Top Items:
Carol Cratty / CNN:
Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-record meetings on leaks — Washington (CNN) - Attorney General Eric Holder's plans to sit down with media representatives to discuss guidelines for handling investigations into leaks to the news media have run into trouble.
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Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Growing boycott of Eric Holder media meetings — Several news organizations have announced they will not attend this week's off the record meetings with Attorney General Eric Holder unless the sit-downs are conducted on the record. — CNN and McClatchy on Thursday joined The Associated Press …
New York Times:
Holder Faces New Round of Criticism After Leak Inquiries
Holder Faces New Round of Criticism After Leak Inquiries
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Fix and National Review, more at Mediagazer »
Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Obama to Pick Former Bush Official to Lead F.B.I.
Obama to Pick Former Bush Official to Lead F.B.I.
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, The Moderate Voice, Yahoo! News, The Maddow Blog, Washingtonian, Politico, Washington Post, Business Insider, The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog, Shakesville, Crime and Consequences Blog, driftglass, Prairie Weather, msnbc.com, The Caucus, emptywheel, WJLA-TV, Booman Tribune, The Hill, The Reaction, Mother Jones, Taylor Marsh and American Spectator
Quinnipiac News + Events:
Release Detail — May 30, 2013 - American Voters 4-1 Want Special Prosecutor For IRS, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; But Fixing Economy Is More Important, Voters Say 3-1 — American voters say 76 - 17 percent, including 63 - 30 percent among Democrats, that a special prosecutor …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, American Prospect, Washington Monthly, A plain blog about politics, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Washington Wire, Red Alert Politics, Wake up America, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air, The Plum Line, Taegan Goddard's …, CNN, Post Politics, Right Turn, Politico, ABCNEWS and Wall Street Journal
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Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Obama's poll numbers hold up despite the storm of scandal — Obama's 7 percentage-point positive margin in Gallup is better than where he stood before the IRS scandal broke. — President Obama's approval ratings have increased since a trio of controversies involving his administration began dominating the news cycle.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Kevin Cirilli / Politico:
Poll: President Obama job approval rating down
Poll: President Obama job approval rating down
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com and The Gateway Pundit
CBO's Publications:
The Distribution of Major Tax Expenditures in the Individual Income Tax System — A number of exclusions, deductions, preferential rates, and credits in the federal tax system cause revenues to be much lower than they would be otherwise for any given structure of tax rates.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Washington Monthly, Business Insider, AEIdeas, Gawker and Los Angeles Times
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Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:
Washington ‘Spends’ More on Tax Breaks Than on Medicare, Defense, or Social Security — Tax spending is the $1 trillion nudge. — Tax expenditures are funny, They're not taxes, exactly, because they save us money. They're not spending, exactly, because the dollars are never actually spent.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Harvard 1, Strawman 0 — To the delight of NY Times headline writers …
Harvard 1, Strawman 0 — To the delight of NY Times headline writers …
Discussion:
New York Times, The Week and ImmigrationProf Blog
Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times:
Tax breaks benefit rich households the most, report says
Tax breaks benefit rich households the most, report says
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications and The PJ Tatler
Lynn Sweet / Chicago Sun Times:
Bobby Rush rips Mark Kirk's mass gang arrests proposal as ‘elitist white boy solution’ — Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) is highly critical of a proposal by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) for mass arrests of 18,000 Gangster Disciples, telling the Sun-Times on Wednesday that Kirk's approach is …
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Post Politics, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette
Vince Coglianese / The Daily Caller:
IRS's Shulman had more public White House visits than any cabinet member — Publicly released records show that embattled former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president's Cabinet.
Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
MSNBC Lands In Fourth Place In May; Maddow Hits Ratings Lows — MSNBC got some very tough ratings news on Wednesday. — Another month of big crime and disaster news saw the network struggle to keep up with rivals CNN, HLN and Fox News. MSNBC was presumably expecting some dropoff from its 2012 numbers …
Discussion:
American Spectator and PoliticusUSA
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Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:
TV Ratings: MSNBC Falls Below HLN in May, Rachel Maddow Hits Lows
TV Ratings: MSNBC Falls Below HLN in May, Rachel Maddow Hits Lows
Alexander Burns / Politico:
Lincoln Chafee switches affiliation to Democrat — Obama has returned the favor: he declined to endorse a Democrat for governor in 2010, when Chafee was running as an independent in a three-way race. And when Chafee ran TV ads featuring archival footage of the president praising him, Obama and his aides did not object.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
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Jim O'Sullivan / Boston Globe:
Chafee's party switch reflects broader regional trends
Chafee's party switch reflects broader regional trends
Discussion:
The Providence Journal and First Read
Jim Tankersley / Washington Post:
Sequester not biting District yet — In the months since the automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester took effect, the Washington area has added 40,000 jobs. Income-tax receipts have surged in Virginia, beating expectations. Few government contractors have laid off workers.
Discussion:
American Spectator and Weekly Standard
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Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:
Tea Partying Strip Club Mogul: The IRS Targeted Me, Too — Meet Selim “Sam” Zherka. New York City strip club proprietor. Westchester county newspaper owner. And the self-described “loudest voice” for the Tea Party in New York state. — In the weeks since the revelation …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
McCain Wasn't Posing With Rebel Kidnapper, Spokesman Says — “Regrettable” if true, McCain spokesman says. — Via: Handout/Reuter / Reuters — WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain's office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi'ite pilgrims.
Discussion:
Power Line, Washington Times, Reuters, The Maddow Blog, Daily Kos, TheBlaze.com, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit
Anne Barnard / New York Times:
Assad Says Syria Has Received Advanced Missiles From Russia — BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said in a television interview to be broadcast on Thursday that Russia has delivered S-30 air defense missiles to his country, weapons that Israel has said present a threat …
Discussion:
Haaretz, Via Meadia, The Week, Washington Post, Guardian and Outside the Beltway
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Barbara Surk / bigstory.ap.org:
SYRIAN OPPOSITION WON'T PARTICIPATE IN PEACE TALKS
SYRIAN OPPOSITION WON'T PARTICIPATE IN PEACE TALKS
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wall Street Journal, ThinkProgress, The Back Channel and Hot Air
Rick Madonik / Toronto Star:
Rob Ford video scandal: Mayor Ford said he knew where video was, sources say — The mayor cited “our contacts” as the source of his information, according to insiders familiar with an unusual May 17 session in his office. … Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks during a press conference at City Hall …
Discussion:
Globe and Mail, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, Wonkette, Gawker, The Raw Story, DownWithTyranny!, Balloon Juice and Blazing Cat Fur
Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Conservative Icon Calls GOP's Need To Court Hispanics A ‘Great Myth’ — Phyllis Schlafly of the pro-family group Eagle Forum called the GOP's need to reach out to Hispanic voters a “great myth” during a conservative radio program Wednesday. — “The Hispanics who have come …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice and Right Wing Watch
Jason Lange / Reuters:
First quarter GDP revised slightly lower; austerity bites — (Reuters) - A drop in government spending dragged more on the U.S. economy than initially thought in the first three months of the year, a sign of increasing pain from Washington's austerity drive.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress and AEIdeas
Washington Post:
Officials: Man who knew Boston bombing suspect was unarmed when shot — A Chechen man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent last week during an interview about one of the Boston bombing suspects was unarmed, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. — An air of mystery has surrounded …
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog, Sky Dancing and emptywheel