memeorandum: 13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans (Ian Millhiser/ThinkProgress)

6:10 PM ET, February 23, 2013

Top Items:

Woodward Misses The Mark — For the past 18 hours Republicans have been giddily waving around a new article by Bob Woodward as a smoking gun that proves sequestration should be replaced with spending cuts and spending cuts only — and that President Obama once conceded the point.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Business Insider and Gretawire

Bob Woodward / Washington Post:

Obama's sequester deal-changer — Bob Woodward (woodwardb@washpost.com) is an associate editor of The Post. His latest book is “The Price of Politics.” Evelyn M. Duffy contributed to this column. — Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround …

Discussion: The Hill, The Impolitic, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog, Power Line, PERRspectives, Hot Air, Politico, Booman Tribune, NewsBusters blogs, Reuters, neo-neocon, Chicago Boyz, Weasel Zippers, CNN and Washington Examiner

Bill Wilson / Forbes:
The Non-Existent Spending Cuts Wrought By The ‘Devastating’ Sequester

Discussion: Economic Freedom, Wall Street Journal and American Power

Mary Katharine Ham / Hot Air:
ABC: Devastating sequester cuts? Give me a break!

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Ed Driscoll, Watchdog.org, Rush Limbaugh, National Review and Patterico's Pontifications

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans … Earlier this year, Republican National Committee Chair urged Republican lawmakers in states “that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red” — i.e. blue states with Republican legislatures …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Chris Hayes / msnbc.com:

My ultimatum on accepting CPAC's invitation — So last week, I was surprised and oddly delighted by something that my friend Rachel Maddow also picked up on: … Yes, the legendary Conservative Political Action Conference had invited yours truly to participate at its 40th annual conference this March.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner and Twitchy

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:

House Republicans Strip Protections From LGBT Victims In New Violence Against Women Act — The Violence Against Women Act expired at the end of 2012 after House Republicans refused to accept the Senate bill's protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims.

Discussion: The Raw Story and The Other McCain

Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
VAWA 2013: House GOP Unveils Bill With No LGBT Protections, Modified Tribal Provision

Discussion: Back2Stonewall, msnbc.com, Taylor Marsh and Daily Kos

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Top Dems Reject House GOP's Violence Against Women Act: ‘Simply Unacceptable’

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, The Maddow Blog and Booman Tribune

Zack Beauchamp / ThinkProgress:

Ted Cruz Claims He Has A List Of Communists Who Have Infiltrated Harvard Law — During the confirmation hearing for Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Sen. Ted Cruz engaged in guilt-by-association tactics that reminded several observers (including this author) of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) …

Discussion: The Hill, Crooks and Liars and Addicting Info

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Montana Bill Would Give Corporations The Right To Vote … A bill introduced by Montana state Rep. Steve Lavin would give corporations the right to vote in municipal elections: … The idea that “corporations are people, my friend” as Mitt Romney put it, is sadly common among conservative lawmakers.

Discussion: alan.com, The Raw Story, Flathead Memo and Prairie Weather

D.B. Grady / The Atlantic Online:

Today Is Bradley Manning's 1,000th Day Without a Trial — What the treatment of the WikiLeaks detainee says about our government's most damning secret — Saturday, February 23, marks Bradley Manning's 1,000th day in prison without a trial. In 2010, he was arrested for allegedly passing …

Discussion: Bradley Manning Support …, Prairie Weather, Guardian and Firedoglake

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

Obama's Backers Seek Big Donors to Press Agenda — President Obama's political team is fanning out across the country in pursuit of an ambitious goal: raising $50 million to convert his re-election campaign into a powerhouse national advocacy network, a sum that would rank the new group …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Washington Examiner

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

DOMA: U.S. takes tough line on marriage denial — The Obama administration, in a sweeping defense of marriage rights for same-sex couples, argued on Friday that the denial by states of those rights over the last decade is proof that discrimination against gays and lesbians still continues.

Discussion: Poliglot, Politico, Althouse and U.S. News

Kurt Badenhausen / Forbes:

Detroit Tops 2013 List Of America's Most Miserable Cities — Forbes put Detroit Mayor Dave Bing on its cover in 2011 for a story with the optimistic headline: “City of Hope.” The premise was that the city had hit rock bottom and was poised for a turnaround. — “Right now, it's all about survival,” Bing told Forbes.