Top Items:
Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Does Obama have a plan? A conversation with David Brooks — David Brooks (David Burnett/Random House) … Ezra Klein: In the column, you said that the Obama administration doesn't have a plan to replace the sequester. I feel like I've had to spend a substantial portion of my life reading …
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David Brooks / New York Times:
The D.C. Dubstep — On July 26, 2011, Jack Lew, then the White House budget director, went to Harry Reid's office for a budget strategy session. According to Bob Woodward's book, “The Price of Politics,” Lew told the Senate majority leader that they had come up with a trigger idea to force a budget deal.
Reuters:
Is Obama overplaying sequester hand? — President Barack Obama's greatest adversary in the latest budget battle isn't the Republican leadership in Congress — it's his confidence in his own ability to force a win. — He has been so certain of his campaign skills that he didn't open a line …
Discussion:
Associated Press, NationalJournal.com, Balloon Juice, The Moderate Voice, CNN, Right Wing News, The Hill, Taylor Marsh, Politico, The Democratic Daily, msnbc.com and Hot Air
Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:
White House Open to Two-Month Sequester Deal
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Donovan Slack / Politico:
Obama meets with African American leaders
Discussion:
Weekly Standard and Weasel Zippers
Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
As Sequester Deadline Looms, Little Support for Cutting Most Programs — OVERVIEW — As the March 1 deadline for a possible budget sequester approaches, a new national survey finds limited public support for reducing spending for a range of specific programs, including defense, entitlements, education and health care.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Plum Line, Politico, Outside the Beltway, Campaign for America's Future, Bloomberg, The Hill, The National Memo, CNN and The Fix
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New York Times:
Why Taxes Have to Go Up — Democrats and Republicans remain at odds on how to avoid a round of budget cuts so deep and arbitrary that to allow them now could push the economy back into recession. The cuts, known as a sequester, will kick in March 1 unless Republicans agree to President Obama's demand …
Discussion:
Off the Charts Blog, AEIdeas, NewsBusters blogs and JustOneMinute
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Sequester of Fools
Discussion:
Politico, Prairie Weather and Campaign for America's Future
Michael Scherer / TIME:
Sequester Showdown — We are facing a moment in Washington.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Politico, New York Magazine, Guardian, The Atlantic Wire, The Dish and The Week
Jane Mayer / News Desk:
Is Senator Ted Cruz Our New McCarthy? — Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz's prosecutorial style of questioning Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for Defense Secretary, came so close to innuendo that it raised eyebrows in Congress, even among his Republican colleagues.
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First Read / NBCNews.com:
First Thoughts: Hagel appears to have the votes for confirmation
Discussion:
Plain Dealer, Firedoglake, The Hill, First Read and The Hill
Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:
Ann Coulter Battles Stossel, Calls Libertarians ‘Pussies,’ And Gets Booed By Room Full Of Students — What do you get when you invite outspoken conservative firebrand Ann Coulter to debate outspoken libertarian John Stossel in front of an audience of 1,000+ libertarian students? — Fireworks, that's what.
Discussion:
Salon, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, Crooks and Liars, The Hinterland Gazette, The Raw Story and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Oscar Predictions, Election-Style — Twice before, in 2009 and 2011, I sought to predict the Academy Award winners in six major categories based on a mix of statistical factors. My track record? Nine correct picks in 12 tries, for a 75 percent success rate.
