memeorandum: Aaron Swartz, American hero (Tim Lee/Washington Post)

4:50 PM ET, January 13, 2013

Top Items:

Ginger Gibson / Politico:

Powell: GOP has ‘a dark vein of intolerance’ — While continuing to identify as a Republican, former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday criticized the GOP for a series of racist attacks against President Barack Obama. — “There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, CNN, The Reaction, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Raw Story, The Fix, The Gateway Pundit, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and The Hinterland Gazette

Greg Clary / CNN:

Colin Powell is bucking his own party, again — (CNN) - When President Barack Obama nominated former Sen. Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense last week, criticism came in swiftly from several Republicans. But there's one member of the GOP who couldn't be more supportive of Hagel, and that's former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Discussion: Politico

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Old Foes Lead Charge Against Chuck Hagel

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Caucus, The Back Channel, American Power and Prairie Weather

George Stephanopoulos / ABCNEWS:

Sen. Corker Says There Are Questions About Chuck Hagel's ‘Temperament’ — ABC — This morning on “This Week,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee expressed concerns about the “temperament” of Chuck Hagel, the man President Obama nominated to be his next Secretary of Defense.

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:
Sen. Corker questions Hagel's ‘temperament’ for top Pentagon post

Discussion: ABCNEWS

Amanda Peterson Beadle / ThinkProgress:

NRA President: Americans Are Buying Firearms Because They Fear Obama — Gun sales skyrocketed at the end of 2012 after the tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. The FBI conductedmore than 2 million criminal background checks ahead of gun purchases in December, according …

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Washington Monthly

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
NRA president predicts assault weapons ban won't pass Congress

Discussion: Politico and CNN

BBC:

Mass Paris rally against gay marriage in France — The BBC's Hugh Schofield said the organisers did not want to be seen as homophobic — Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Paris over plans to give gay couples in France the right to marry and adopt children.

Discussion: Joe. My. God. and Towleroad News #gay

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:

History suggests that era of entitlements is nearly over … It's often good fun and sometimes revealing to divide American history into distinct periods of uniform length. In working on my forthcoming book on American migrations, internal and immigrant, it occurred to me that you could do this using …

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

The Fed Killed Trillion-Dollar Coin — Senior administration official tells BuzzFeed the Federal Reserve would not have recognized the vast sum for depositing the coin. — The Federal Reserve Building stands in Washington April 3, 2012. — Source: images.newscred.com

Discussion: Business Insider

Annie Lowrey / New York Times:

The Low Politics of Low Growth — WE typically blame Washington for not doing more to help the economy grow. But what if we have it backward: What if it is the weak economy that is driving the failures in Washington? — That is what Benjamin Friedman, a Harvard economist who has studied …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Egypt Independent:

Military source: US arms deal continuing despite lawmakers' objections — views: — Send to friend — Egypt's negotiations with the US to acquire F-16 aircraft and M1A1 Abrams tanks are proceeding smoothly, a senior Egyptian military source has said. — The source added that the negotiations …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch

Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:

Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer, Found Dead Amid Prosecutor ‘Bullying’ in Unconventional Case … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Conde Nast, Economy, Hackers, Internet, Barack Obama , PIPA, Politics, Video, Aaron Swartz, Larry Lessig, RSS 1.0, Aaron Swartz Suicide, Demand Progress, Doj, FBI …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Crooked Timber, Atlas Shrugs, Via Meadia, GigaOM, Blue Mass Group and The Moderate Voice, more at Mediagazer »

Remember Aaron Swartz:
Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Associated Press, Firedoglake, The Daily Caller, Mashable!, Guardian, Taylor Marsh, Politico, The Moderate Voice, Electronic Frontier Foundation, BuzzMachine, Unhandled Exception and Making Light, more at Mediagazer »

Tim Lee / Washington Post:
Aaron Swartz, American hero

Discussion: The Verge, msnbc.com, The Adventures … and Balloon Juice

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

The Two Sentences That Should Be Part of All Discussion of the Debt Ceiling — Here they are: — 1) Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize one single penny in additional public spending. — 2) For Congress to “decide whether” to raise the debt ceiling, for programs and tax rates …

Discussion: The Impolitic, Balloon Juice, JustOneMinute, The Reality-Based Community, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', The Agonist and Washington Examiner

Joe Weisenthal / Business Insider:
COINTASTROPHE: White House Rules Out The Trillion Dollar Coin Option To Break The Debt Ceiling

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, CANNONFIRE, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, Via Meadia, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', The Political Carnival, Balloon Juice, Hullabaloo, Calculated Risk and Hot Air

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

Like President Obama, Rahm Emanuel pivots on gun control — Rahm Emanuel, who put the brakes on gun control in the Obama White House, is now pushing for broad changes to firearm policies in Chicago. — Like President Obama, the Chicago mayor has long embraced gun-control policies …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

The Obama Synthesis — AS both his critics and admirers argue, the nomination of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense last week tells us something important about Barack Obama's approach to foreign policy. But so does the man who was nominated alongside Hagel, to far less controversy and attention …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Informed Comment

Julia Preston / New York Times:

Obama Plans to Push Congress on Immigration Overhaul — WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to push Congress to move quickly in the coming months on an ambitious overhaul of the immigration system that would include a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country …