Top Items:
Yochi Dreazen / Talking Points Memo:
The GOP Tips Its Hand — 9:45 — Sen. James Inhofe, the new ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has already penned a Washington Post op-ed which surprised no one by announcing that he'd vote against Hagel. Still, his opening remarks were interesting because they outlined …
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Stephanie Gaskell / Politico:
A résumé check: Is Chuck Hagel up to the job? — There's not much on Chuck Hagel's résumé that screams secretary of defense. — He's not a former White House chief of staff, like Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld. He never ran the CIA, like Leon Panetta or Robert Gates.
Discussion:
CNN, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, Israel Matzav, New York Times, Right Turn, First Read and msnbc.com
Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:
The Chuck Hagel confirmation whip count — Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel testifies Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of his bid to become the next defense secretary, and behind the scenes, senators are quietly lining up on both sides of the confirmation fight.
Discussion:
Sunlight Foundation …, Truthdig, Washington Free Beacon, The Week, TomDispatch, The Right Scoop and AEIdeas
Chris Good / ABCNEWS:
Chuck Hagel, John McCain Butt Heads at Defense Secretary Confirmation Hearing — Facing a rocky confirmation process, Chuck Hagel today defended his record before his former Senate colleagues, including an openly impatient Sen. John McCain. — “I'm on the record on many issues …
Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:
What Professor Hagel Taught — Cyberwar and Bjorn Lomborg at Georgetown. A former student is “disgusted” by the nomination process. — Before he became President Obama's Secretary of Defense nominee, Senator Chuck Hagel was a professor at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service for three years.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Daniel W. Drezner, Taylor Marsh, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Dish
Politico:
McCain to Hagel: ‘You refused to answer’ — Chuck Hagel clashed with his old friend John McCain in his confirmation hearings as secretary of defense on Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. — Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), the defense hawk and outspoken supporter of the Iraq war …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Ernesto Londoño / Washington Post:
Hagel defends record at confirmation hearing
Hagel defends record at confirmation hearing
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Post Politics
First Read:
First Thoughts: Chuck Hagel's big day
First Thoughts: Chuck Hagel's big day
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, NBCNews.com and The Fix
The Daily Caller:
Dominican prostitute: Sen. Bob Menendez ‘likes the youngest and newest girls’ — In a little-noticed email published online Wednesday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a young Dominican woman wrote nine months ago that she slept with 59-year-old New Jersey Democratic …
Discussion:
The Other McCain, Washington Examiner, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Twitchy and latinorebels.com
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Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Menendez rushes to pay private-jet tab after FBI raid
Menendez rushes to pay private-jet tab after FBI raid
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, nbcnewyork.com, Politico and Jammie Wearing Fools
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
At Hill hearing, Wayne LaPierre tries to manhandle facts and logic — Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's chief executive, arrived for his hearing on Capitol Hill in the organization's trademark fashion: violently. — When he and his colleagues stepped off the elevator …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, The Fix, Guardian and Post Politics
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Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:
Chinese Hackers Infiltrate New York Times Computers — SAN FRANCISCO — For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees. — After surreptitiously tracking …
Discussion:
Guardian, Tea Leaf Nation, ABCNEWS, Politico, VentureBeat, Mashable!, Quartz, The Week, Lawfare, GigaOM, Hot Air, Wired, Boing Boing, BBC, TechCrunch, Gawker, The Daily Caller and The PJ Tatler, more at Mediagazer »
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Worth Reading — Here's a really meaty and interesting essay in the new and relaunched TNR about gun ownership and what gun owners want. What Gun Owners Really Want by Walter Kirn. — There's a lot there. But one point resonated with me because it's a flip side of something I was trying …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and Hit & Run
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Caitlin Kenney / NPR:
Should Gun Owners Have To Buy Liability Insurance?
Should Gun Owners Have To Buy Liability Insurance?
