Top Items:
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 …
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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 …
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Obama Jokes About Pot-Brained Online Audience — Says the President: “I don't know what this says about the online audience,” he says... “No, I don't think legalizing marijuana is a good way to grow our economy.” Incidentally, a White House spokesman says that Obama was not given …
Discussion:
The League of Ordinary …
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / The Caucus:
Obama's Interactive Town Hall Meeting — President Obama conducted an Internet version of the question and answer sessions he has been holding around the country on Thursday. The event was the latest example of efforts by the Obama team to replicate its creative use of the Internet during the election campaign.
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Swamp, Top of the Ticket, BuzzFlash.org, BBC, Political Punch, Washington Post, 24Ahead and Connecting.the.Dots
Michelle Malkin:
Obama's online townhall: What's really going on? Updated: Megalomania-palooza! — Scroll down for updates... At 11:30am Eastern, President Obama will conduct an “online townhall” on the economy. — At this moment, the White House website reports that “92,889 people have submitted 104,079 questions and cast 3,608,538 votes.”
The Politico:
GOP gloves off for budget brawl — House Republicans have begun unveiling detailed alternatives to President Barack Obama's policies — a concerted effort to push back against Democratic efforts to label them “the Party of No.” — On Wednesday, it was a housing plan.
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Elana Schor / TPMDC:House GOP Unveils Its Budget Shiny Packet of Goals
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Washington Monthly, The New Republic, GOP Leader Blog, MyDD and Talking Points Memo
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.
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
GOP Rep Michele Bachmann: Is Obama Plotting To Abandon Dollar As U.S. Currency? — GOP Rep Michele Bachmann, who is quite the colorful character, wants an answer: Is Obama secretly in favor of getting rid of the dollar and replacing it with a multi-national currency?
Dan Raviv / CBS News:
U.S. Accused Of Killing 39 In Sudan Strike — A government minister in Sudan is accusing the United States Air Force of killing dozens of people in that north African country this past January - but the semi-official American version of the story is very different.
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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.”
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Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
WSJ Says Bayh Wants to Shake Up Status Quo By Protecting Business Interests — Here's a curious report from The Wall Street Journal's Naftali Bendavid and Greg Hitt: … The presumption here being that over the past eight years, the political powerhouses in Washington were insufficiently solicitous …
Chicago Tribune:
Rahm Emanuel's profitable stint at mortgage giant — Short Freddie Mac stay made him at least $320,000 — Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up …
Discussion:
CBS News, Pat Dollard, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Right Wing News, Six Meat Buffet, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, The Swamp, pw, Sweetness & Light and The New Ledger
Eamon Javers / The Politico:
Geithner pulls his punches — The Obama administration's new financial reform proposal has been described as a sweeping step to crack down on Wall Street excesses, even denounced by critics as a “power grab.” But in fact, the administration didn't go as far as many on Wall Street expected …
Discussion:
The New Republic
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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 …
Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:
The Times Plans Temporary Pay Cuts — Facing a steep drop in revenue, The New York Times Company plans to cut the pay of most employees by 5 percent for nine months, in return for 10 days' leave, and will lay off 100 people and make other budget cuts, executives said on Thursday.
Josh Gerstein / The Politico:
Dems warn against first lady bill — House Republicans are pressing for a change in federal law that could force Michelle Obama and future first ladies to do more of their policy work in public. But Democrats warn President Obama may take the attempt personally “as an attack on his wife.”
Discussion:
TIME.com
Rep. Barney Frank / The Huffington Post:
Why I Called Justice Scalia A Homophobe — While responding to questions from journalists about my characterization of Justice Antonin Scalia as a homophobe, I realized that the fact that I made that comment in conjunction with a potential lawsuit about the Defense of Marriage Act created …
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.
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.
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 …
Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:
Learning How to Think — Ever wonder how financial experts could lead the world over the economic cliff? — One explanation is that so-called experts turn out to be, in many situations, a stunningly poor source of expertise. There's evidence that what matters in making a sound forecast …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, MoJo Blog Posts, Hullabaloo, DailyHowler.com, Sadly, No!, Multi Medium, Nicholas D. Kristof and Vox Popoli
Chris Johnson / Washington Blade:
McCain strategist endorses same-sex marriage — Schmidt urges GOP to be more welcoming of gays — Steve Schmidt, chief strategist for U.S. Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign, came out in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples in an interview with the Blade last week …
E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Cutting Deficit Will Require Tax Increases — The debate on the budget is phony, the howling on deficits a charade. Few politicians want to acknowledge that if you really are concerned about long-term deficits, you have to support tax increases. — That's why the most significant moment …
CNBC:
AIG London Execs: Returning Bonuses Is Blackmail — American International Group executives in Europe are adamant they should not have to return their controversial bonuses and some feel that pressure on them to do so may amount to blackmail, according to a company employee and internal emails.
Discussion:
TPMMuckraker, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, Firedoglake, Emptywheel and AMERICAblog News
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin: XXVII — She said she'd turned down some of the federal stimulus money: … No, she didn't say she did. … But she did: … But she didn't:
Discussion:
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!
BBC:
Iran accepts US Afghan invitation — Iran has agreed to attend a US-backed international conference on Afghanistan next week, but Washington played down the prospect of a high-profile meeting. — While US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also due to attend, the state department …
IPS Inter Press Service:
POLITICS-US: Neo-Con Ideologues Launch New Foreign Policy Group — A newly-formed and still obscure neo-conservative foreign policy organisation is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.
Discussion:
Wonk Room, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, The Washington Independent and ATTACKERMAN
Peter Foster / Telegraph:
US deploys warships as North Korea prepares to launch missile — The US has deployed two warships with anti-missile capabilities in the waters off Japan as tensions mount over North Korea's plans to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Alaska.
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