Top Items:
Talking Points Memo:
Obama Administration Responds To Rand Paul On Drones — The U.S. government cannot target an American citizen who is not engaged in combat on American soil, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday during his daily press briefing. — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) …
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Grace Wyler / Business Insider:
IT'S WAR: John McCain And Lindsey Graham Just Ripped Into Rand Paul On The Senate Floor — U.S. Sen. John McCain blasted fellow Republican Rand Paul on the Senate floor this morning for his 13-hour filibuster to block John Brennan's confirmation as CIA Director. — “Calm down, Senator,” McCain said, in an apostrophe to Paul.
Wall Street Journal:
Rand Paul's Drone Rant — Give Rand Paul credit for theatrical timing. As a snow storm descended on Washington, the Kentucky Republican's old-fashioned filibuster Wednesday filled the attention void on Twitter and cable TV. If only his reasoning matched the showmanship.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Guardian, The Daily Beast, Hit & Run, The Huffington Post, Washington Wire, Hot Air, First Read, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, PoliticusUSA, msnbc.com, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, National Review, American Spectator, TheBlaze.com, Associated Press and The Week
Luke Johnson / The Huffington Post:
Rand Paul Filibuster Leaves Senate Democrats Struggling To Explain Absence — WASHINGTON — While many Senate Democrats said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) raised legitimate concerns about the Obama administration's drone program during his epic filibuster of John Brennan's nomination as CIA director …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Shakesville, The Last Refuge, Post Politics and Taylor Marsh
Lois Romano / Politico:
Rand Paul: ‘Seriously’ weighing 2016 bid — Before Thursday, Rand Paul — tea party firebrand — hadn't vaulted into the top tier of Republican power players. — But all that seemed to change this week. The Kentucky Republican senator showed serious clout by holding a 13-hour filibuster …
Sarah Wheaton / New York Times:
Senate Confirms Brennan as C.I.A. Chief — The Senate on Thursday afternoon approved John O. Brennan's nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency by a vote of 63 to 34. — The vote followed a filibuster by Senator Rand Paul, who spent nearly 13 hours on the Senate floor in pursuit …
Discussion:
Politico, The Maddow Blog, his vorpal sword, Guardian, Lowering the Bar, Outside the Beltway, The Political Carnival and Gawker
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
John Brennan confirmed as CIA director following White House drone statement — John O. Brennan was confirmed as CIA director on Thursday afternoon, after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expressed satisfaction with the response he had received to his questions about the Obama administration's drone program.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Dish, ACS Blog, The Fix, News Desk, p m carpenter's commentary, Mediaite, Pew Research Center, The Plum Line, Post Politics, Daily Kos and Shakesville
Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Holder's Letter to Rand Paul: ‘No,’ the U.S. Can't Use Drone to Kill Citizen Not Engaged in Combat on U.S. Soil
Discussion:
Washington's Blog, The Jawa Report, Hot Air and Washington Times
Senator Ted Cruz:
Press Release of Senator Cruz
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch, Althouse and National Review
David Taintor / Talking Points Memo:
McCain, Graham Slam Rand Paul's ‘Ridiculous’ Filibuster
Discussion:
The Reliable Source, Via Meadia, Washington Post, American Spectator, Shakesville and The Caucus
Kate Nocera / Politico:
Rand Paul filibuster blasted by John McCain, Lindsey Graham
Discussion:
Power Line
Walter Shapiro / Yahoo! News:
Rand's stand: How the filibustering blusterer made the Senate (briefly) a better place
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Harry Reid Winks At Revisiting Filibuster Reform
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Monkey Cage, A plain blog about politics, The Maddow Blog and Hullabaloo
Ramsey Cox / The Hill:
McCain, Graham lambast ‘ridiculous’ drone filibuster by Paul
Discussion:
Politico, The Huffington Post, CNN, The Immoral Minority, Wired, Crooks and Liars and Hot Air
David Weigel / Slate:
Everybody Loves Filibusters
Discussion:
Politico, New York Times, The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com and The Week
Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Graham, McCain blast Paul filibuster
Discussion:
Mediaite, Politico, CNN, Right Turn, Wonkette and Business Insider
Lee Smith / Weekly Standard:
Samira Ibrahim Speaks — Yesterday, THE WEEKLY STANDARD first reported that the State Department was about to bestow an International Woman of Courage Award on an anti-Semite and 9/11 fan. Egypt women's rights activist Samira Ibrahim had left a record on her Twitter feed of statements quoting Hitler …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Washington Free Beacon, The Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers
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Bradley Klapper / The Huffington Post:
US postpones award for Egyptian woman over tweets — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is postponing an award for an Egyptian activist who rallied worldwide attention against forced “virginity tests” on female protesters because of anti-American and anti-Semitic comments discovered on her Twitter account.
