Top Items:
Joe Holley / Houston Chronicle:
Cornyn: Congress will not allow default — Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Republican whip, said in Houston Thursday that Congress will not allow an impasse over raising the debt ceiling to result in the federal government defaulting on its spending obligations. — “We will raise the debt ceiling.
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
A new strategy for the GOP — It has become conventional wisdom that Republicans are suffering an internal split that President Obama is successfully exploiting to neuter the Republican House. It is not true, however, that the Republican split is philosophical and fundamental.
Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:
GOP De-Escalates Debt Limit Fight — The jig is up. Republicans are going to increase the debt limit. Probably for free. — And in the end, their change of heart took about two weeks. — Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who on January 4 warned that Republicans might force the country past the debt limit …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Taegan Goddard's … and The Caucus
Russell Berman / The Hill:
House GOP to vote next week on three-month increase to debt limit
Daniel W. Drezner:
How the current GOP thinks like revolutionaries — and why that's a bad thing
How the current GOP thinks like revolutionaries — and why that's a bad thing
Discussion:
A plain blog about politics, Portland Press-Herald, Washington Wire, Politico and Right Turn
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Rank and file tell GOP leaders to keep sequester, shutdown ‘on the table’
Rank and file tell GOP leaders to keep sequester, shutdown ‘on the table’
Discussion:
Washington Post and Hot Air
Politico:
Up next for Obama: A looming Democratic divide — As President Barack Obama approaches his second inaugural on Monday, he presides over a party that has largely papered over its divisions for the past four years thanks to the president's commanding popularity.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Capital New York, The Week, msnbc.com, First Read and Lynn Sweet
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Politico:
Obama unveils ‘Organizing for Action’ — President Barack Obama on Friday announced the relaunch of his remaining campaign apparatus as a new tax-exempt group called Organizing for Action that will “play an active role” in “mobilizing around and speaking out in support of important legislation” during his second term.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, The Plum Line, The PJ Tatler, Washington Free Beacon and CNN
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Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:
Seeking to harness Obama's campaign resources for a second term
Seeking to harness Obama's campaign resources for a second term
Discussion:
Daily Kos, TechPresident, Politico, The Hill, BuzzFeed, Ballot Box, Prairie Weather and Mediaite
Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
‘Obama for America’ to morph into ‘Organizing for Action’
‘Obama for America’ to morph into ‘Organizing for Action’
Discussion:
The Hill and The PJ Tatler
Hayes Brown / ThinkProgress:
New Study Highlights Threat From Far Right-Wing Groups In U.S. — A new study from a think tank connected to the West Point Military Academy highlights the threat of violent far-right movements in the United States, leading to the conclusion that, while diverse in in their causes …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes', The Agonist, Booman Tribune and Mediaite
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Rowan Scarborough / Washington Times:
West Point center cites dangers of ‘far right’ in U.S.
West Point center cites dangers of ‘far right’ in U.S.
