Top Items:
Sarah Ferris / The Hill:
GOP tactics on ObamaCare move away from full repeal — Republicans are shifting their tactics on ObamaCare, an abrupt change from the party's “repeal-only” rhetoric that dominated the last five years of debate. — The GOP is coalescing around the idea that incremental changes …
Discussion:
Political Wire, Politico and Daily Kos
RELATED:
Manu Raju / Politico:
Obama to Senate Dems: 'I'm going to play offense' — The president said he's prepared to veto hostile legislation, including an Iran sanctions package. — President Barack Obama made clear Thursday in a closed-door session with Senate Democrats that he's prepared to veto hostile legislation …
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Obama and Senator Robert Menendez Spar on How to Handle Iran — President Obama and Senator Robert Menendez traded sharp words on Thursday over whether Congress should impose new sanctions on Iran while the administration is negotiating with Tehran about its nuclear program, according to two people who witnessed the exchange.
Discussion:
The PJ Tatler and Booman Tribune
Bloomberg:
Kerry Brings Paris a ‘Big Hug’ And James Taylor After Attacks — Secretary of State John Kerry, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit France since Islamic militant attacks in Paris left 17 dead, met with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French President Francois Hollande to offer condolences this morning.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine, Washington Free Beacon and Mediaite
RELATED:
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
That time John Kerry got James Taylor to sing 'You've got a friend' to France — Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris after the White House apologized for not sending a high-ranking official to a massive unity rally after the terrorist attacks there. — And he brought a friend by the name of James Taylor.
Discussion:
Hit & Run
Ron Charles / Washington Post:
‘Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ going back to publisher — Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey. — The best-selling book, first published in 2010 …
Discussion:
pulpitandpen.org, Raw Story, Jezebel and Friendly Atheist
RELATED:
Linda Holmes / NPR:
At The Oscar Nominations, It's A Good Year To Be An Idiosyncratic Man — The Oscar nominations are in (you can see the full list here), and Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead with nine nominations each, followed closely by The Imitation Game with eight.
Discussion:
TPNN, The Huffington Post and Althouse
RELATED:
David Sims / The Atlantic Online:
The Oscars Haven't Been This White in 19 Years
The Oscars Haven't Been This White in 19 Years
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Dish and The Huffington Post
Bryan Alexander / USA Today:
Dick Pope: ‘I have been called a lot worse’
Dick Pope: ‘I have been called a lot worse’
Discussion:
Entertain This!, Mediaite, Inside Movies and TheBlaze.com
Todd VanDerWerff / Vox:
Selma was snubbed because the average Oscar voter is a 63-year-old white man
Selma was snubbed because the average Oscar voter is a 63-year-old white man
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Forbes, ThinkProgress and Jezebel
Martin Matishak / The Hill:
Democrat condemns ‘shocking’ comments about Muslim lawmaker — A top House Democrat on Thursday condemned suggestions from conservative websites that Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), a Muslim, should not have been appointed to the House Intelligence Committee. — It has “come to my attention …
Discussion:
BizPac Review
Tara Culp-Ressler / ThinkProgress:
Obamacare Has Reversed A Negative Trend. Researchers Call It ‘Remarkable.’ — For the first time in a decade, the number of people struggling to pay their medical bills has started to decline, according to a new survey released on Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund.
Discussion:
Addicting Info and JustOneMinute
RELATED:
Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
Don't Do It, Mr. Romney — He'd have been a better president than Obama. That's not nearly enough. — Hershey, Pa. — A conversation with a Republican governor who is a possible presidential aspirant: — I told him I'd been thinking about something and wanted his response.
Yvonne Dean-Bailey / Campus Reform:
All-women's college cancels ‘Vagina Monologues’ because it's not feminist enough — Mount Holyoke College, an all-women's school, announced in a campus-wide email that the Theatre Board has cancelled its annual production of the “Vagina Monologues.” — The board has decided to retire …
Discussion:
Power Line, Hit & Run, Jezebel, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Althouse, The PJ Tatler and Patterico's Pontifications
Ben Kamisar / The Hill:
Carly Fiorina ‘seriously’ weighing '16 run — Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina says she's “very seriously considering running” for president in 2016, a move that could make her the highest-profile female in the Republican field. — “I think we need different experience …
Adam Lusher / The Independent:
The mystery of shellshock solved: Scientists identify the unique brain injury caused by war — When the war poet Wilfred Owen wrote of “men whose minds the Dead have ravished” he was attempting to describe the mysterious effects of shellshock which started appearing during the First World War and of which he himself was a sufferer.
