mediaite, msnbc.com, TheBlaze.com, Ballot Box, Politico and Bloomberg

T.W. Farnam / Washington Post:
Study: Negative campaign ads much more frequent, vicious than in primaries past

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, USA Today, Politico, Wall Street Journal and Ballot Box

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
In Michigan, Momentum for Romney?

Discussion: Ballot Box, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, TheBlaze.com, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and The Daily Dish

SoonerPoll:
Tulsa World: Poll shows state Republicans favor Santorum

Discussion: GOP 12, Washington Post, weaskamerica.com, Nice Deb, Public Policy Polling, Hot Air, The Texas Tribune, Outside the Beltway and Rick Santorum for President

Mary Beth Schneider / IndyStar Bloggers:
Gov. Daniels Says Won't Reconsider Presidential Run

Discussion: Washington Post and Politico

McKay Coppins / Politics:
Why Romney Is So Confident About Winning Michigan

Discussion: CNN, About.com US Liberal Politics, Hot Air and ABCNEWS

Felix Salmon:

The improbable Greece plan — Greece is now officially a ward of the international community. It has no real independence when it comes to fiscal policy any more, and if everything goes according to plan, it's not going to have any independence for many, many years to come.

Discussion: National Review and Paul Krugman

Wall Street Journal:

Europe Reaches a Greek Deal — BRUSSELS—Euro-zone finance ministers early Tuesday agreed to an ambitious €130 billion ($172.1 billion) rescue deal that will see Greece's private creditors take an even larger loss in order to put the debt-laden country on a sustainable footing and avert a catastrophic default.

Discussion: The Big Picture

Reuters:
Europe seals new Greek bailout to avert default

Discussion: EU Referendum, msnbc.com and Associated Press

Stephen Castle / New York Times:
Europe Agrees on New Bailout to Help Greece Avoid Default

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Agence France Presse, Political Mojo and Wall Street Journal

Saul Loeb / ABCNEWS:

January Fundraising: Campaigns and Super PACs, Side by Side — And the winner of January's presidential campaign fundraising contest is ... President Obama, whose campaign took in $11.83 million last month. — The pro-Newt-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future took a close second.

Politico:

Mitt Romney's burn rate a boon for Barack Obama — Mitt Romney is burning through cash more than twice as fast as he's raising it, new reports filed Monday show — a clear sign that a protracted GOP primary fight could leave the front-runner limping into a general election fight with President Barack Obama.

Politico:

Pro-Rick Santorum PAC picks up another mega-donor — The super PAC supporting Rick Santorum's presidential campaign pulled in $2.1 million in January - half of which came from a relatively low-profile Louisiana energy executive, according to a report filed Monday evening with the Federal Election Commission.

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:

Supreme Court to decide on right to lie about military honors — Justices will take up the case of Xavier Alvarez, who falsely told a California water board meeting that he had received the Medal of Honor. — Mary and Chuck Schantag stand in front of a banner listing the names of people …

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

Protest of Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound Bill in Virginia Leads to Delay — Hundreds join silent protest against Virginia bill to legalize forced trans-vaginal examinations (Photo via The Shad Plank) — The Virginia abortion bill, which would mandate that the women seeking an abortion …

Discussion: Jezebel, The Sundries Shack, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Weasel Zippers, The Impolitic and ECHIDNE of the snakes

Olympia Meola / Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Poll finds most Virginians oppose changes in abortion, gun laws

Discussion: The Raw Story, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway and The Maddow Blog

Wesley P. Hester / Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Hundreds at Capitol for women's rights rally

Discussion: Firedoglake, Daily Kos and Sister Toldjah

Simone Sebastian / Houston Chronicle:

U.S. oil gusher blows out projections — The United States' rapidly declining crude oil supply has made a stunning about-face, shredding federal oil projections and putting energy independence in sight of some analyst forecasts. — After declining to levels not seen since the 1940s, U.S. crude production began rising again in 2009.

Discussion: Don Surber, msnbc.com, americanthinker.com, Balloon Juice and rubber hose

KPLC-TV:

Santorum's controversial comments meet criticism … Rick Santorum is leading the polls, but making waves with comments over the weekend. (Source: NBC) … NEW YORK (NBC) - Santorum's pitched himself as the most conservative candidate in this race, but critics argue his comments this weekend went over the line.

Discussion: The Raw Story

CNN:
Sheriff's former boyfriend speaks out

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay

Joan Biskupic / USA Today:

Court action could prolong health care fight — WASHINGTON - Next month's challenge to the Obama-sponsored health care law could affect the care available to most Americans, alter the balance of power between Washington and the states and remain a flash point through this presidential campaign.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

David Weigel / Slate:

My Candidate Ate Here — There are so many serious factoids to pull out of the four remaining Republicans' FEC reports. Here's an unserious one. Below, the restaurants or food-selling establishments patronized by the campaigns in January. We can break them down into two neat categories.