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12:50 PM ET, March 12, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Steele, under fire, walks back ‘choice’ remark  —  RNC Chairman Michael Steele said today that despite telling an interviewer he supports “individual choice” and state-level decisions on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban.  —  Steele said in a statement through an RNC spokesman:
RELATED:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
TIMEBOMB, POSTDATED THREE WEEKS?  —  Ever since I read Michael Steele's trainwreck interview with GQ that came out yesterday, I've been wondering, he thought this was a good moment to give a let it all hang out interview?  —  Remember, this is the one where he appeared to forget in real …
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Steele reverses himself on choice  —  For the third time in his short tenure as RNC chair, Steele has fumbled a media appearance, this time on abortion, and had to reverse himself afterwards.  Steele told an interviewer that he thought abortion was a matter of personal choice and that it should be regulated by the states.
Alexander Mooney / CNN:   Steele forced to clarify abortion stance
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
The Country's Loss  —  The Obama administration has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place, and their friends on Capitol Hill.  The country has lost an able public servant in an area where President Obama has few personal credentials …
Discussion: The Daily Dish and Commentary
RELATED:
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The distorting effect of anonymity  —  (updated below)  —  In response to the criticisms I wrote last week of the widespread and baseless grants of anonymity by journalists, Julian Sanchez responds that, while he largely agrees with the objections I raise, it is a more complicated problem …
John Podhoretz / Commentary:   Allow Me to Twirl My Evil Moustache (or Payess, If You Know What I Mean)
Charles Lane / PostPartisan:
The Real Chas Freeman
Discussion: Jeffrey Goldberg
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
FBI raids office of D.C. CTO, Obama appointee  —  Federal agents this morning are searching the office Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer.  —  The search of the office at 1 Judiciary Square is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI's D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said.
RELATED:
WTOP.com:
2 arrested in FBI raid at Obama appointee's office  —  WASHINGTON - Two officials in the D.C.'s Office of the Chief Technology Officer have been arrested in a federal bribery sting, sources tell WTOP.  —  D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employees Sushil Bansal and 40-year-old Yusuf Acar …
Del Quentin Wilber / Washington Post:
D.C. Official Arrested in Federal Bribery Sting
Discussion: D.C. Wire, DCist and The Raw Story
Bloomberg:
Madoff Life in Prison Means Inmates Who Blame Money Man for Crash  —  Bernard Madoff, scheduled to plead guilty today to masterminding the largest Ponzi scheme in history, may have to fight off prison inmates who want to squeeze him for money or blame him for the Wall Street crash.
Discussion: TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh and CNBC
RELATED:
New York Times:
Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty  —  Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to all the charges against him and expressed remorse for a vast Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars.  —  Standing before Judge Denny Chin in United States District Court in Manhattan …
Associated Press:
Madoff pleads guilty and goes to jail in handcuffs
Discussion: Scared Monkeys
Lisa Schiffren / The Corner:
Young Miss Palin  —  A mere ten weeks or so after the birth of their baby, Bristol Palin and her co-parent, Levi Johnston, have split up.  There will be no marriage.  According to the AP, and Mr. Johnston, it was a mutual decision.  The same article manages to note that Bristol is devastated.
RELATED:
Rachel D'Oro / Associated Press:
Alaska Gov. Palin's daughter, fiance break up
Associated Press:   Alaska Gov. Palin's Daughter, Boyfriend Break Up
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Obama's honeymoon bliss fading  —  President Obama's honeymoon is beginning to fade.  —  Members of Congress and old political hands say he needs to show substantial progress reviving the economy soon.  —  Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don't and won't understand …
Jimmy Orr / Christian Science Monitor:
New Limbaugh billboard slogan announced - creativity was not considered  — E-mail a friend - Print this - Letter to the Editor - Republish - - Get e-mail alerts - RSS  —  Setting a world record today for beating a dead horse, the Democratic National Committee will announce they've selected …
Discussion: Michelle Malkin and Don Surber
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Paved With Magnificent Intentions  —  Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, described Washington as a “city of magnificent intentions” because of the incongruity between the city's grand aspirations and muddy, swampy actuality.  Today Washington's discrepancy is not architectural but political.
Discussion: Commentary
RELATED:
Forbes:
How Low Can The Stock Markets Go?
Discussion: The Campaign Spot
Edward Yeranian / Voice of America:
Iraqi Shoe-Thrower Sentenced to Three Years in Prison  —  The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush during a farewell visit to Baghdad has been sentenced by an Iraqi court to three years in prison.  —  The trial of Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi …
RELATED:
Maria Recio / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.
Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:
The most technologically progressive decade of the 20th century  —  Can you guess?  According to economic historian Alexander Field, it is (controversially) the 1930s.  Opening paragraph:  —  Because of the Depression's place in both the popular and academic imagination …
Discussion: Matthew Yglesias
Wall Street Journal:
Recession Thinned Ranks of Washington Lobbyists Last Year  —  WASHINGTON — The recession has hit K Street, home of the Washington influence business.  —  The number of active lobbyists declined 2% in 2008 to 15,900, recording its first yearly drop in seven years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of public records.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Matti Huuhtanen / Associated Press:
After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws
MsJoanne / TheZoo:
How DARE you say 9/11 happened on Bush's watch!
Discussion: Think Progress, Wonk Room and The RBC
Frank Newport / Gallup:
On Economy, Republicans Trust Business; Dems Trust Gov't.
TBogg:
The Galt's of Gullible Gulch
Discussion: Booman Tribune
Wall Street Journal:
Chris Dodd's Irish ‘Cottage’
Discussion: The Corner and Betsy's Page
 Earlier Items: 
Associated Press:
Greek terror group: Citibank attacked over crisis
Discussion: Gateway Pundit
Theodore Postol / New York Times:
Defensible Missile Defense
Sam Cage / Reuters:
RPT-FEATURE-Corporate oil booms in low-tax Switzerland
Discussion: Say Anything
Wall Street Journal:
Obama's $80 Billion Exaggeration
Discussion: Betsy's Page
K. Daniel Glover / Accuracy in Media:
A Dereliction Of Journalistic Duty
 

 
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Casey Newton / Platformer:
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Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
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