Top Items:
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:
Balloon Juice and The Reality-Based Community
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Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Treasury: We won't mint a platinum coin to sidestep the debt ceiling — The Treasury Department will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the Federal Reserve would not accept it. — That's the bottom line of the statement that Anthony Coley …
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
Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Platinum Coin Dismissed: White House Ratchets Up Pressure On GOP To Deal With Debt Ceiling
Platinum Coin Dismissed: White House Ratchets Up Pressure On GOP To Deal With Debt Ceiling
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Political Carnival, Booman Tribune and The Reality-Based Community
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:
CNN, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', The Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and The Hinterland Gazette
Remember Aaron Swartz:
Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz — Our beloved brother, son, friend, and partner Aaron Swartz hanged himself on Friday in his Brooklyn apartment. We are in shock, and have not yet come to terms with his passing. — Aaron's insatiable curiosity, creativity …
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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 …
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
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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
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
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
Edward Wong / New York Times:
Beijing Air Pollution Off the Charts — BEIJING — One Friday more than two years ago, an air-quality monitoring device atop the United States Embassy in Beijing recorded data so horrifying that someone in the embassy called the level of pollution “Crazy Bad” in an infamous Twitter post.
Discussion:
IHT Rendezvous, Via Meadia and ParaPundit