memeorandum: Michael Goldfarb Gleeful Provocateur at Intersection of Many Worlds (Jim Rutenberg/New York Times)

10:35 PM ET, February 24, 2013

Top Items:

Alex Pareene / Salon:

Watching the Sunday shows so you don't have to — Today, some centrist pundits and legislators solved the sequester by demanding “balance” and “leadership” — Here's what I learned this morning on “the Sunday shows,” the three network news panel programs that define the parameters …

Discussion: driftglass and The Impolitic

ABCNEWS:

‘This Week’ Transcript: Two Powerhouse Roundtables — Intelligence Committee Chair Representative Mike Rogers, (R) Michigan, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Representative Eliot Engel (D) New York, ABC News' George Will, and ABC News' Global Affairs Anchor Christiane Amanpour on ‘This Week’ (ABC News)

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Hullabaloo

Hamid Shalizi / Reuters:

Afghan president to expel U.S. special forces from key province — KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has given U.S. special forces two weeks to leave a key battleground province after some U.S. soldiers there were found to have tortured or even killed innocent people, the president's spokesman said on Sunday.

Discussion: This ain't Hell … and Balloon Juice

BBC:

US forces ‘must leave’ Afghan region — The Afghan president has ordered US special forces to leave Wardak province within two weeks over allegations of disappearances and torture. — The measures were being taken due to the actions of Afghans considered to be part of US special forces, said a spokesman for Hamid Karzai.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Atlas Shrugs

Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:
Afghanistan Orders U.S. Troops to Leave Crucial Province

Discussion: CNN and Gawker

New York Post:

Bloomberg's ban prohibits 2-liter soda with your pizza and some nightclub mixers — Take a big gulp, New York: Hizzoner is about to give you a pop. — Nanny Bloomberg unleashes his ban on large sodas on March 12 — and there are some nasty surprises lurking for hardworking families.

Discussion: Twitchy, Weasel Zippers, Examiner, Michelle Malkin, The Gateway Pundit and Doug Ross

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

On the sequester, the American people ‘moved the goalposts’ — I don't agree with my colleague Bob Woodward, who says the Obama administration is “moving the goalposts” when they insist on a sequester replacement that includes revenues. I remember talking to both members of the Obama administration …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Angry Bear, NewsBusters, Wake up America, JustOneMinute, Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones and The Moderate Voice

Roll Call: Does Boehner Even Have the Votes to Replace the Sequester?

Shelby Grad / L.A. NOW:

Father goes to strip club, leaves 2-year-old in cold car, LAPD says — A father allegedly left his 2-year-old daughter in a truck while he went inside a strip club to drink, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. — Santos Barillas, 24, of Canoga Park, faces several charges …

Discussion: Associated Press

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Bobby Jindal: Republicans Can Continue Discriminating Against Gays And Still Win Elections — Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) — a possible Republican candidate for president in 2016 — rejected former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's argument that conservatives must embrace marriage equality for gays …

Discussion: Addicting Info, Little Green Footballs and The Raw Story

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

Michael Goldfarb Gleeful Provocateur at Intersection of Many Worlds — At 11:42 a.m. on Feb. 14, a conservative online magazine called The Washington Free Beacon posted a dispatch about a speech Chuck Hagel gave in 2007 in which it said he called the State Department “an adjunct to the Israeli foreign minister's office.”

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Politico and Weekly Standard, more at Mediagazer »

The Raw Story:

Emotional Pope says God asked him to retire — Pope Benedict XVI delivered an emotional last Sunday prayer in St Peter's Square, saying God had told him to devote himself to prayer but assuring supporters he would not “abandon” the Church. — Tens of thousands of supporters turned …

Discussion: Addicting Info

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

How Mexico Got Back in the Game — IN India, people ask you about China, and, in China, people ask you about India: Which country will become the more dominant economic power in the 21st century? I now have the answer: Mexico. — Impossible, you say? Well, yes, Mexico …

Discussion: Firedoglake and Via Meadia

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:

The Plague Years, in Film and Memory — What it's like when the worst years of your life get rolled up into an Oscar-nominated documentary — That look on my face pretty much encapsulates the year, 1991, in a nutshell. (Bob Huff/YouTube) — “Remember when they burnt those people's house down?”

Discussion: Hullabaloo and The Reality-Based Community

Emily Goodin / The Hill:

Political movies look to win big at Oscars — Political movies are expected to rake in the trophies at Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony. — “Argo,” a film about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, is favored to win the biggest prize of the night: Best Picture.

Discussion: Politico, Taylor Marsh, The Reaction, Althouse and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Cieply / New York Times:
A 9/11 Victim's Family Raises New Objections to ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

Discussion: WFPL and BBC

Washington Post:

The big sequester gamble: How badly will the cuts hurt? — Evan Vucci/AP - President Barack Obama speaks in Chicago Feb. 15, 2013. The president and congressional Republicans each seem content with the political ground they hold and are prepared to let across-the-board spending cuts take effect on March 1.

Discussion: alan.com, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, Associated Press, Mediaite, The Week and Booman Tribune

Kevin Liptak / CNN:
Controllers must be cut in a week, LaHood says

Discussion: Politico

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:

Senators near a deal on background checks for most private gun sales — A bipartisan group of senators is on the verge of a deal that would expand background checks to all private firearms sales with limited exemptions, but significant disagreements remain on the issue of keeping records …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Raw Story, The Fix, Politico, Weasel Zippers and Doug Ross