Top Items:
Nina Totenberg / NPR:
Sources: Sen. Stevens Conviction To Be Voided — Audio for this story will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET — · NPR's has learned that the Justice Department will drop all charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. — A jury convicted Stevens last fall of seven counts …
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Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Some in Justice Department See D.C. Vote in House as Unconstitutional — Holder Overrode Ruling That Measure Is Unconstitutional — Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional …
Anchorage Daily News:
Attorney general drops Stevens prosecution — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved to dismiss former Sen. Ted Stevens' indictment this morning, effectively voiding his Oct. 27 conviction on seven counts of filing false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.The decision …
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
U.S. to Drop Case Against Ex-Senator From Alaska
U.S. to Drop Case Against Ex-Senator From Alaska
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, AlterNet.org, Colorado Independent, Reason, Vanity Fair and ProPublica
Paul D. Ryan / Wall Street Journal:
The GOP's Alternative Budget — President Obama offers us the option of European big government. — Today, the House of Representatives will consider two budget plans that represent dramatically different visions for our nation's future. — We will first consider President Barack Obama's plan.
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
A BUDGET PERFECT FOR APRIL FOOLS' DAY.... Rumor has it that Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, is one of the House GOP Caucus' sharper members. He has a reputation for knowing what he's talking about, and doing his homework.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Reassuringly the Same — I realize that it doesn't afford me a lot of opportunities for personal or spiritual growth. But I'm nonetheless comforted by the fact that the Republicans running things in the House GOP caucus are still as clinically insane as in years past.
Toby Harnden's blog listings:
Barack Obama's gift for the Queen: an iPod, your Majesty — Barack Obama met the Queen at Buckingham Palace today and gave her a gift of an iPod loaded with video footage and photographs of her 2007 United States visit to Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg in Virginia.
Discussion:
The New Republic, BBC, NY Daily News, The Foundry, Gawker, AMERICAN DIGEST, Right Wing News, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and Political Machine
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Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
Obama's Gift to the Queen — This just in: Diplomatic jaws dropped across the continent yesterday when it was revealed that U.S. President Barack Obama had, once again, fumbled a routine protocal of international statecraft: finding the right gift for a foreign leader or head of state.
Alistair MacDonald / Real Time Economics:
Obama Wades Into Murky Waters of Diplomatic Protocol — The goods news out of London is that Barack Obama has reaffirmed America's “special relationship” with the U.K. The bad news is that the “affinity and kinship” that the U.S. president spoke of apparently only extends to England.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Democrats Predict 210-Vote Victory in NY-20 — Venture capitalist Scott Murphy (D) will win the special election in New York's 20th district by 210 votes after all outstanding absentee and military ballots are counted, according to projections made by Democratic Party officials and obtained by the Fix.
Discussion:
Swing State Project, Salon, Politicker NY, Taegan Goddard's …, PoliticalBase.com Blog and MyDD
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The Politico:
In NY20 race: no winner, one loser
In NY20 race: no winner, one loser
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Michael Barone, The New Republic, Raw Story and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Jeremy Jacobs / The Hill:
GOP: Democrats trying to ‘steal’ NY-20
GOP: Democrats trying to ‘steal’ NY-20
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Joe the Plumber stumped on Employee Free Choice Act: 'I don't know everything about everything.' — Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” is currently in Pennsylvania shilling against the Employee Free Choice Act on behalf of the anti-labor group Americans for Prosperity.
