memeorandum: Nugent Sort Of Apologizes For Calling Obama A ‘Subhuman Mongrel’ (Daniel Strauss/Talking Points Memo)

6:50 PM ET, February 21, 2014

Top Items:

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

Nugent apologizes for using term ‘subhuman mongrel’ — (CNN) - Conservative activist and rocker Ted Nugent apologized Friday for using the term “subhuman mongrel” to describe President Barack Obama. — “I do apologize-not necessarily to the President-but on behalf of much better men than myself …

ThinkProgress:

How Conservatives Can Develop A Better Class Of Political Celebrities Than Donald Trump And Ted Nugent — Writing in the Daily Caller, Matt K. Lewis ponders why conservative advocates and journalists are so quick to get excited-or at minimum, come to the defense of-conservative celebrities …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, Fox News, The Fix, Mediaite and Post Politics

Daniel Strauss / Talking Points Memo:
Nugent Sort Of Apologizes For Calling Obama A ‘Subhuman Mongrel’

Discussion: Trail Blazers Blog, PoliticusUSA and CNN

Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:
Ted Nugent (Kind Of) Apologizes for ‘Sub-Human Mongrel’ Obama Remark

Discussion: The Daily Banter, The Daily Caller and CNN

Hadas Gold / Politico:

The changed politics of late-night TV — The curtain rose this week on a new era of late-night TV — altering the terrain for politicians who frequent the shows and complicating life for Republicans, who have lost their most comfortable seat in front of the camera.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze.com, The Huffington Post and CNN

NewsBusters:

Bozell & Graham Column: Jimmy Fallon, Democrat Political Asset — The Obamas have had few more obsequious media allies than NBC's Jimmy Fallon. Now that he's taking over the hallowed ground of “The Tonight Show,” Fallon's proven ability to spread his reach into viral videos on YouTube promises to become even more politically potent.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Hinterland Gazette and Liberaland

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
The First Lady Did A Sketch With Jimmy Fallon And Will Ferrell In Drag (VIDEO)

Discussion: Mediaite and Weekly Standard

Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:

‘House of Cards’ threatens to leave if Maryland comes up short on tax credits — A few weeks before Season 2 of “House of Cards” debuted online, the show's production company sent Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley a letter with this warning: Give us millions more dollars in tax credits, or we will …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Verge, Mediaite, Hot Air, Connecting.the.Dots, National Review and ABC News

Alyssa Rosenberg / ThinkProgress: How Tax Credits Change Shows Like ‘House Of Cards’ And ‘Homeland’

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:

With 2015 budget request, Obama will call for an end to era of austerity — President Obama's forthcoming budget request will seek tens of billions of dollars in fresh spending for domestic priorities while abandoning a compromise proposal to tame the national debt in part by trimming Social Security benefits.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Heritage Foundation, Talking Points Memo, Wonkblog, Hit & Run, Hot Air, The Federalist, The Raw Story, Fox News, AEIdeas, Taylor Marsh, White House Dossier, Associated Press, New York Times and Patterico's Pontifications

Jon Terbush / The Week:
Obama is done even pretending to work with Republicans

Discussion: Daily Kos, Politico and Talking Points Memo

Eleanor Clift / The Daily Beast:

At American Enterprise Institute, NeoCons Say ‘Hello, Dalai’ — In the right-wing temple, the high priests of capitalism debated morality with the Dalai Lama, who acknowledged he could see more than ‘exploitation’ in free enterprise. — Welcoming the Dalai Lama to the pinnacle of free enterprise …

Elizabeth Dias / TIME:
Exclusive: The Dalai Lama Talks Pot, Facebook and the Pope With TIME

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Jethro Mullen / CNN:
Obama, Dalai Lama meet despite China's appeal

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Brownback extremely unpopular, trails for reelection — PPP's newest Kansas poll finds that Sam Brownback has continued to become even more unpopular in the last year, and that he slightly trails his Democratic opponent for reelection. Only 33% of voters in the state approve of the job Brownback is doing …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, Daily Kos, Associated Press and The Reaction

Brendan Fischer / PR Watch:

