memeorandum: Glass Cage Silences Morsi During Egyptian Trial (New York Times)

11:25 AM ET, January 28, 2014

Top Items:

Obama to Raise Minimum Wage Under Federal Contractors — WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to sign an executive order requiring that janitors, construction workers and others working for federal contractors be paid at least $10.10 an hour, using his own power to enact a more limited version …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Liberaland, Patterico's Pontifications, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh, americanthinker.com, Right Wing News, No More Mister Nice Blog, Campaign for America's Future, Business Insider and Riehl World News

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:

Obama to raise minimum wage for government contract workers — President Obama will announce in the State of the Union address Tuesday that he will use his executive power to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour for workers on new government contracts, fulfilling a top demand …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Plum Line, Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, The Fact Checker, WFPL, NationalJournal.com and The Fix

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Gibbs: Obama ‘Stopped Trying’ to Change Washington Long Ago — Former press secretary Robert Gibbs said today on TV that President Obama and his White House “long ago” gave up on “trying” to change Washington: — Gibbs first thanked God that he's no longer working in this White House …

Discussion: Hot Air and National Review

Julian Hattem / The Hill:
Lawmakers demand Obama dump Clapper

Discussion: americanthinker.com

USA Today:
Obama to raise minimum wage for some federal workers

Discussion: PoliticusUSA

Mario Trujillo / The Hill:
Obama to use executive action to raise minimum wage for federal contractors

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos and Hot Air

Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:
Obama Hiking Minimum Pay for New Federal Contracts

Discussion: Politico

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:
Barack Obama's State of the Union deja vu

Discussion: CNN

Carrie Budoff Brown / Politico:
State of the Union 2014: How far will Obama go?

Discussion: CNN

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Democrats hope Obama's State of Union speech will be start of populist agenda

Discussion: The Week, Balloon Juice, neo-neocon, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

Jon Pareles / New York Times:

Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94 — Pete Seeger, the singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for social change, died Monday.

Discussion: americanthinker.com, NPR, Althouse, Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Associated Press, American Power, Liberaland, Ultimate Classic Rock, The Week, Sky Dancing, The Agonist, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Maggie's Farm

Bart Barnes / Washington Post:

Pete Seeger, legendary folk singer, dies at 94 — Pete Seeger, a 20th-century troubadour who inspired and led a renaissance of folk music in the United States with his trademark five-string banjo and songs of love, peace, brotherhood, work and protest, died Monday night after being hospitalized in New York for six days.

Discussion: Daily Dot, The Political Carnival, The Agonist and The Moderate Voice

Jethro Mullen / CNN:
Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger dies at 94

Discussion: alicublog and The Jawa Report

Bob Minzesheimer / USA Today: Folk singer Pete Seeger dies at age 94

Domenico Montanaro / NBCNews:

Poll: Christie numbers tank as scandals continue — Chris Christie's political future looks to be in serious danger with more Americans believing the embattled New Jersey governor is lying about the bridge closure scandal than telling the truth, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ABC News, First Read, The Star-Ledger Editorial Page, Politico and Real Clear Politics

Mark Murray / NBCNews:

NBC News poll: Pessimism defines the state of the union — As President Barack Obama enters his sixth year in the White House, 68 percent of Americans say the country is either stagnant or worse off since he took office, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Discussion: Shakesville, National Review and Washington Free Beacon

Patrick O'Connor / Washington Wire:
WSJ/NBC Poll: Sharp Reversal on Chris Christie

Discussion: TIME

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Matthews goes after McCain critic — Sen. John McCain, under fire from the Arizona GOP for not being conservative enough, got an unlikely ally in his defense against the state party's censure of the senator, as MSNBC host Chris Matthews went after the author of the Arizona GOP's critique of McCain.

Discussion: CNN

Burgess Everett / Politico:
John McCain on reprimand: ‘It fires me up’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, OnPolitics and Independent Journal Review

The Hill:

56 Dems endorse Hillary for 2016 — Fifty-six Democratic lawmakers say they would endorse Hillary Clinton for president if she launches a 2016 White House bid, according to a survey conducted by The Hill. [SEE COMPLETE LIST] — Twenty-two congressional Democrats had already publicly endorsed Clinton.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Taylor Marsh, The Caucus, New York Times, Real Clear Politics, Politico, Fox News Insider and CNN

Greta Van Susteren / Gretawire:

What is wrong with this guy? He is such a jerk! He is a repeat offender! — This posting is not about Wendy Davis. It is not about her views. This is about a man who has pattern of being disrespectful to women: — We are a big nation with different viewpoints.

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, Riehl World News, Mediaite, The Raw Story, Taylor Marsh and The Other McCain

Tal Kopan / Politico:
Wendy Davis hits back at Bristol Palin

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Talking Points Memo

Yahoo! News:

Exclusive: Democratic senators to file amicus brief in Hobby Lobby birth control case — In a brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, 19 Democratic senators are siding with the Obama administration against evangelical Christian businessmen who argue that paying …

Discussion: Hot Air, americanthinker.com, The PJ Tatler, Independent Journal Review and Twitchy

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:

How Republicans Lost the Farm — On a recent Monday in San Antonio, Texas, Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, got up to speak to an auditorium full of farmers. Vilsack, a doughy, wavy-haired former governor of Iowa, wore a grim expression as he gripped the lectern.

Laura Vozzella / Washington Post:

Democrat wins Virginia Senate recount, giving Gov. Terry McAuliffe's agenda a crucial boost — VIRGINIA BEACH — Democrats prepared to seize control of the Virginia Senate on Monday after winning a recount by just 11 votes in a razor-thin special election, giving Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe's first-year agenda a crucial boost.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Yahoo! News:

How Rick Santorum is laying the groundwork for another presidential run — WASHINGTON — Talk about campaign trail déjà vu. — As hundreds of bundled-up supporters gathered around him on a freezing January day, Rick Santorum towered over a lectern and rallied his troops.

Fred Barnes / Wall Street Journal:

Fred Barnes: The Curse of the State-of-the-Union First Responder — Replying to a presidential speech on national TV is a plum job, right? Guess again.

Discussion: Power Line and Weekly Standard

BBC:

German cows cause methane blast in Rasdorf — Methane gas released by dairy cows has caused an explosion in a cow shed in Germany, police said. — The roof was damaged and one of the cows was injured in the blast in the central German town of Rasdorf. — Thanks to the belches and flatulence …

Discussion: Liberaland

John Bresnahan / Politico:

Ryan Loskarn leaves letter — Jesse Ryan Loskarn, the former top Senate GOP aide who committed suicide last week, said in a letter released by his family that he was sexually abused as a child, and the horror from that episode eventually led him down a path toward possessing child pornography.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Riehl World News

Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:

Google Glass to Be Covered by Vision Care Insurer VSP — SAN FRANCISCO — Google and VSP, the nation's biggest optical health insurance provider, have struck a deal to offer subsidized frames and prescription lenses for Google Glass, the Internet-connected eyewear.

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay, Althouse and The Verge

BBC:

Ukraine's PM Azarov and government resign — Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has accepted the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet amid continuing anti-government protests. — Mykola Azarov had offered to step down as prime minister to create “social and political compromise”.

Discussion: Boing Boing and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:

Glass Cage Silences Morsi During Egyptian Trial — CAIRO — Egypt's military-backed government put the deposed President Mohamed Morsi in a specially designed glass cell as he appeared in a court in Cairo on Tuesday, only his second public appearance since his ouster last July.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and NPR