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Joe The Plumber Admits He Knows “Little” About EFCA, Gets Jeered By Workers — Oof. Looks like Joe the Plumber's campaigning against the Employee Free Choice Act in Pennsylvania didn't go so well. — Mr. Plumber, whose appearances were organized by the anti-EFCA group Americans for Prosperity …
Michael Morrill / Keystone Progress Blog:
Joe the “Plumber” Shills Against the Employee Free Choice Act in PA
Joe the “Plumber” Shills Against the Employee Free Choice Act in PA
Tom Woodruff / The Huffington Post:
Depression in California's Inland Empire Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act
Depression in California's Inland Empire Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act
Discussion:
Calitics
Andrew Walden / Front Page Magazine:
Barack Obama: Born in Hawaii — A fairly impressive internet industry has sprung up claiming that Obama was born in either Kenya or Indonesia. This is nonsense which distracts from the broadly unexplored story of Obama's upbringing. This kind of nonsense has emerged because the McCain campaign chose …
Discussion:
pw
Guardian:
Twitter switch for Guardian — • Newspaper to be available only on messaging service — • Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters — Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become …
Carrie Dann / National Journal Online:
Public's Sound And Fury Over Budget Are As Deafening As ‘Crickets Chirping’ — With President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget hitting the House and Senate floors this week, groups for and against the spending plan have issued strong appeals for citizens to pick up their phones and let their voices be heard on Capitol Hill.
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Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
FIRST THOUGHTS: ALL TIED UP — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
FIRST THOUGHTS: ALL TIED UP — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
Calvin Woodward / Associated Press:
PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama tax pledge up in smoke — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - One of President Barack Obama's campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday. — The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's promise …
Joseph E. Stiglitz / New York Times:
Obama's Ersatz Capitalism — THE Obama administration's $500 billion or more proposal to deal with America's ailing banks has been described by some in the financial markets as a win-win-win proposal. Actually, it is a win-win-lose proposal: the banks win, investors win — and taxpayers lose.
Discussion:
MoJo Blog Posts
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
So Erick Erickson Says He Wants a Revolution — Erick Erickson is mad as hell and asks “at what point do people revolt?” … At issue here is . . . an environmental regulation relating to dishwasher detergent. — I think it's safe to say that we're not going to see violence in the streets over this one.
Jason Clayworth / Des Moines Register:
BREAKING NEWS: Hundreds of Iowans thrown out of public hearing — More than 500 people who are upset with a plan to change Iowa's tax laws were cleared from a hearing tonight at the Iowa House after they interrupted multiple times. — House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque …
Discussion:
Sweetness & Light
Fox News:
Koh, No? Critics Decry Obama Nominee for State Department Legal Adviser — Harold Koh, President Obama's pick to become one of the State Department's top lawyers, has ignited fury among critics who say his legal views are a threat to American democracy. — FOXNews.com
Bloggingheads.tv:
go to forum — Re: Oral Twittering (Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus) — Another blow to the Fire Mickey Kaus agenda? — Re: Oral Twittering (Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus) — I think the air went out of the Ezra Klein balloon when he was able to keep a straight face while claiming …
Discussion:
Kausfiles
Think Progress:
Fox & Friends Embraces O'Reilly Harassment Tactics, Sends Producer To Stalk College Professor — This morning, Fox and Friends praised producer Griff Jenkins for stalking and ambushing Columbia University professor Alan Brinkley to grill him on portions of his book Jenkins found objectionable.
Discussion:
Media Matters for America
Will Collier:
What Is The Tea Party Manifesto? — Lefties have assiduously tried to paint the Tea Party movement as an “astroturf” campaign orchestrated behind the scenes by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (notably in the retracted bogus Playboy story about the Koch Foundation; despite the retraction …
CNBC:
Job Losses at 742,00 in March; Planned Layoffs Fall — Job losses in the U.S. private sector accelerated in March, more than economists' expectations, according to a report by ADP Employer Services Wednesday. — Private employers cut jobs by a record 742,000 in March versus a 706,000 revised cut …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Community Forum / HALFWAY TO CONCORD:
Tauscher to wed bin-Laden — (Reuters) Congresswoman and soon to be Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher (D-Alamo), shocked national and international diplomacy and fashion circles today when she announced she would wed Osama bin-Laden in a wedding to be held at a secret location in Nairobi this June.
Discussion:
Firedoglake