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9:00 PM ET, December 9, 2008

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Huma Khan / Political Punch:
Questions Arise About the Obama/Blagojevich Relationship  —  “Obviously like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the US attorney's office today,” said President-elect Obama this afternoon in Chicago, speaking of the criminal complaint …
RELATED:
Chicago Breaking News:
Blagojevich arrested on federal charges  —  Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “staggering” level of corruption involving pay-to-play politics in Illinois' top office.
Marc Ambinder:
Blago Indictment: Who Is Senate Candidate 5?  —  Gov. Blagojevich's own words make it clear that he did not believe that Barack Obama wanted a person called “Senate Candidate 5” to be appointed to the Senate. … In other words — if Blago doesn't get what he wanted, then he'd stiff the PEOTUS …
New York Times:
Illinois Governor in Corruption Scandal  —  CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama's seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.
Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
Attorney: Blagojevich has no plans of resigning  —  CHICAGO— The attorney for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said the governor will be vindicated and he has no plans to resign.  —  “He didn't do anything wrong,” attorney Sheldon Sorosky told reporters after Blagojevich was arraigned.
WBBM-TV:
Details Of Complaint Against Blagojevich  —  CHICAGO (CBS) ― Full release from U.S. Attorney's Office:  —  Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Blago calls Obama “motherf—er”  —  The tapes reveal a two-term governor who no longer wants his job, badly wants cash and is determined to leverage a financial benefit out of his appointment powers.  —  He also appears to think little of the president-elect, whom he calls a “motherf***er” at one point.
Chicago Tribune:
Blagojevich's Senate selection process investigated  —  Federal probe widens to Obama's vacant seat  —  UPDATE: Source: Feds take Gov. Blagojevich into custody  —  A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Source: ‘SEIU official’ was Stern  —  A Democratic source confirms that SEIU President Andy Stern is the “SEIU official” referred to in the federal complaint against Rod Blagojevich.  —  There's no allegation that the SEIU official did anything wrong, and what appears to be a wiretap transcript …
Katie Allison Granju:
Note to President-Elect Obama: just tell the truth  —  Today, President-Elect Obama spoke out about the emerging political scandal out of Illinois involving his former Senate seat, and he denied emphatically having ever even spoken to the now-arrested governor about the matter, saying:
Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs
CNN:
Durbin wants special election to replace Obama  —  (CNN) — Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday he wants a special election called to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat.  —  At a press conference with reporters on Capitol Hill, Durbin said he wants the Illinois legislature …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
‘Senate Candidate 5’  —  Capitol Fax's Rich Miller updates …
Discussion: The Capitol Fax Blog and Reuters
Ron Kampeas / JTA:
Blagojevich arrest could send Jewish rep to Senate
Discussion: Sunlight Foundation
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blogs:   Blago wanted to shake down Warren Buffett
James P. Pinkerton / Fox News:
Prosecutor: Blagojevich Engaged in ‘Political Corruption Crime Spree’
Discussion: USA Today and NewsBusters.org
Joe Weisenthal / Silicon Alley Insider:
Alleged: Blago Hoped To Shake Down Warren Buffett!
Discussion: DealBook
Marc Ambinder:   Blago Indictment And The Obama Team
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:   AMAZING  —  Even setting aside the primordial level of corruption …
Chicago Sun Times:
Charges: Illinois Governor Blagojevich shook down the Chicago Tribune
Discussion: Braublog
Jeffrey Toobin In / New Yorker:   HOT SEAT  —  Otto Kerner, Jr., is usually remembered …
A1 WBBM Local Stories:   Lawmakers Already Calling For Blago Impeachment
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Blagojevich Criminal Complaint: The Best of the Best
Discussion: Washington Post
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Joe the Plumber: McCain ‘appalled me’  —  Joe Wurzelbacher lashed out at former GOP presidential nominee John McCain Tuesday, the man who made Wurzelbacher famous as “Joe the Plumber.”  —  Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that he felt “dirty” after “being on the campaign trail …
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
O'Reilly And Rove Agree: Reports On The Bad Economy Are Part Of A Media Cabal To Help Obama  —  Yesterday on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove went on a tirade against the media for hyping the struggling state of the economy.  They claimed that it's not as bad as reports are making it out to be …
Marist Poll:
Voters Weigh In: Cuomo and Kennedy Deadlocked for Clinton Seat  —  High Hopes for Secretary of State Clinton  —  This Marist Poll reports:  —  · Cuomo and Kennedy Tie...More Than a Quarter of Voters Unsure About Clinton's Replacement: While much of the buzz …
RELATED:
Dee Dee Myers / Vanity Fair:
Favreau's Sexist Photo Is No Laughing Matter  —  Oh, what to do.  An incredibly talented young aide, to an impossibly idealistic new president, gets caught doing something indefensibly stupid and undeniably sexist.  Everyone is uncomfortable.  But should anyone be held accountable?  Apparently not.
Michael Tarm / Associated Press:
Workers win a big round in Chicago factory sit-in  —  CHICAGO - The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend limited loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished.
Discussion: MyDD
RELATED:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
QUOTE OF THE DAY.... A new national poll from CNN/Opinion Research Corporation finds 79% of Americans approve of the job Barack Obama has done so far.  That's probably not too significant — this is still the transition period, when exercising one's limited authority is a lot easier — but 79% is still a pretty solid number.
RELATED:
Paul Steinhauser / CNN:
Poll: 8 in 10 give Obama thumbs-up on transition
Discussion: Balloon Juice
 
 
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 More Items: 
Associated Press:
‘Nanny’ state? Drescher eyes Clinton's Senate seat
Discussion: Reuters and Atlas Shrugs
Alex Tabarrok / Marginal Revolution:
Infrastructure: Roads and The Smart Grid
Discussion: Kevin Drum and The American Scene
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
THAT'S A CONTEST WE CAN BELIEVE IN
The Daily Beast:
The Man Who Brought Down Spitzer by Scott Horton
 Earlier Items: 
Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:
That Was Then, This is Now — II
Discussion: Gawker
Associated Press:
Ethics panel expands Rangel investigation
Bloomberg:
Treasury Bills Trade at Negative Rates as Haven Demand Surges
Discussion: Newshoggers.com
CNN:
Court: Craig can't withdraw sex-sting plea
William J. Broad / New York Times:
Hidden Travels of the Atomic Bomb
 

 
From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview
 
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