Discussion:
Capitol Confidential
Wall Street Journal:
Some Unions Grow Wary of Health Law They Backed — Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration's health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour. — Union leaders say many of the law's requirements will drive …
Discussion:
Power Line, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, Law Blog and The Spectacle Blog
Kurt Schlichter / BREITBART.COM:
IGNORE LENA DUNHAM'S ‘GIRLS’ AT YOUR OWN PERIL, CONSERVATIVES — There's plenty about Girls to annoy conservatives, yet this often creepy, usually skeevy, critically-acclaimed HBO series is also a test for conservatives. — Will we finally heed Andrew Breitbart's warnings about the importance …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Week, The Daily Dish, American Power, Taylor Marsh, alicublog, Ed Driscoll and Wizbang
Tara Culp-Ressler / ThinkProgress:
Idaho Republican Compares Obamacare To The Holocaust — A state senator in Idaho is expressing her distaste for President Obama's health care reform law by drawing a comparison between the private insurance companies participating in Obamacare and the “Jews boarding the trains to concentration camps” during the Holocaust.
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James Hamblin / The Atlantic Online:
Why We Took Cocaine Out of Soda — Social injustice and “a most wonderful invigorator of sexual organs” — 1894 ad for Vin Mariani, art by Jules Cheret — When cocaine and alcohol meet inside a person, they create a third unique drug called cocaethylene. Cocaethylene works like cocaine, but with more euphoria.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Government is hurting the economy — by spending too little — You've heard this before: The government is holding the economy back. And it's true. The newly released numbers for economic growth in the fourth quarter, which show the economy shrinking at an 0.1 percent annual rate, prove that.
Discussion:
protein wisdom, Mother Jones, AEIdeas, The Impolitic and The Reaction
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Glenn Thrush / Politico:
Obama's GDP headache
Obama's GDP headache
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Wall Street Journal, The Plum Line, Angry Bear, msnbc.com, The Week, NationalJournal.com and CNBC
Rich Lowry / Politico:
Marco Rubio's bad deal — In Washington, a new gang has been born. The Gang of Eight on immigration is here to tell us that we have succeeded in not enforcing the law so persistently and thoroughly that now we have to give up all pretense. — The Gang of Eight wants to amnesty …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, CNN and National Review
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Ann Coulter / Human Events:
RUBIO'S AMNESTY A PATH TO OBLIVION FOR GOP
RUBIO'S AMNESTY A PATH TO OBLIVION FOR GOP
Discussion:
The Week, National Review and Wall Street Journal
Gina Kolata / Well:
Myths of Weight Loss Are Plentiful, Researcher Says — If schools reinstated physical education classes, a lot of fat children would lose weight. And they might never have gotten fat in the first place if their mothers had just breast fed them when they were babies.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Shakesville
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:
PERSONAL INCOME AND OUTLAYS, DECEMBER 2012 — Personal income increased $352.4 billion, or 2.6 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $331.3 billion, or 2.7 percent, in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $22.6 billion, or 0.2 percent.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Calculated Risk, Business Insider and BBC
S.A. Miller / New York Post:
Homeland Security has advice for confronting mass murders: scissors — WASHINGTON — Is your workplace getting shot up by a crazed gunman? — No problem — just grab a pair of scissors and fight back! — That's some of the helpful advice in a new instructional video from the Department …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, ALIPAC and Jammie Wearing Fools
Camille Williams / Click2Houston.com:
Home invasion suspect arrested after woman opens fire — Suspect arrested at hospital … MAGNOLIA, Texas - — A home invasion suspect was arrested at a hospital after a mother shot him during the crime at a Montgomery County home, deputies said Wednesday.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Hot Air and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:
In forthcoming book, Cuccinelli echoes Romney's ‘47 percent’ — RICHMOND — Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's new book doesn't hit stores until Feb. 12, but a few pages of it have trickled out to The Washington Post. — The Republican gubernatorial candidate wrote the book …
Discussion:
msnbc.com
Ian Mohr / New York Post:
EXCLUSIVE: NFL legend Dan Marino had a love child with CBS employee in 2005 — PAGE SIX EXCLUSIVE — Dan Marino is famous for his touchdowns — but the Hall of Famer's scoring off the field is downright shocking. — The married gridiron great — a pregame analyst for CBS since 2003 …
Discussion:
American Power and CBS New York
Justin Sink / The Hill:
White House to shut down jobs council — The Obama administration will discontinue its jobs council despite persistent unemployment and news this week that the economy shrunk. — The council, created in 2011, has met in full only four times in its two-year existence and was up for re-authorization this week.
Discussion:
Politico, CNN and Outside the Beltway