Top Items:
Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
Bad blood: GOP infighting on budget — House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) raised objections to an abbreviated alternative budget “blueprint” released today — but were told by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) they needed to back the plan, according to several Republican sources.
Discussion:
CNN, The Swamp, The Hill, Matthew Yglesias, MSNBC, TPMDC, MyDD, Balloon Juice, Salon, The Anonymous Liberal, Newshoggers.com and No More Mister Nice Blog
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The Huffington Post:
GOP Budget Proposal: Massive Tax Cut For Wealthy — House Republican leaders called a press conference Thursday to unveil their “alternative budget.” While it was thin on specifics, it does include one major policy proposal: a huge tax cut for the wealthy.
David Freddoso / The Corner:
A Summary of the Republicans' Buget — House Republicans are presenting their alternative budget in a few minutes. As we await the details, here is a summary, based on the materials they have distributed in advance. One problem is that there is no scoring yet for the bottom line yet.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
MY FAVORITE BUDGET EVER. — If you're having a bad day, I highly encourage you to spend some quality time with the Republican budget proposal. It's reads like what would happen if The Onion put together a budget. “Area Man Releases Proposal for 2010 Federal Spending Priorities.”
Elana Schor / TPMDC:
House GOP Unveils Its Budget Shiny Packet of Goals — Stung by their stereotyping as the “party of no,” House Republicans eagerly promoted the unveiling of their alternative to President Obama's budget today — but when they finished speaking, reporters had one big question: Where's the actual budget?
Discussion:
Think Progress, Washington Monthly, GOP Leader Blog, Hullabaloo, The New Republic, MyDD and Crooks and Liars
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
A First Look At Obama's New Afghan Policy — President Barack Obama's new posture toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, to be unveiled tomorrow, codifies for the first time Iran's role in regional diplomacy, emphasizes counterterrorism as the primary mission of U.S. policy, and includes …
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
'Obama's war' - New troops and new plan — President Barack Obama plans to commit to sending 4,200 more troops and hundreds more civilians to Afghanistan in a speech at the White House on Friday morning, and also to embrace a new system of benchmarks to measure progress.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Obama's Pathetic Pot Answer — The chuckle suggests a man of his generation. The dismissiveness toward the question of ending Prohibition as both a good in itself and a form of tax revenue is, however, depressing. His answer was a non-answer. I'm tired of having the Prohibition issue treated as if it's trivial or a joke.
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Assessing The Obama Online Town Hall Meeting — I've been critical of the White House New Media office before, but I think they deserve kudos today for instigating and executing the President's first online town hall meeting. (Macon Phillips, the new media director, and Jesse Lee …
Discussion:
The Swamp
John Ward Anderson / The Politico:
Pot-related questions deluge W.H. — When the White House put out a call for town hall questions, it might not have been expecting this. — The more than 92,000 people who responded either have Cheech and Chong senses of humor or there is a deep concern in America — undetected by the media …
Discussion:
New York Times, The Huffington Post, CNN, Associated Press, The Sundries Shack, Booman Tribune, Ben Smith's Blog, Michelle Malkin, Weekly Standard, Atlas Shrugs, The Caucus, culturekitchen, Taylor Marsh, CBS News, Eunomia, Gadgetwise, The Swamp, Salon, FishBowlDC, Fausta's Blog and PoliGazette
Peter Hamby / CNN:
Palin's prayer remark angers former staffers — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Some of Sarah Palin's former campaign aides are frustrated with the Alaska governor for remarking in a lengthy, freewheeling speech that she had refused to pray with them before last October's vice presidential debate.
Discussion:
TPMDC, The Politico, Salon, Balloon Juice, Liberty Street, Political Machine, Hot Air, The Washington Independent and RedState
Wall Street Journal:
Democrats Bid Business Adieu — Barack Obama meets with a flock of nervous bankers at the White House tomorrow to reassure them he understands their interests. Good luck. There has always been tension between the Democratic Party and the private sector. That tension is over.
