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11:35 AM ET, January 28, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
A 40-Year Wish List  —  You won't believe what's in that stimulus bill.  —  “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.  What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before.”  —  So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart.
Fredreka Schouten / USA Today:
Geithner names ex-lobbyist as Treasury chief of staff  —  WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner picked a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist as a top aide Tuesday, the same day he announced rules aimed at reducing the role of lobbyists in agency decisions.
Discussion: Washington Post and The Foundry
RELATED:
Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:
Democrats Among Stimulus Skeptics  —  Republican criticism of the stimulus package that the House will vote on tonight has focused on its soaring price tag, but some Democrats on Capitol Hill and other administration supporters are voicing a separate critique: that the plan may fall short …
RELATED:
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Republicans all a-Twitter over the visit  —  Audiences usually treat presidents to a round of polite applause, but when President Obama addressed House Republicans on Tuesday, they started Twittering.  —  Just a week after being inaugurated and becoming the most powerful man in the world …
RELATED:
Lisa Lerer / The Politico:
Sex is out of the stimulus bill
Discussion: The Raw Story
Watts Up With That?:
James Hansen's Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic - Says Hansen ‘Embarrassed NASA’, ‘Was Never Muzzled’, & Models ‘Useless’  —  UPDATE 1/28: Full text of Dr. Theon's letter has been post on the Senate website and below.  —  This is something I thought I'd never see.
RELATED:
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
White House Cheat Sheet: Between Barack and a Hard Vote  —  Rhetoric and political reality converge today for House Republicans as they weigh whether or not to vote in favor of President Obama's economic stimulus plan.  —  The vote is complicated by any number of political concerns for GOPers.
Discussion: Deseret News and Washington Post
RELATED:
The Politico:
The case for doing nothing  —  Most of Washington has reached quick consensus: Government must do something big to shock the economy, and it should cost between $800 billion and $900 billion.  —  But dissident economists and investment professionals offer a much different take: Most of Washington is dead wrong.
Andie Coller / The Politico:
Grassley launches porn inquiry  —  Chuck Grassley knows it when he sees it.  —  The “it,” of course, is pornography.  And Grassley has seen it deep in a demurely titled section of a report from the National Science Foundation — a report that says NSF employees have been spending significant amounts …
Discussion: Texas on the Potomac and Wonkette
New York Times:
Aides Say Obama's Afghan Aims Elevate War  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama intends to adopt a tougher line toward Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, as part of a new American approach to Afghanistan that will put more emphasis on waging war than on development, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:
Backlash Against Bush Apparent in RNC  —  Many Members Seek New Chairman to Steer Party in a Different Direction  —  As they begin meeting in Washington today, many members of the Republican National Committee are focusing their ire against what they considered George W. Bush's anti-conservative policies …
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Rove subpoena a new hurdle  —  Rep. John Conyers Jr.'s decision to subpoena Karl Rove to testify about the “politicization” of the Bush Justice Department has dumped a thorny legal question in the laps of President Barack Obama's White House lawyers before they've even had time to settle into their new jobs.
Discussion: USA Today, Balkinization and Reuters
RELATED:
Ben Conery / Washington Times:
Specter now supports Holder
Discussion: Swampland
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Weasels vs. AIDS Relief  —  Some of the personnel stumbles of the Obama administration — including the abortive nomination of Bill Richardson as commerce secretary — resulted from incompetent vetting.  William Lynn's reception as deputy secretary of defense has been complicated by hypocrisy …
Discussion: RedState and The Campaign Spot
New York Times:
Ahmadinejad Demands U.S. Change  —  TEHRAN — A day after President Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Washington on Wednesday to end its global military presence and said it was unclear whether the new American administration …
Paul Shukovsky / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
FBI saw mortgage fraud early  —  Agents say they lacked resources to pursue it  —  The FBI was aware for years of “pervasive and growing” fraud in the mortgage industry that eventually contributed to America's financial meltdown, but did not take definitive action to stop it.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt / New York Times:
John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man, Dies at 76  —  John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit novels highlighted a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism so vast, protean and lyrical as to place him in the first rank of American authors …
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Bill got $2M foreign after State buzz  —  Bill Clinton pulled down $5.7 million in speaking fees last year - almost entirely from foreign sources, including nearly $2.1 million after news circulated that Hillary Clinton was in line for Secretary of State.  —  Former President Clinton's …
Michelle Tan / Army Times:
Recruiting stand-down ordered  —  Probe of Houston suicides prompts wide-ranging action  —  Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a stand-down of the Army's entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of the job is underway in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation …
Discussion: Liberty Street
Times of London:
President Obama leads US drive to topple Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe  —  Tim Reid in Washington and Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg  —  President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough …
Alan Reynolds / Wall Street Journal:
$646,214 Per Government Job  —  Spending where unemployment is already low.  —  House Democrats propose to spend $550 billion of their two-year, $825 billion “stimulus bill” (the rest of it being tax cuts).  Most of the spending is unlikely to be timely or temporary.
Fouad Ajami / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Tells Arabia's Despots They're Safe  —  America's diplomacy of freedom is officially over.  —  “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” President Barack Obama said in his inaugural.  But in truth, the new way forward is a return …
Wall Street Journal:
Stimulus Bill Near $900 Billion  —  Obama Agrees to Trim Alternative Minimum Tax; Lobbies Rush for Cut of the Pie  —  WASHINGTON — The U.S. economic stimulus package neared $900 billion in the Senate, as President Barack Obama wooed Republicans ahead of an expected House vote Wednesday.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Steve Cuozzo / New York Post:
JAMES BRADY - DEATH OF A POST LEGEND
Discussion: Romenesko
Lyndsey Layton / Washington Post:
Peanut Processor Ignored Salmonella Tests, Knowingly Sold Tainted Products
Discussion: BloggingStocks
New York Times:
News You Can Endow
Discussion: First Draft
 Earlier Items: 
Dee Dee Myers / Vanity Fair:
Is Obama the Most Famous Living Person Ever?
Discussion: Political Machine
Leslie Wayne / New York Times:
Troubled Times Bring Mini-Madoffs to Light
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Aaron Blake / The Hill:
Redistricting is a hidden weapon for gloomy GOP
Discussion: Betsy's Page
Tara Parker-Pope / New York Times:
The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity
Discussion: Feministing, cab drollery and Feministe
Joan Gralla / Reuters:
New York City fears return to 1970s
Discussion: Runnin' Scared
 

 
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