memeorandum: Consumer Spending in U.S. Climbs Even as Taxes Hurt Incomes (Michelle Jamrisko/Bloomberg)

10:55 AM ET, March 1, 2013

Top Items:

Ashley Parker / New York Times:

House Republicans Cheer Boehner's Refusal to Negotiate on Cuts — WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner, the man who spent significant portions of the last Congress shuttling to and from the White House for fiscal talks with President Obama that ultimately failed twice to produce a grand bargain …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, First Read, Taylor Marsh, msnbc.com, The Maddow Blog, Gawker and Prairie Weather

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

Sequester begins, with no end in sight for across-the-board cuts — Nineteen months after it was put into place, the sequester has arrived. — Barring unexpected developments, President Obama will issue an order at some point on Friday — perhaps as late as 11:59 p.m. …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, CNN and The Week

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

A Cheer or Two for Sequestration — From left, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and House Speaker John Boehner speak at a news conference on Tuesday in Washington. — A lot of liberals I read are very hot to trot with the idea that Congress should just repeal sequestration tout court.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Washington Post:
Competing sequestration bills fail in Senate

Discussion: Post Politics, thomaspmbarnett.com, Weasel Zippers, The Plum Line, Reuters, The Agonist and Hot Air

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate rejects rival bills to prevent $85B sequester spending cuts

Discussion: USA Today, msnbc.com, Wall Street Journal, Politico and Ballot Box

Kate Nocera / Politico:
House passes Violence Against Women Act

Discussion: The Reaction, Weasel Zippers, National Review, protein wisdom, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Democratic Daily, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, The Hill, Slate and BuzzFeed

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

U.S. endorses limited gay marriage right — The Obama administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to rule in the case of California's Proposition 8 that same-sex marriage should be required in eight more states, beyond the nine that already permit it, although it stopped short …

Discussion: News Desk, Associated Press, BBC, Towleroad News #gay, Mediaite, NBCNews.com, emptywheel, AMERICAblog, Joe. My. God. and ACS Blog

New York Times:

U.S. Offers Broad Support for Gay Marriage Rights — The Obama administration threw its support behind a broad claim for marriage equality on Thursday, and urged the Supreme Court to rule that voters in California were not entitled to ban same-sex marriage there.

Discussion: USA Today, Daily Kos, The Week, The Plum Line and msnbc.com

New York Times:

The White House Joins the Fight — President Obama made good on the promise of his second Inaugural Address on Thursday by joining the fight to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. Having declared that marriage equality is part of the road “through Seneca Fall and Selma and Stonewall …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog and The Week

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Obama Administration Urges Supreme Court To Strike Down California Anti-Gay Marriage Ban

Discussion: Washington Blade, CNN, Equality On Trial, Hot Air, Politico and Firedoglake

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
Minnesota Republican Legislator: Homosexuality Is A ‘Sexual Addiction’ And An ‘Unscientific Lie’

Discussion: Bluestem Prairie, Towleroad News #gay and PinkNews.co.uk

Miranda Leitsinger / NBCNews.com:
Clint Eastwood to Supreme Court: Drop California's ban on same-sex marriage

Discussion: ABCNEWS, First Read, L.A. NOW, Washington Blade, The Huffington Post, Equality On Trial, The Raw Story, Advocate and Addicting Info

Baird Helgeson / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Gay marriage fight begins in Minnesota Legislature

Discussion: Gawker, Advocate, The Raw Story and Hot Dish Politics

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Press corps to Woodward: Really? — Bob Woodward has suggested that the White House threatened him. Many of his colleagues in the press corps aren't buying it. — By the standards of this White House, a statement like the one senior White House official Gene Sperling wrote to Woodward last week …

Discussion: The Raw Story, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, Power Line, No More Mister Nice Blog, Democracy in America, News Desk, Reuters and Slate, more at Mediagazer »

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Woodward vs. White House: Washington at its weirdest

Discussion: Media Decoder, Politico, First Read, New York Times, Daily Kos, TheBlaze.com, Prairie Weather and Mediaite

John Cook / Gawker:
Goodbye, Bob — Bob Woodward is not a reliable reporter.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Huffington Post, Achenblog, Booman Tribune, Balloon Juice, Taylor Marsh, Philly.com, Politico, The Daily Caller, CNN, Liberal Values, The Reaction, Angry Bear and Business Insider

Ian Swanson / The Hill:
Obama adviser didn't threaten Woodward, says White House

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Scared Monkeys, Politico, Hit & Run and Weasel Zippers

Harvard News:

If you might want to insult Harvard down the line, go elsewhere — If you think Harvard is a revolutionary communist hotbed, don't apply. If you think Harvard is full of “pinheaded” professors, don't enroll. And if you think Harvard pollutes the minds of its students …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, nation.foxnews.com and Riehl World News

Michael Falcone / ABCNEWS:
Has Ted Cruz Hit The Tipping Point?

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, FishbowlDC, National Review and The Reaction

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:

Irked lawmakers say Kerry left them in the dark on Syria aid — Lawmakers on Thursday said the State Department left Congress in the dark about the administration's decision to aid rebel forces in Syria. — The leaders of the panels that cover foreign policy told The Hill they weren't briefed ahead …

Discussion: Hot Air and DownWithTyranny!

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Ben Bernanke, Hippie — We're just a few weeks away from a milestone I suspect most of Washington would like to forget: the start of the Iraq war. What I remember from that time is the utter impenetrability of the elite prowar consensus. If you tried to point out that the Bush administration …

Discussion: msnbc.com

Fox News:

Romney likens 2012 race to ‘roller coaster,’ in exclusive ‘Fox News Sunday’ interview — Mitt Romney, in an exclusive interview with “Fox News Sunday,” said the end of the 2012 presidential race was like getting off a roller coaster. — “We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling, ups and downs.

Discussion: Politico, Gawker, The Fix and NBCNews.com

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Why Scalia's ‘Racial Entitlement’ Quote Is Even Scarier Than You Think — Justice Antonin Scalia quite deservedly came under fire yesterday for his claim that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act is a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” If the justice were looking to confirm every suspicion …

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots, Mother Jones, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, News Desk and Democracy in America

Katie Glueck / Politico:

10 best ‘sequestration’ anagrams — Any way you dice it, sequestration is roiling Washington as the Friday deadline for a deal looms — and it turns out you can dice it about 15,000 ways. The website wordsmith.org turned up 15,080 results for a search of “sequestration” anagrams.

Discussion: msnbc.com

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

Many Steps to Be Taken When ‘Sequester’ Is Law — WASHINGTON — At some point on Friday (no one will say precisely when), President Obama will formally notify government agencies that an obscure process known as sequestration is in effect, triggering deep, across-the-board budget cuts that will force federal spending to shrink.

Discussion: Guardian

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Businessweek Warns That Minorities May Be Buying Houses Again — Bloomberg Businessweek is a genuinely great magazine that does an amazing job of making business and economics news accessible and interesting, but this way of illustrating a cover story about the return of aggressive mortgage lending products is really something else.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite, msnbc.com and The Hinterland Gazette, more at Mediagazer »

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:
A BusinessWeek cover crosses a line

Discussion: Wonkblog, The Week, Addicting Info, Outside the Beltway and The Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Michelle Jamrisko / Bloomberg:

Consumer Spending in U.S. Climbs Even as Taxes Hurt Incomes — Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January even as incomes dropped by the most in 20 years, showing households were weathering the payroll-tax increase by socking away less money in the bank.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Riehl World News