Top Items:
New York Times:
Official Offers Account From Libya of Benghazi Attack — WASHINGTON — A State Department official presented a minute-by-minute account on Wednesday of what happened during the seige of the diplomatic compound in Benghazi last Sept. 11, offering the first public testimony from an American official …
Discussion:
Power Line, Hot Air, The Other McCain, Patterico's Pontifications, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Daily Kos, The Week and Michelle Malkin
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Michael Hirsh / NationalJournal.com:
Benghazi: Incompetence, But No Cover-up — The hearings deepen the tragedy, but not the scandal. — There was tragic incompetence, plainly, in the Obama administration's handling of the Benghazi attacks, and even possibly some political calculation. It is a record that may well come …
Discussion:
Speaker.gov, National Review, The Moderate Voice, The PJ Tatler and protein wisdom
Fox News:
Whistle-blower: Botched talking points hurt FBI probe of Benghazi attack — A key Benghazi whistle-blower, responding to Democratic claims that the prolonged scrutiny over the administration's botched talking points is unwarranted, testified Wednesday that the early mischaracterization …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Atlas Shrugs, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers
Washington Post:
Diplomat: Request for Special Ops team in Benghazi denied — The veteran diplomat who oversaw the response to the deadly attacks on U.S. installations in eastern Libya last year offered a riveting account on Wednesday of that frantic night, as House Republicans sought to use his testimony …
Discussion:
New York Times, Rush Limbaugh, Yahoo! News, Mother Jones, The Lonely Conservative, Washington Wire and National Review
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Hicks: Higher-ups at State told me not to talk to GOP congressman about Benghazi; Update: “Effectively demoted” — Via the Daily Caller, the five most essential, damning minutes from today's hearing. And Jordan does an expert job framing them. The money line, when Hicks is asked whether …
Discussion:
Politico, Yahoo! News, CNN, The Daily Caller and JustOneMinute
Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Benghazi Witness Says State Dept. Told Him Not To Meet With Congressional Investigators — Deputy chief of mission for the U.S. in Libya Gregory Hicks testified Wednesday that he was told not to meet with a congressman sent to investigate the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi.
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon, Weasel Zippers, Mother Jones and Wake up America
Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Benghazi whistleblower: 'I've been demoted' for challenging Susan Rice's claims
Benghazi whistleblower: 'I've been demoted' for challenging Susan Rice's claims
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch
CNN:
Administration blasted at Benghazi hearing
Administration blasted at Benghazi hearing
Discussion:
The Public Editor's Journal, Wired, Washington Post, The Week, Gawker and TheBlaze.com
Lindsey Boerma / CBS News:
Benghazi “whistleblowers” head to House committee
Benghazi “whistleblowers” head to House committee
Discussion:
NewsBusters, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, The Impolitic, Yahoo! News, FP Passport, Mashable, The Lonely Conservative, American Spectator and ViralRead
Agoldberg / The Smoking Gun:
Cleveland Hero Was A Repeat Domestic Abuser — Charles Ramsey battered his wife, did prison time for three attacks — The Cleveland man credited with helping free female captives from a house of horrors is a convicted felon whose rap sheet includes three separate domestic violence convictions …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog, Mediaite, Gawker and The Raw Story
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Aisha Harris / Slate:
The Troubling Viral Trend of the “Hilarious” Black Neighbor
The Troubling Viral Trend of the “Hilarious” Black Neighbor
Discussion:
Race, New Republic, ThinkProgress, Capital New York, The Week, THEROOT.COM, Gawker, The Raw Story and The Dish
Talking Points Memo:
Top Republican ‘Fairly Satisfied’ With White House's Account Of Benghazi — Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Corker (R-TN) said Wednesday that he's “fairly satisfied” with the Obama administration's account of events that led to the deaths of American diplomats in Benghazi last year.
Discussion:
PoliticusUSA, ThinkProgress and Washington Monthly
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Dylan Matthews / Wonkblog:
Heritage study co-author opposed letting in immigrants with low IQs — Robert Rector (center), one of the study's co-authors. (Heritage) — The Heritage Foundation made something of a splash with its study suggesting that immigration reform will cost the public trillions.
