Top Items:
Mario Trujillo / The Hill:
Cruz: I didn't want to throw GOP under bus — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Wednesday that he did want to throw any of his colleagues under the bus by forcing a 60-vote threshold on a bill to increase the debt ceiling earlier this month. — Cruz said in a CNN interview that he heard …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
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Ted Cruz / CNN:
Ted Cruz assails fellow Republicans senators for ‘trickery’ — Beaumont, Texas (CNN) - Sen. Ted Cruz accused his own Republican leadership of “trickery” in trying to force a “show vote” on raising the debt ceiling last week, warning Republicans will get “clobbered in the polls” for not standing up for principle.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Post Politics, The Daily Caller and Mediaite
Dana Davidsen / CNN:
Ted Cruz slams GOP leadership for ‘show vote’ on debt ceiling — (CNN) - Ted Cruz sharpened his critique against the Republican establishment in Washington, taking leaders in his party to task for allowing GOP senators to cast a “show vote” on the debt ceiling and misleading constituents.
Discussion:
Politico
Deirdre Walsh / CNN:
Cruz disagrees with Nugent, but doesn't rule out campaigning with him
Cruz disagrees with Nugent, but doesn't rule out campaigning with him
Discussion:
PoliticusUSA
Sarah Palin / Facebook:
Texas, it starts with you! — 2014 is here.
Texas, it starts with you! — 2014 is here.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Politico, Trail Blazers Blog, Mediaite, CNN and Liberaland
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Four Reasons The GOP Has A Huge Advantage In The 2014 Elections — For all their internal divisions and long-term worries as a party, political scientists and historical trends give Republicans a clear edge in the upcoming 2014 congressional elections. — Forget Obamacare …
Discussion:
The Plum Line
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Markos Moulitsas / The Hill:
A blue Georgia — Demographic changes are inevitably driving Texas and Arizona into purple — and eventually blue — territory. The growth of the Latino population is poised to overwhelm predominantly conservative white voters in both states, absent a genuine and successful rebranding by the Republican Party.
Wall Street Journal:
McNider and Christy: Why Kerry Is Flat Wrong on Climate Change — It was the scientific skeptics who bucked the ‘consensus’ and said the Earth was round. — In a Feb. 16 speech in Indonesia, Secretary of State John Kerry assailed climate-change skeptics as members of the “Flat Earth Society” …
Discussion:
Hot Air
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Seumas Milne / Guardian:
Climate change deniers have grasped that markets can't fix the climate — The refusal to accept global warming is driven by corporate interests and the fear of what it will cost to try to stop it — It's an unmistakable taste of things to come. The floods that have deluged Britain may be small beer on a global scale.
CNN:
Truce crumbles amid gunfire in Ukraine, protesters claim 100 dead — Are you in Ukraine? Send us your photos and experiences but please stay safe. — Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) — A shaky truce crumbled Thursday as gunfire erupted at Independence Square, the center of anti-government protests …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Joe For America and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
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New York Times:
Kiev's Brief Truce Shatters in Bursts of Gunfire
Kiev's Brief Truce Shatters in Bursts of Gunfire
Discussion:
Business Insider and Althouse
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Is Ukraine the Cold War's final episode?
Is Ukraine the Cold War's final episode?
Discussion:
americanthinker.com
Beth Reinhard / NationalJournal.com:
CPAC Welcomes Gay-Rights Groups After Years of Exclusion — Meet the kinder, gentler Conservative Political Action Conference. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, snubbed last year after palling around with President Obama, is coming. So is GOProud, the gay-rights group that was banned …
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, Politico, Slate, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Towleroad News #gay, ABC News, Washington Blade and Joe. My. God.
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Noah Rothman / Mediaite:
Rothman: CPAC's Sprint Toward Irrelevance
Rothman: CPAC's Sprint Toward Irrelevance
Discussion:
Daily Kos and VodkaPundit
Kurtis Lee / The Spot:
Rep. Jared Wright leaves loaded handgun in House committee room — In the moments after lawmakers and visitors cleared a committee room Feb. 6 following a debate on concealed handgun permits, Rep. Jonathan Singer found a black canvass bag under the table where lawmakers sit.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Audrey M. Dacosta / Caracas Chronicles:
19F - The Night Venezuela Finally Imploded — Tonight, Venezuela is seeing a spasm of violence that's unlike anything the country has experienced since 1989. Information is fragmented, since an almost complete media black-out is in place, but you don't need the media to hear your neighbor's screams.
Discussion:
Babalú Blog and Venezuela News And Views
Associated Press:
Joe Biden: Obamacare enrollment may miss mark — MINNEAPOLIS — Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that it would be a good start for the federal health care law if 5 million to 6 million people sign up by the end of March, an acknowledgement that enrollments might fall significantly short …
Discussion:
CNN, americanthinker.com and Mediaite
Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House GOP plots anti-reg blitz — House Republicans next week will pass a legislative package aimed at making federal regulations more transparent and less costly to the economy. — The legislation is the GOP's latest attempt to reduce the regulatory red tape that they say is stifling job creation.
Adam Alter / Currency:
The Powerlessness of Positive Thinking — Since publishing “The Secret,” in 2006, the Australian author Rhonda Byrne has been writing self-help manifestos based on the idea that people who think positive thoughts are rewarded with happiness, wealth, influence, wisdom, and success.
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE and The Agonist
New York Times:
The Clear Benefits of a Higher Wage — Republicans sputtered with outrage when the Congressional Budget Office said that immigration reform would lower the deficit, strengthen Social Security and speed up economic growth. They called for the office to be abolished when it dared to point …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Talking Points Memo and The Dish
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Quinnipiac News + Events:
Release Detail — February 20, 2014 - Clinton Sweeps 2016 Ohio Field As Christie Drops, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Obama Approval Goes From Terrible To Bad — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sweeps the 2016 presidential field in Ohio as New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie …
Discussion:
Politico, Prairie Weather and Real Clear Politics
Julian Hattem / The Hill:
Dems press Holder on secret FBI letters — Two House Democrats are calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to make changes to secret letters that the FBI uses to get information. — In a letter on Wednesday, the lawmakers demanded answers about the FBI's National Security Letters …
Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
Start-Up Site Hires Critic of Wall St. — Matt Taibbi, who made a name as a fierce critic of Wall Street at Rolling Stone magazine, has joined First Look Media, the latest big-name journalist to leave an established brand to enter the thriving and well-financed world of news start-ups.
Discussion:
susiemadrak.com, Taylor Marsh and The Agonist, more at Mediagazer »
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Law and Politics — I first read about Robert A. Dahl's death earlier this month in the Yale Daily News. Why would the editors of a student newspaper publish a Page 1 obituary of a 98-year-old political science professor who had retired from teaching well before any of today's undergraduates were born?
Discussion:
The Monkey Cage
Facebook:
Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp — Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a rapidly growing cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares.
Discussion:
Politics, Business …, TechCrunch, Consumerist and Mashable