Discussion:
Wired, Pressing Issues, Towleroad News #gay and Poynter
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Jen Wieczner / MarketWatch:
Why your boss is dumping your wife — Companies are dropping health coverage for spouses to cut costs … Companies have a new solution to rising health-insurance costs: Break up their employees' marriages. — By denying coverage to spouses, employers not only save the annual premiums …
Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress:
Indiana Bill Would Force Women To Undergo Two Transvaginal Probes To Take A Pill (UPDATED) — An abortion pill, officially known as RU-486, is the earliest available abortion option for a woman. A patient could be as little as one week pregnant and take the pill to terminate.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars and WBAA
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Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
The Republican Party needs a reality check — In the summer of 1999, George W. Bush chose the first major policy speech of his presidential campaign to pick a fight with Grover Norquist. Bush flatly rejected the “destructive” view “that if government would only get out of our way …
Discussion:
Slate, Booman Tribune, Pundits Blog and PostPartisan
Not Larry Sabato:
Fairfax County's Nightmare Is Over!!! — Great news breaking in Fairfax County this morning. Electoral Boards are split 2-1 in Virginia, one Republican, one Democrat and one member of the Governor's party. When Bob McDonnell was elected, the Fairfax GOP placed noted voter-fraud conspiracy …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
John Myers / KXTV:
Democrats lose supermajority as Fresno senator resigns — Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, cited the need to spend time with his family in a statement announcing his resignation. — “My wife and I have been blessed with two beautiful daughters, from whom we have learned a great deal,” said Rubio in a written statement.
Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
Noonan: Government by Freakout — Obama's scare tactics aren't much of a long-term strategy. — The president's sequester strategy is like Howard Beale in “Network”: “Woe is us. . . . And woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble!” — It is always cliffs, ceilings and looming catastrophes with Barack Obama.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Ed Driscoll and No More Mister Nice Blog
Tom Jackman / Washington Post:
Today is ‘Gun Owners Support Starbucks Day,’ for Virginians who openly carry guns in public — The challenge coin minted by Ed Levine alters the Starbucks logo to declare the holder's support for, well, guns and coffee. A national day of support for Starbucks, and its willingness …
McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:
The Sequester Is Terrible For Traffic — Editors despair, but we can't stop writing about it. Desperation breeds Kate Upton, cute animals, and the “spendocalypse.” — Traffic for a recent BuzzFeed story on the sequester. — Not since Mitt Romney ran for president has a national political story …
Discussion:
Gawker, Washington Wire and The Fix
Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
See Cartoon Instructions For How To Stone Adulterers — 122 Facebook likes, 500 Facebook shares. A very sanitized treatment of a bloody practice. (Updated) — WASHINGTON — An Islamist Facebook page uploaded a cartoon explaining how to stone adulterers on Wednesday that is getting …
Joe Romm / ThinkProgress:
In First Big Speech, Kerry Sounds Like A Climate Hawk With The Courage To Reject Keystone XL Pipeline — A month ago I wrote that the “confirmation of climate hawk Kerry as Secretary Of State may doom dirty Keystone XL Pipeline.” — Now John Kerry has delivered his first big foreign policy speech …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Greg Hinz / Chicago Business:
Emanuel's poll rating turns negative — Burdened by a wave of murders, dissension over proposed school closings and perhaps his own hard-ball image, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's job-approval rating has taken a big hit in recent months, according to a new Crain's/Ipsos Illinois Poll.
Discussion:
nbcchicago.com, nation.foxnews.com, Washington Examiner and Taegan Goddard's …
Bill Hoffmann / NewsMax.com:
Teddy Turner: Jane Fonda Turned My Dad Into a Liberal — More ways to share... Mixx — Stumbled — LinkedIn — Vine — Buzzflash — Newstrust — Technocrati — Forward Article — Ted Turner was transformed from a staunch conservative into a bleeding-heart liberal …
Discussion:
Examiner, The Daily Caller and nation.foxnews.com
Austin Wright / Politico:
F-35 grounding latest setback for troubled program — Defense officials have grounded Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II over an engine problem, POLITICO learned Friday, in the latest setback for the world's most expensive weapons program one week before automatic, across-the-board budget restrictions are set to take their bite.
Discussion:
New York Times
Scott Conroy / Real Clear Politics:
Can Democrats Mess With Texas in 2016? — AUSTIN, Texas — From its modest headquarters on the first floor of a local union building about five miles from the State Capitol, the Democratic Party of Texas is trying to turn demographics into destiny. — With white, non-Hispanic voters …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Booman Tribune, Mediaite and The Rightnewz
Justin Sink / Ballot Box:
Colbert hopes jokes don't ‘sully’ sister's congressional bid — Comedian Stephen Colbert said Thursday that he hopes his late-night television persona parodying conservative talk-show hosts doesn't “sully” his sister's congressional bid in South Carolina's first district.
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