RELATED:
Mike Gonzalez / The Heritage Foundation:
Heritage Statement on the Cost of Amnesty Study
Heritage Statement on the Cost of Amnesty Study
Discussion:
First Read
Hunter / Daily Kos:
We are governed by outright morons: … You gigantic dumbass. Sorry; there's just no other way to put it. The entire purpose of “sequestration” was to be cuts enforced without choice. The mechanism was meant to be so abominable that not even the human clusterf—ks that are our current Congress …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and Eschaton
Brian Skoloff / Associated Press:
Jury Reaches Verdict in Jodi Arias Trial in Ariz. — Jurors reached a verdict Wednesday in the trial of Jodi Arias after deliberating about 15 hours over four days on whether the former waitress should be convicted of murder in the 2008 fatal stabbing and shooting of her one-time boyfriend.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh and Scared Monkeys
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Catherine E. Shoichet / CNN:
Jury finds Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder
Jury finds Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog, Wake up America and Taylor Marsh
Steve Benen / The Maddow Blog:
A classic Cheney modifier — Dick Cheney won't let a little thing like the absence of credibility stand in the way of cheap shots, as he hopes to exploit the deaths of Americans abroad for partisan gain. … Actually, “North Africa” is a pretty big place, as Cheney may recall.
Discussion:
Applesauce
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Harriet Sherwood / Guardian:
Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel — Physicist pulls out of conference hosted by president Shimon Peres in protest at treatment of Palestinians — Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres …
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Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
Obama Maintains Approval Advantage, but GOP Runs Even on Key Issues — Two-Thirds Say Obama ‘Fights Hard’ for His Policies — OVERVIEW — President Obama continues to hold a substantial advantage over congressional Republicans in public regard. Obama's job approval is back in positive territory …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Hullabaloo, The Fix, Political Capital, Washington Free Beacon and Pew Social & …
Dylan Byers / Politico:
The Post's Sharyl Attkisson piece — The Washington Post's Paul Farhi has written a glowing profile of Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy award-winning CBS correspondent who has been the mainstream media's most persistent investigator of the events surrounding last year's attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Discussion:
NewsBusters, Ed Driscoll, The Lonely Conservative, Hot Air, Riehl World News and his vorpal sword
RELATED:
Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Social Security report: Immigration bill would boost economy — The Senate Gang of Eight's immigration legislation is likely to be a net boon to the economy and Social Security, a new government report shows. — The Social Security Administration finds that by 2024, the immigration bill …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Plum Line
RELATED:
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Analysis: Immigration bill would add millions of US taxpayers
Ramsey Cox / E2-Wire:
Senate rejects gun amendment to water infrastructure bill — The first GOP amendment voted on for the Senate's water infrastructure bill was about gun rights. — The Senate is considering the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would authorize projects related to flood and storm risk reduction …
Discussion:
Politico
RELATED:
Ben Geman / E2-Wire:
Republicans to huddle Wednesday to mull options on EPA nominee vote
Republicans to huddle Wednesday to mull options on EPA nominee vote
Discussion:
Politico
Simon Shuster / TIME:
Exclusive: Dagestani Relative of Tamerlan Tsarnaev Is a Prominent Islamist — Last year, when Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent six months in the Russian region of Dagestan, he had a guide with an unusually deep knowledge of the local Islamist community: a distant cousin named Magomed Kartashov.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, TalkLeft and Riehl World News
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Obama, House Democrats talk jobs, deficit reduction — President Obama dined with House Democratic leaders Wednesday night in Washington, the latest leg of his congressional outreach campaign amid a series of high-stakes debates on Capitol Hill. — Gathered at the posh Jefferson Hotel in Northwest D.C. …
Discussion:
Politico
Joshua Miller / Boston Globe:
National Democrats hit Gomez for role with group critical of Obama — The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today knocked Republican Senate hopeful Gabriel E. Gomez for saying he was “never associated” with a group on whose behalf he appeared on national television.
Discussion:
CNN, Ballot Box and The Reaction