Discussion:
protein wisdom, National Review and Weasel Zippers
Hugo Martin / Los Angeles Times:
TSA ends contract with Rapiscan, maker of full-body scanner — A TSA agent demonstrates the full-body scanner at Los Angeles International Airport. (Los Angeles Times) — The Transportation Security Administration has ended a contract with the Hawthorne-based manufacturer …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and Eschaton
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Jeff Plungis / Bloomberg:
Naked-Image Scanners to Be Removed From U.S. Airports — The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove airport body scanners that privacy advocates likened to strip searches after OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS) couldn't write software to make passenger images less revealing.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Hot Air and The Raw Story
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Americans Call for Term Limits, End to Electoral College — Virtually no partisan disagreement on these long-discussed constitutional reforms — PRINCETON, NJ — Even after the 2012 election in which Americans re-elected most of the sitting members of the U.S. House and Senate …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Hot Air, The Hill, CNN and Politico
Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:
Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theories Edge Toward The Mainstream — “By far the hottest topic of the moment.” Ignore it and it won't go away. — There are two kinds of conspiracy theories: The ones about the Illuminati and about mysterious “chemtrails,” which lurk forever in the online twilight zone …
Discussion:
The Week, snopes.com and Glenn Beck
Brent Schrotenboer / Associated Press:
Lance Armstrong to Oprah: Story was ‘one big lie’ … Saying his “mythic, perfect story” was “one big lie,” Lance Armstrong admitted that he cheated during most of his famed cycling career and that he bullied people who dared to tell the truth about it. — After denying doping allegations …
Discussion:
The Heritage Foundation, Infowars, msnbc.com and Taylor Marsh
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Juliet Macur / New York Times:
Analysis: Lance Armstrong Confesses to Using Drugs but Without Details
Analysis: Lance Armstrong Confesses to Using Drugs but Without Details
Discussion:
OpenSecrets.org, Media Decoder, DealBook and Althouse, more at Mediagazer »
Charles C. Johnson / The Daily Caller:
In England, Piers Morgan joked about shooting rivals, said homeowners who kill burglars should not be prosecuted — CNN host and outspoken gun-control advocate Piers Morgan once joked about shooting professional enemies and separately wrote that he was a “rabid fascist” who wanted burglars tortured after a …
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications
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Dylan Byers / Politico:
POLITICO interview: Piers Morgan
POLITICO interview: Piers Morgan
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Capital New York and Moonbattery, more at Mediagazer »
John R. MacArthur / Harper's:
Google's Media Barons … I had to cheer when I read the news the other week about a French company that's selling an ad-blocking service on the Internet. Xavier Niel, the entrepreneurial owner of the web-service provider Free, is threatening to smash the advertiser-supported “free-content” model.
Discussion:
The Verge, Balloon Juice, Boing Boing and Hit & Run, more at Mediagazer »
Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:
NRA President Blames Obama For ‘Hundreds’ Of Death Threats … On a right-wing talk show on Thursday, David Keene, the president of the National Rifle Association, blamed President Obama and the left for what he says have been hundreds of death threats made against him and his family.
Discussion:
The Raw Story and Daily Kos
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
I Have No Words — I'm not going to characterize this or say anything about it. But I had to share it with you. From TPM Reader PH ...
Discussion:
Eschaton and CANNONFIRE
Mark Hemingway / Weekly Standard:
Whoops: PolitiFact's ‘Lie of the Year’ Turns Out to Be True — Last month, PolitiFact selected its “Lie of the Year.” Given PolitiFact's dubious record of singling out Republicans for lying far more often then Democrats, you probably could have guessed the winner of this particular sweepstakes was a Mitt Romney campaign ad:
Discussion:
Reuters
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Next Four Years — President Obama's second inaugural comes at an interesting moment, what you might call the end of the era of the Grand Bargain. Throughout his first term, Democrats and Republicans didn't achieve a Grand Bargain on spending and taxes, but there was a sense that history was moving in that direction.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, New York Magazine and Wonkblog
Gin and Tacos:
FOR WANT OF A NAIL — (January 16, 2033. A fire-lit cabin in the hills of Brezhnev City, Stalinton - formerly Boise, Idaho. A man sitting on a shattered milk crate looks older than his 53 years. His rumpled, malnourished grandson sits at his feet.) — “Grandpa?
John Avlon / CNN:
GOP's surprising edge on diversity — Editor's note: John Avlon is a CNN contributor and senior political columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is co-editor of the book “Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns.” He is a regular contributor to “Erin Burnett OutFront” …
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Mickey Kaus / The Daily Caller:
The Education of Ezra Klein (and Barack Obama) continues: In 2007, Young Ezra Klein was full of enthusiasm about the cost-saving potential of electronic record keeping in the health industry. The failure to rapidly adopt this new technology was nothing less than an indictment of the American way of Medicine:
Discussion:
FishbowlDC, Washington Examiner and The Atlantic Online