memeorandum: NASCAR driver accused of abuse says ex is trained assassin (Randall Chase/Associated Press)

4:20 PM ET, January 14, 2015

Top Items:

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

With New Charlie Hebdo Cover, News Value Should Have Prevailed — Readers responded passionately, and in large numbers, to my post last week about The Times's decision not to publish the now-famous Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. (In fact, I've never had more comments on a post or column.)

Lori Hinnant / Associated Press:

France cracks down on hate speech, sends carrier to Mideast — PARIS (AP) — France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism and announced Wednesday it was sending an aircraft carrier to the Mideast to work more closely …

Discussion: The Intercept, US News, The Dish, neo-neocon, Guardian, Associated Press, Althouse and BizPac Review

Lori Hinnant / Associated Press:

France arrests 54 for defending terror; newspaper sells out — 14 photos — PARIS (AP) — Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn Wednesday around Paris, with some scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical paper fronting the Prophet Muhammad.

Discussion: The Independent, Hot Air, Bloomberg View, Politico, ABC News, Truth Revolt, abc11.com, The PJ Tatler and Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

Guardian:
Dieudonné arrested over Facebook post on Paris gunman

Discussion: Liberaland, Mediaite, Common Dreams, Techdirt, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and The Glittering Eye, more at Mediagazer »

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
Muslim Groups Urge Peaceful Response to New Charlie Hebdo Cover

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NBC News, CAIR and FOX News Radio

CNN: Al Qaeda branch claims responsibility for Charlie Hebdo attack

Matt ViserGLOBE / BostonGlobe.com:

Romney crafting a rationale for 2016 run — Focus on poor, foreign policy

Discussion: The American Conservative, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Dish, Vox, FreakOutNation, The Daily Beast, Political Insider blog, Mediaite, TIME, Chicago and Slate

James Carville / The Hill:

Obama's 2015 — As on most NFL Sundays in south Louisiana, I had one too many bowls of gumbo and a few too many bourbons as I sat parked fully reclined in my leather wingback chair watching my fellow New Orleanian Peyton Manning play. And I dozed off ... I had a dream.

Wall Street Journal:

Romney Recycled — Mitt would have to explain why he'd be a better candidate now. — If Mitt Romney is the answer, what is the question? We can think of a few worthy possibilities, though one that doesn't come immediately to mind is who would be the best Republican presidential nominee in 2016.

Discussion: Hot Air, Bloomberg View, National Review and Race 4 2016

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Third Chance for Romney? G.O.P. Is Torn

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, BostonGlobe.com and Washington Examiner

Tampa Bay Times:
Mitt Romney making Florida push, setting up clash with Jeb Bush

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail and Balkinization

Victor Paul Alvarez / Boston Globe:

Bartender's Threat against John Boehner Thwarted — The FBI says an Ohio bartender planned to kill House Speaker John Boehner last October by poisoning his drink at a country club. — The question is: Would anyone have noticed? Stories about Boehner's drinking have circulated for years.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Mediaite, ABC News, Patterico's Pontifications, The Daily Caller and Politico

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Boston.com's questionable Boehner joke

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and ABC News

Reuters:

U.S. House passes security funding bill blocking immigration actions — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans drew a hard line against President Barack Obama's executive immigration initiatives on Wednesday, voting to block them as they passed a Department of Homeland Security spending bill.

Discussion: CNN and National Review

National Journal:
House GOP Centrists Push Back on Immigration

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Politico:
GOP moderates rebel against House immigration measure

Discussion: The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, ThinkProgress, Hot Air and Center for Immigration Studies

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Paul Ryan isn't running for president. He's after something even bigger. — Most politicians who can gin up presidential speculation do (see Gingrich, Newt). It means more reporters covering their speeches, more money for their PAC, more invitations to the Sunday shows.

Discussion: CNN, Slate, Political Wire and relinquishment

Numbers / Pew Research Center's Social …:

Women and Leadership — Public Says Women are Equally Qualified, but Barriers Persist — According to the majority of Americans, women are every bit as capable of being good political leaders as men. The same can be said of their ability to dominate the corporate boardroom.

Discussion: OnPolitics, Taylor Marsh, Jezebel, Politico, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

We Need Another Giant Protest — President Obama was criticized for failing to attend, or send a proper surrogate to, the giant antiterrorism march in Paris on Sunday. That criticism was right. But it is typical of American politics today that we focus on this and not what would have …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News

George Friedman / Stratfor:
A War Between Two Worlds

Discussion: The Glittering Eye and Vox Popoli

TMZ.com:

Jimmy Carter — Huckabee's Wrong on Everything ... Not Just Obamas' Parenting Skills — HUCKABEE'S WRONG ON EVERYTHING — Not Just Obamas' Parenting Skills — EXCLUSIVE — Jimmy Carter slammed Mike Huckabee Tuesday for criticizing the Obamas' parenting skills.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Adweek, Truth Revolt and The Huffington Post

Jon Offredo / delawareonline:

NASCAR's Busch says ex is ‘assassin’; hearing concludes — It could be weeks before the court issues a final decision on a protection order filed against NASCAR's Kurt Busch, after a four-day hearing ended Tuesday afternoon. Testimony has covered everything from the assassinations of drug lords …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, NBCSports.com, myfox8.com and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Randall Chase / Associated Press:
NASCAR driver accused of abuse says ex is trained assassin

Discussion: Moe Lane, Mashable, NPR, Associated Press and New York Magazine

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:

Ashley Judd: ‘I might run some day’ — Ashley Judd says voters shouldn't count her out of the political arena just yet. — “I might run some day,” she tells ITK, “I don't know.” — The “Divergent” actress famously flirted with a Kentucky Senate bid against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R).

Discussion: OnPolitics and The Huffington Post

Hugh Son / Bloomberg:

JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says Banks ‘Under Assault’ by U.S. Regulators — Jamie Dimon, grappling with multibillion-dollar legal costs and rising capital requirements at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), lashed out at U.S. regulators for putting his bank “under assault.”

Discussion: Forbes, The Huffington Post, Balloon Juice and Booman Tribune

Commentary Magazine:

The Existential Necessity of Zionism After Paris: A COMMENTARY Editorial — I. — The jihadist siege of a kosher grocery store in eastern Paris on January 9 was not the beginning of a new threat to French Jews and the Jews of Europe. Rather, it was the culmination of a decade of crisis.

Discussion: The Federalist and Weekly Standard

John DiStaso / New Hampshire Journal:

Updated: Paul says Romney was right, ‘somebody new’ should lead GOP in 2016 — “When you do the same thing and expect a different result, it's sort of what Einstein said, that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”

Discussion: Political Wire, Mediaite, Chicago and Politico

Terrence McCoy / Washington Post:

Former highest-ranking U.S. cardinal blames ‘feminization’ for the Catholic Church's problems — Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke is a man with a lot of enemies. The former archbishop of St. Louis, who once said supporters of abortion rights shouldn't receive communion, became the highest-ranking American …

Discussion: Shakesville

CBS News:

Obama's approval rating ticks up in 2015 — Shares - — President Obama's overall job approval rating has risen seven points since last October, although it still remains below 50 percent. Forty-six percent of Americans now approve of the job the president is doing, while just as many disapprove.

Discussion: Political Wire, PoliticusUSA and Washington Post

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Does free media have an obligation to Islam? — In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, both America's paper of record (The New York Times) and its network of record (CNN) have declined to show Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed on the grounds that they might offend Muslims.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Dish, Hit & Run, New York Times and Ed Driscoll