Discussion:
FOX News Radio
Dominic Tierney / The Atlantic Online:
America Will Miss Obama When He's Gone — It's 2018, and Barack Obama leans toward the computer in his Chicago townhouse and punches in the title of his memoir. He enjoys the silence and the solitude. It's been over a decade since he had time to write. This is Obama's third memoir and probably not the last.
Kate Tummarello / Politico:
GOP makes U-turn on net neutrality — Republicans in Congress are doing a 180 on net neutrality as the Federal Communications Commission prepares to issue new rules within weeks. — For years, GOP lawmakers have adamantly opposed any rules requiring Internet service providers to treat …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Reuters, CANNONFIRE and The PJ Tatler, more at Mediagazer »
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Regime Change in Switzerland — Blogging will be limited for the next few days, unless I can resolve the tech problems here in Delhi. But I did want to say something about the Swiss de-pegging, beyond what I put in the column. — These days it's fairly widely accepted that it's very hard …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Marginal REVOLUTION
James Ball / Guardian:
Secret US cybersecurity report: encryption vital to protect private data — Newly uncovered Snowden document contrasts with British PM's vow to crack down on encrypted messaging after Paris attacks — A secret US cybersecurity report warned that government and private computers …
Discussion:
Techdirt, Boing Boing, Hullabaloo and The Hill
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Charles Krauthammer: Obama: Charlie who? — On Sunday, at the great Paris rally, the whole world was Charlie. By Tuesday, the veneer of solidarity was exposed as tissue thin. It began dissolving as soon as the real, remaining Charlie Hebdo put out its post-massacre issue featuring a Muhammad cover that …
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Joan Walsh / Salon:
The real “family values” party: On paid sick leave, Dems lead U.S to 21st century — With Obama's moves to expand workers' paid family leave, U.S. may join rest of the world — no thanks to the GOP — President Obama continues his recent crusade to bring American social policy …
Discussion:
The Dish, Washington Post and ThinkProgress
Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:
Nebraska Board Of Education Member Runs Racist, Anti-LGBT Blog — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts started off his first term as governor this week by having to condemn a Republican member the state board of education, Pat McPherson, for running a conservative political blog that repeatedly referred to President Obama as a “half-breed.”
Discussion:
FreakOutNation and AKSARBENT
RELATED:
Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Neb. Guv Condemns School Board Member's Blog Calling Obama A ‘Half-Breed’
Neb. Guv Condemns School Board Member's Blog Calling Obama A ‘Half-Breed’
Discussion:
Daily Nebraskan, Raw Story, AKSARBENT and Omaha World-Herald
Eli Lake / Bloomberg View:
Islamic State's Psychological War on U.S. Troops — This week, Pentagon officials began calling up retired generals to let them know that their home addresses, private e-mails and other personal information had appeared in a document that was publicized globally by a group claiming to support Islamic State.
ABC News:
EXCLUSIVE: How the FBI Foiled a 2012 Plot to Bomb the US Capitol … The arrest Wednesday of an Ohio man who allegedly plotted an all-out assault on the U.S. Capitol was not the first time the FBI nabbed someone for such a plot through an undercover operation - and surveillance video …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Daily Mail, Associated Press, THE DISTRICT SENTINEL, Walid Shoebat and Scared Monkeys
James Kanter / New York Times:
2 Suspects Killed in Gun Battle in Belgian Antiterror Raid — BRUSSELS — As the Belgian authorities unleashed a new campaign against suspected terrorists on Thursday that unfolded across the country with raids and arrests, in one of the raids, near the German border, officers came under …
Discussion:
Reuters, Power Line, Mediaite, CNN and Jewish Telegraphic Agency