Discussion:
Politico, Weasel Zippers, Israel Matzav and Weekly Standard
Shira Kallus Zwebner / The Times of Israel:
Yup, Samira probably sent those tweets
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, National Review, Twitchy and Atlas Shrugs
Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:
Is Michelle Obama About to Honor an anti-American antiSemite?
Discussion:
The Times of Israel, Hot Air, The Shark Tank, Ynetnews, Washington Free Beacon, The Lede and Algemeiner.com
Carl Levin / CNN:
Sen. Levin won't seek re-election in 2014 — Washington (CNN) - Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, 78, announced Thursday that he will not run for a seventh term in 2014. — Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called it an “extremely difficult” decision and stated …
Discussion:
Politico and The Political Carnival
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Carl Levin:
Sen. Carl Levin announces he will not seek re-election in 2014
Discussion:
Hot Air, Daily Kos, The New Civil Rights Movement, emptywheel and National Review
Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Levin retirement leaves Dems defending fourth open seat in 2014 cycle
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
Chris Christie / CNN:
TRENDING: Poll: Clinton, Christie fare best in possible 2016 showdowns
Discussion:
Politico
Ta-Nehisi Coates / New York Times:
The Good, Racist People — Last month the actor Forest Whitaker was stopped in a Manhattan delicatessen by an employee. Whitaker is one of the pre-eminent actors of his generation, with a diverse and celebrated catalog ranging from “The Great Debaters” to “The Crying Game” to “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.”
Discussion:
Steve Sailer
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Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
The Racism of “Good People” — If you are a white person who has on occasion felt aggrieved at the persistence of allegations of white racism in America, do yourself and your conscience a favor and read Ta-Nehisi's Coates' guest column today in the New York Times.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Brian Ross / ABCNEWS:
Homeland Chair: Osama bin Laden's Son-in-Law ‘Cooperating’ — Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, has been “cooperating” and has already revealed “key intelligence” about the current status, personnel and finances of al Qaeda even before he was secretly spirited to New York City, U.S. officials told ABC News today.
Discussion:
Mediaite and The Jawa Report
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Bill Clinton / Washington Post:
It's time to overturn DOMA — In 1996, I signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Although that was only 17 years ago, it was a very different time. In no state in the union was same-sex marriage recognized, much less available as a legal right, but some were moving in that direction.
Discussion:
CNN, The Caucus, The Hill, Politico, msnbc.com, The New Civil Rights Movement, Gawker, The Week and PostPartisan
Devin Leonard / Businessweek:
How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for ‘Star Wars’ — One weekend last October, Robert Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney (DIS), sat through all six Star Wars films. He'd seen them before, of course. This time, he took notes. Disney was in secret negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm …
Discussion:
FirstShowing.net, Deadline.com, Outside the Beltway and Moe Lane
Dan Friedman / NY Daily News:
New York National Rifle Association official barred from carrying a gun — An order of protection stemming from a domestic disturbance at his Long Island home in 2010 prevents Richard D'Alauro, the NRA's field representative for the city and its suburbs, from carrying the weapons.
Discussion:
The Raw Story, msnbc.com, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Gothamist, Daily Kos and The Immoral Minority
Politico:
Lisa Madigan moves toward run in Illinois — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan spoke with several of the nation's top progressive groups during a visit to Washington D.C. last week, further fueling expectations that the popular Democrat will run for governor in 2014.
Thomas B. Edsall / Opinionator:
The War On Entitlements — The debate over reform of Social Security and Medicare is taking place in a vacuum, without adequate consideration of fundamental facts. — These facts include the following: Two-thirds of Americans who are over the age of 65 depend on an average annual Social Security benefit …
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Monthly, CEPR, Hullabaloo, The Impolitic and USA Today
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