Top Items:
The Lead with Jake Tapper:
Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack — CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly — Benghazi terror attack. — Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Gawker, Mediaite, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill, Hot Air, Taegan Goddard's …, Michelle Malkin, Roger L. Simon, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN, Twitchy, Hit & Run, Yahoo! News, protein wisdom, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, The Right Scoop, American Glob, National Review, Patterico's Pontifications, Power Line, Washington's Blog, Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, Blazing Cat Fur and Jammie Wearing Fools
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CNN:
Al Qaeda link in Mideast embassy closings — Was there a political cover up surrounding the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans? Watch a CNN special investigation — The Truth About Benghazi, Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET. — Washington (CNN) — [Breaking news alert, 8:41 a.m. ET]
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and Business Insider
Politico:
Hill gets Obamacare fix — Lawmakers and staff can breathe easy — their health care tab is not going to soar next year. — The Office of Personnel Management, under heavy pressure from Capitol Hill, will issue a ruling that says the government can continue to make a contribution …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, New York Times, americanthinker.com, First Read, White House Dossier, The PJ Tatler and Twitchy
RELATED:
Niels Lesniewski / The World's Greatest …:
Obama Solves Health Care Problem for Lawmakers, Staff (Updated)
Obama Solves Health Care Problem for Lawmakers, Staff (Updated)
Discussion:
Hot Air
Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
IRS Chief: I Want to Keep My Health Care Plan, Not Switch to Obamacare
IRS Chief: I Want to Keep My Health Care Plan, Not Switch to Obamacare
Discussion:
Hot Air, American Glob, The PJ Tatler, White House.gov Blog and Politico
Seth Motel / Pew Research Center:
GOP views of Paul, Christie reflect fight over civil liberties — The debate over the government's data collection program has revealed internal splits in both parties. In the GOP, the fight has gotten personal: Kentucky senator Rand Paul has been a leading critic of the program …
Discussion:
The Fix, AEIdeas, Ross Douthat, Mediaite, National Review and Post Politics
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Philip Bump / The Atlantic Wire:
Google ‘Pressure Cookers’ and ‘Backpacks,’ Get a Visit from the Cops — Michele Catalano was looking for information online about pressure cookers. Her husband, in the same time frame, was Googling backpacks. Wednesday morning, six men from a joint terrorism task force showed up at their house to see if they were terrorists.
Discussion:
Guardian, Ordinary Times, TechCrunch, Hullabaloo and Dean's World, more at Mediagazer »
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Weekly Standard:
The Soft Underbelly of Obamacare — For opponents of Obamacare, it almost seems like the law offers too many targets to choose from. Its effects on premiums and costs look to be highly unpopular, its perverse incentives are already harming employment, its state exchanges will hand …
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Jonathan Cohn / New Republic:
Six Reasons Hipsters Will Bite on Obamacare
Six Reasons Hipsters Will Bite on Obamacare
Discussion:
Wonkblog, VodkaPundit, Balloon Juice, Via Meadia and A plain blog about politics
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
GOP Telegraphs Mass Filibuster Of Obama's Top Judges — Senate Republicans are standing firm by their threat to block every one of President Obama's nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, insisting on eliminating all three vacant seats on the country's second most powerful court.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and rubber hose
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Todd Ruger / The BLT:
Patricia Millett D.C. Circuit Nomination Heads to Full Senate
Patricia Millett D.C. Circuit Nomination Heads to Full Senate
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, PostPartisan and National Review
Mike Judge / The Christian Institute:
Gay couple to sue church over gay marriage opt-out — Wealthy gay dad, Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, says he and his civil partner Tony will go to court to force churches to host gay weddings. — He told the Essex Chronicle that he will take legal action because “I am still not getting what I want”.
Discussion:
Althouse, NOM Blog and The PJ Tatler
New York Times:
Coming to an Old Friend's Aid, With an Eye on the Clinton Image — Moments before Huma Abedin stood amid a phalanx of television cameras last week and announced to a national audience that she was standing by her embattled husband, Anthony D. Weiner, she made a quick phone call to a trusted colleague.
Discussion:
First Read, Politicker and The Huffington Post
Wall Street Journal:
Kerry Lauds Egypt Military for ‘Restoring Democracy’ — Diplomat Gives Administration's Strongest Endorsement Yet for Morsi's Ouster — Secretary of State John Kerry gave his strongest approval yet to Egypt's military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, praising the country's leading generals …
Discussion:
Via Meadia and The Hill
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
How fractured is the GOP? — Acombination of early presidential maneuvering and internal policy debate is feeding yet another iteration of that media perennial: the great Republican crackup. This time it's tea party insurgents vs. get-along establishment fogies fighting principally over two things …
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Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:
WHY DEFUNDING OBAMACARE MATTERS, WIN OR LOSE
Times Free Press:
Free Press editor Drew Johnson has been terminated after placing a headline on an editorial outside of normal editing procedures. — Johnson's headline, “Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough,” appeared on the Free Press page Tuesday …
The Smoking Gun:
Hacker Forces Colin Powell To Deny Affair — Ex-Secretary of State told foreign diplomat to delete her e-mails — As a notorious hacker seeks to distribute “very personal” e-mails sent to Colin Powell by a female Romanian diplomat, the retired general is denying that he engaged …
Discussion:
The Hinterland Gazette, Politico, The Hill and The Huffington Post
Lara Seligman / The Hill:
Ninth woman accuses San Diego mayor Filner of sexual harassment — A ninth woman has emerged to accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D) of sexual harassment. — Emily Gilbert, who was hired to sing at a fundraiser days after Filner took office in December, told Fox5 that Filner grabbed her inappropriately at the event.
Olivia Williams / Daily Mail:
'I'm a Pastafarian': Man who claims his religion forces him to wear a sieve on his head given permission to wear one on his official identity card picture — A man who wears a sieve on his head for religious reasons has been allowed to wear his bizarre headgear on his official identity card.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Joe. My. God. and ViralRead
Guardian:
Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ — • Secret payments revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden — • GCHQ expected to ‘pull its weight’ for Americans — • Weaker regulation of British spies ‘a selling point’ for NSA
Discussion:
BBC, Yahoo! News, The Agonist, Salon and The Huffington Post
Colleen Henry / WISN Milwaukees Channel 12:
Armed agents raid animal shelter for baby deer — WISN 12 News investigates an operation raising questions about the use of government resources and the state policy that meant a death sentence for a fawn. — “It was like a SWAT team,” shelter employee Ray Schulze said.
Kyle Balluck / The Hill:
Boehner's burden: ObamaCare — For Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Obamacare is the predicament that won't go away. — The Speaker is leading a House Republican conference that wants to dismantle President Obama's signature, contentious achievement by any means necessary but can't quite agree on the best way to kill it.
Discussion:
The Plum Line and NationalJournal.com
Larry J. Sabato / Sabato's Crystal Ball:
The Presidency's Political Price — Is politics a zero-sum game? — Imagine, for a moment, if Sen. John McCain (R) had somehow won the presidency in 2008. How might the country be different? — We would not have the Affordable Care Act. Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would not be on the Supreme Court.
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, Daily Kos and A plain blog about politics