memeorandum: IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Statement from Secretary of Defense Leon … (defense.gov)

2:45 AM ET, February 12, 2013

Top Items:

Ted Nugent to join Stockman at State of the Union — Nugent will be available for interviews — WASHINGTON - Musician and gun advocate Ted Nugent will be Congressman Steve Stockman's guest at Tuesday evening's State of the Union Address by President Barack Obama.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Twitchy

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:

Lawmaker invites Ted Nugent to Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday — Outspoken musician and gun right supporter Ted Nugent will be Rep. Steve Stockman's guest Tuesday night at President Obama's State of the Union address. — Nugent is well known for his defense of the Second Amendment …

Discussion: AMERICAblog and The Moderate Voice

Talking Points Memo:

Nugent: ‘I Will Be Taking On Media Orgy’ After SOTU — Outspoken rocker Ted Nugent will attend President Obama's State of the Union Address Tuesday in order to take on the media and “counter the scams and lies of the left,” he explained to talk radio host Mike Broomhead Monday.

Discussion: DCist and Mediaite

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Ted Nugent to be guest at State of the Union — While other members of Congress are hosting gun-control advocates for Tuesday's State of the Union address, Rep. Steve Stockman has given one of his visitor's gallery tickets to Ted Nugent, the conservative gun-rights supporter.

Discussion: Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Gateway Pundit

Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:
Texas Congressman Invites Ted Nugent, Who Threatened The President's Life, To The State Of The Union

Discussion: Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, msnbc.com, The PJ Tatler and Right Wing Watch

Jeremy W. Peters / The Caucus:
Ted Nugent Will Attend State of the Union Address

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, CNN and alicublog

Julie Pace / ABCNEWS:
After Speech, Supporters to Promote Obama Agenda

Discussion: Politico

Jackie Kucinich / USA Today:
Lawmakers look to pack State of Union with gun victims

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Roll Call, protein wisdom, The National Memo, The PJ Tatler, Los Angeles Times and Business Insider

White House.gov Blog:
State of the Union 2013: President Obama's Speech is Just the Beginning

Discussion: Mashable!, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch and Washington Wire

Kevin Liptak / CNN:
Lawmakers invite gun violence survivors to State of the Union

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Politico and NBCNews.com

Charlie Spiering / Washington Examiner:

Biden: We're counting on ‘legitimate media’ for successful gun control effort … During a press conference on gun safety in Philadelphia, Vice President Joe Biden said that any reports that suggest that he was trying to take weapons away from gun owners was a “bunch of malarkey.”

Discussion: Mediaite, Michelle Malkin, The Gateway Pundit, protein wisdom, The Lonely Conservative and The PJ Tatler

CNN:

Biden says he's ‘not running’...for the papacy — (CNN) - While there's still no word on 2016, Vice President Joe Biden confirmed Monday he's not throwing his hat in the ring for at least one position-that of the pope. — Asked in Philadelphia about the decision by Pope Benedict XVI …

Discussion: The Hill and Politico

Talking Points Memo:
Biden: ‘I Am Not Running’ For The Papacy

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:
Biden praises Pope Benedict's integrity, jokes he won't run to succeed him

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Max Fisher / WorldViews:
The bizarre stories of the four other popes to have resigned in the last 1,000 years

Discussion: Addicting Info, Reuters, Guardian, The Fix, Poynter, Hit & Run and Daniel W. Drezner

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Biden says gun lobby's depiction of Obama plan ‘a bunch of malarkey’

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Washington Examiner, Hot Air, CNN, Politico and Weasel Zippers

New York Times:
A Statement Rocks Rome, Then Sends Shockwaves Around the World

ncronline.org:
The unprecedented resignation of Benedict

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Dish, News Desk and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
What Did Pope Benedict Do, Anyway?

Discussion: Esquire, The Impolitic, NPR, NewsHounds blog, msnbc.com, NBCNews.com, Law Blog and ncronline.org

Kevin Grandia / Firedoglake:

New Study Finds Koch Bros. Tried to Start Tea Party Movement in 2002 — Were David Koch (and his brother Charles) planning to astroturf the Tea Party even earlier than formerly suspected? — Shattering the public perception that the Tea Party is a spontaneous popular citizens movement …

Discussion: DeSmogBlog

Brendan DeMelle / DeSmogBlog:
Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and The Raw Story

Phil Bronstein / Esquire:

The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed — For the first time, the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden tells his story — speaking not just about the raid and the three shots that changed history, but about the personal aftermath for himself and his family.

Megan McCloskey / Stars & Stripes:
Esquire article wrongly claims SEAL who killed Bin Laden is denied healthcare

Discussion: Gawker

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Justice Ginsburg: The Senate Is ‘Destroying The United States’ Reputation... As A Beacon of Democracy' — Two years ago, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lamented that if she were nominated today to her current job on the Supreme Court, her “ACLU connection would probably disqualify” her from being confirmed.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

New Winger Conspiracy Theory Takes Flight — In the wake of news that Sen. Lindsey Graham is threatening to block the nominations of Hagel and Brennan, there's a whole new conspiracy theory bubbling up on the right. From ground zero of Obama era conspiracy theories comes the conspiracy theory …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Right Wing Watch and The Reaction

Jennifer Martinez / The Hill:

Sources: White House to issue cybersecurity order Wednesday — The White House is poised to release an executive order aimed at thwarting cyberattacks against critical infrastructure on Wednesday, two people familiar with the matter told The Hill. — The highly anticipated directive …

Discussion: Mashable!, Infowars and The Hill

Neil Irwin / Washington Post:
Is Congress really going to miss its free lunch on infrastructure?

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Monthly, Mother Jones and No More Mister Nice Blog

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

House Republicans Unlikely To Pass New Sequester Replacement Plan — Buried in this Politico story about the House GOP's sequester strategy is a key admission. … This is what Republicans — most recently House Majority Leader Eric Cantor — are obscuring when they claim, in Cantor's words …

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Moderate Voice and Politico

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Signs of bipartisanship offer Obama narrow window to move agenda

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Booman Tribune

Chris Moody / Yahoo! News:

Democrats offer ‘prebuttal’ to Marco Rubio's rebuttal of Obama's State of the Union Address — Keep up, if you can—things are about to get strange. — In preparation for President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the Democratic National Committee …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Jammie Wearing Fools

Kate Sheppard / Mother Jones:

“We're Not Going to Be Pushed Around by the Antis” — Julie Burkhart is working to bring abortion care back to Wichita. — Wichita, Kansas, has been without a local abortion provider since an anti-abortion extremist murdered Dr. George Tiller in his church in May 2009.

Discussion: The Other McCain

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Don't Believe the Hype — Let's just say it: Marco Rubio is the Wes Clark of 2013. Only with many fewer accomplishments. — It pains me to say this because I'm an admirer of Gen. Wesley Clark. I think he would have made a good president. He was an extremely accomplished career military officer.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune, Crooks and Liars and The Daily Caller