Walker Staff on the Mentally Ill: “No One Cares about Crazy People” — “We cannot as a country allow people with mental illness to be treated as second-class citizens any longer” — Sen. Paul Wellstone — One of the more disturbing exchanges in recently-unsealed court documents shows …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Liberaland and PoliticusUSA

Alia Beard Rau / Arizona Republic:

Measure pits freedom against discrimination — FONT: — The Arizona Legislature has passed a controversial religion bill that is again thrusting Arizona into the national spotlight in a debate over discrimination. — House Bill 2153, written by the conservative advocacy group Center …

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Daily Beast, RFRA folly, Towleroad News #gay, Joe. My. God., Talking Points Memo, NewsBusters, The Dish, Advocate and Daily Kos

Arizona Republic:
Gov. Brewer, veto these religious-freedom bills

Discussion: BuzzFeed and ThinkProgress

Alex Roarty / NationalJournal.com:

The GOP's Talent Gap — The party doesn't have enough smart people working on its campaigns, and those who do are playing out of position. — Republicans who run campaigns gripe they lose races because of candidates and ideology. It's easy to understand why.

Discussion: The Other McCain and Washington Monthly

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

The myth of ‘settled science’ — Irepeat: I'm not a global warming believer. I'm not a global warming denier. I've long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly …

Discussion: Climate Science Watch, Questions and Observations, his vorpal sword, Betsy's Page, Althouse, New York Times, Hot Air and Wall Street Journal

Rick Kissell / Variety:

Ratings: Is CNN's Piers Morgan Shooting Himself in the Foot? — In the end, are guns what killed CNN's “Piers Morgan Live”? — The show, hosted by anti-gun crusader Morgan, continues to struggle in the Nielsens. And this month, the start of the Michael Dunn loud-music murder trial …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, NewsBusters, The Daily Caller, Althouse and Booman Tribune

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Garrick Utley, a Mainstay at NBC News, Dies at 74 — Garrick Utley, a former anchor for NBC News who for many years was one of a rare breed in television news reporting, a full-time foreign correspondent, died on Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Kiev Has Deal, but Both Russia and Protesters Appear Wary — KIEV, Ukraine — A deal aimed at ending a lethal spiral of violence in Ukraine began to show serious strains late Friday just hours after it had been signed, with angry protesters shouting down opposition members of Parliament …

Discussion: Washington Post, RT, UPROXX, The PJ Tatler, The Week, kyivpost.com, Lawfare, BBC, ABC News and Guardian

Reuters:
Ukraine peace deal signed, opens way for early election

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Dish and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Michael Cieply / New York Times:

‘Anchorman 2’ Returns (Call It 2 ½) — LOS ANGELES — TAKE a raunchy Hollywood comedy, remove the jokes, and what do you have left? — Room for 763 new, and even raunchier, jokes. — In what appears to be the movie equivalent of blood replacement therapy — and possibly a cinematic first …

Discussion: Mashable, The Verge, The Week, Gothamist, Most Recent and The Huffington Post

The Hill:

Boehner: I'd rather kill myself than raise the minimum wage — Speaker John Boehner is so against raising the minimum wage that he once said he would rather commit suicide than vote for a “clean” increase. — The Ohio Republican and son of a barkeep has repeatedly opposed federally mandated hike increases …

Discussion: The Plum Line, ABC News, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, BillMoyers.com and Booman Tribune

Fox News:

FCC backs off newsroom survey plan — The Federal Communications Commission announced Friday that it was putting on hold a controversial study of American newsrooms, after complaints from Republican lawmakers and media groups that the project was too intrusive.

Discussion: Hot Air, Fox News Insider, National Review, No More Mister Nice Blog and Right Wing Watch, more at Mediagazer »

Stefano Esposito / Chicago Sun Times:

Gay marriages in Cook Co. don't have to wait, judge rules — Same-sex couples don't have to wait until June to get married in Cook County under a federal judge's ruling issued Friday. — “There is no reason to delay further when no opposition has been presented to this Court and committed gay …

Discussion: Advocate and Shakesville

Rick Raemisch / New York Times:

My Night in Solitary — COLORADO SPRINGS — AT 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 23, I was delivered to a Colorado state penitentiary, where I was issued an inmate uniform and a mesh bag with my toiletries and bedding. My arms were handcuffed behind my back, my legs were shackled and I was deposited …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo and KEYC