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Bachmann Introducing Bill to Ban Use of Made-Up Global Currency — The madness continues as Michele Bachmann introduces legislation that “would bar the dollar from being replaced by any foreign currency.” — What the Chinese were proposing, of course, was to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Discussion:
The Plum Line, CBS News, Political Machine, American Power, MoJo Blog Posts, The Bellows, Right Pundits, Reason, PoliGazette and Michele Bachmann
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Kevin Yamamura / Sacramento Bee:
Schwarzenegger says he's not running for another office — Kill the Arnold Schwarzenegger-for-U.S. Senate rumors - for now. — The Republican governor said Wednesday in his clearest language yet that he is not running for Senate, Congress or dogcatcher. — Schwarzenegger …
Discussion:
Swing State Project
Reuters:
Blundering Afghan suicide bomber blows up 6 militants — A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up on Thursday, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said. — “The terrorist was on his way to his destination …
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit
The New Republic:
Bill Kristol's Next Act — As post-Bush conservatives search for a new direction, Bill Kristol has teamed up with Robert Kagan to form a new think tank, The Foreign Policy Initiative. Here are their stated principles: — continued U.S. engagement—diplomatic, economic, and military …
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Christopher Buckley / Blogs and Stories:
The Audacity of Poping — D.C. Mystery: Who Did Nancy Pelosi's New Face? by Sandra McElwaine — Blogs and Stories — The much-married Newt Gingrich converts to Catholicism this weekend—and I'd pay a year's salary to have been a bug on the wall during his religious instruction.
Johnny Dollar / Olbermann Watch:
Howard Dean Says Don't Call a Sitting President ‘Fascist’—As He's Talking to Olbermann?!? — Did Dr Dean know whom he was talking to? We did, and this will serve as a little reminder to the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann that even his own guests think he is a sleazy creep:
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Geithner Endorses Naked Credit Default Swaps — [Editor's note: Marcy's liveblogging of Geithner's appearance before the House Financial Services Committee continues here. You can find her take on the morning session here.] — Today Joe Donnelly (D-IN) asked Timothy Geithner a simple question …
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James Barron / New York Times:
Art Dealer Is Charged With Stealing $88 Million — A noted Upper East Side art dealer has been indicted on charges he stole $88 million from investors and collectors who consigned artwork to him and said they were cheated out of the sale proceeds or never saw the pieces again, according to a person briefed on the case.
www.washingtonexaminer.com:
Expanded Americorps has an authoritarian feel — With almost no public attention, both chambers of Congress in the past week advanced an alarming expansion of the Americorps national service plan, with the number of federally funded community service job increasing from 75,000 to 250,000 at a cost of $5.7 billion.
Matthew Vadum / NewsBusters.org:
Podesta Plant at White House Presser — Brace Yourself for MSM Non-Outrage — Fair-minded conservatives were aghast in President George W. Bush's second term when the left-wing character assassination machine went into high gear to destroy Jeff Gannon. — Gannon, also known as James Dale Guckert …
Joe Dwinell / Boston Herald:
Deval Patrick tanks in new poll — + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email + Bio — A wave of voter disgust at business as usual on Beacon Hill has swamped Gov. Deval Patrick, dealing the first-term governor a devastating credibility blow that leaves his re-election hopes shaken, a new 7News poll has found.
Rachel Gordon / San Francisco Chronicle:
DEA raids pot dispensary in SF — (03-25) 22:05 PDT San Francisco — Federal agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco Wednesday, a week after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder signaled that the Obama administration would not prosecute distributors of pot used …
Ryan Powers / Think Progress:
Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama's — Yesterday, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and several other progressive groups began running ads urging “moderate” Democratic members of Congress to “get on board with the president's budget.”
Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:
JournoList Revealed! Inside the Secret Liberal Media Email Cabal — Michael Calderone's article on the large, secretive liberal media email group JournoList sparked a lot of debate—some of it in this space—on whether this group is a healthy development for coverage of politics.
Simon Johnson / The Atlantic Online:
The Quiet Coup — ONE THING YOU learn rather quickly when working at the International Monetary Fund is that no one is ever very happy to see you. Typically, your “clients” come in only after private capital has abandoned them, after regional trading-bloc partners have been unable to throw …
Washington Wire:
Politicization Charges at DOJ over Brazile Appearance — Evan Perez reports on the Justice Department. — New leadership at the Justice Department is aiming to erase memories of the highly-charged political controversies from the previous administration.
Discussion:
TPMMuckraker
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
The presidential endorsement — Obama does his first endorsement ad as president, ensuring (though this was likely anyway) that the New York race will be massively over-interpreted, whatever the outcome.