Top Items:
Chicago Breaking News:
Blagojevich, his brother, top aides indicted — Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother, and a former top fundraiser were among six men indicted today on political corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced. — In addition to Rob Blagojevich, 53 …
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Natasha Korecki / Chicago Sun Times:
Blagojevich, brother indicted — A federal grand jury today has lodged sweeping corruption charges against the brother of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich as well as the former governor himself. — Also charged as co-defendants were Alonzo Monk, Blagojevich's former chief of staff; John Harris …
Discussion:
Doug Ross
WBBM-TV:
FEDS INDICT EX-GOV. BLAGOJEVICH — Five Aides, Including Blagojevich's Brother, Also Charged In Sweeping Indictment — CHICAGO (CBS) ― Disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is on a resort vacation in Florida, was indicted today on a host of federal corruption charges dating back to 2002 even before he was sworn in as governor.
Clarice Feldman / American Thinker:
Obama bows down to Saudi King (updated) — I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a President of the United States. — Update: See Miss Manners on the protocol. Americans do not bow to foreign monarchs because that act signified the monarch's power over his subjects.
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Michelle Malkin:
Video: Obama's deep bow to the Saudi king — I have expressed my disgust many times over the years with the Bush administration's kowtowing to Saudi Arabia. That notorious image of Bush holding hands with Saudi royalty in 2005 and doing sword dances with Wahabbists in 2008 sparked outrage on both the left and the right.
Eric Boehlert / Media Matters for America:
The media's giftgate — I know, my head hurts, too, reading the ‘coverage.’ (I'm waiting for some reporter to combine the gift ‘story’ with a detailed description of what Michelle Obama was wearing when she gave the Queen of England the gift.) — Aside from the fact that key facts …
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Valentine Low / Times of London:
Queen and Michelle Obama - the story behind a touching moment — G20: live blog | Analysis: summit brinkmanship| Interactive map and G20 background | How G20 works | Blog: who's missing from the family photo? Video: The Queen meets her 11th President
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Anonymous Liberal, The Lede, The Swamp, The New Republic, On Deadline and Fox News
Howard Chua-Eoan / Time:
The Queen and Mrs. Obama: Did the First Lady Break Protocol? — Michelle Obama with Queen Elizabeth II during an audience at Buckingham Palace — The rules are set in stone and so the eagerly watching British media sputtered when the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Hot Air, five feet of fury, Flopping Aces, The Democratic Daily, Democracy in America, Guardian and marbury
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Michelle Obama's Favorable Rating Eclipses Her Husband's
Michelle Obama's Favorable Rating Eclipses Her Husband's
Discussion:
Times of London, Townhall.com, Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air, Comments from Left Field and Althouse
Jimmy Vielkind / Politicker NY:
Tedisco Now Leading By 12 — As of 4:30 p.m. on April 2. — ALBANY—Now it's Tedisco by 12! — As voting machines are re-canvassed, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco has picked up 37 votes, evaporating Democrat Scott Murphy's lead in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress …
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Peter Hamby / CNN:
Gingrich warns of third party in 2012 — (CNN) — Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is warning of a third party mutiny in 2012 if Republicans don't figure out a way to shape up. — “If the Republicans can't break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would …
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Media Matters for America:
April Fools: Ann Coulter falls for fake Obama NASCAR story … In her April 1 column, Ann Coulter fell for a fake April Fools' Day article by Car and Driver magazine that claimed that President Obama has ordered General Motors and Chrysler to cease their participation in NASCAR because it is an “unnecessary expenditure.”
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Think Progress, The Huffington Post, USA Today and Los Angeles Times
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Detention at Afghan Base Is Subject to U.S. Courts — WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday ruled that some prisoners held by the American military in Afghanistan have a constitutional right to challenge their imprisonment in United States civilian courts, delivering a rebuke to a claim …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
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Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
Judge: Bagram prisoners can challenge detention
Judge: Bagram prisoners can challenge detention
Discussion:
Hot Air, American Prospect, And So it Goes in Shreveport, QandO, Washington Monthly, PoliGazette and The Politico
Pew Research Center:
Public Knows Basic Facts About Financial Crisis — More Know Unemployment Rate than Dow Average — The latest Pew Research Center News IQ survey finds the American public reasonably well-informed about a number of basic facts pertaining to the current economic situation.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Business Channel, Swampland, MoJo Blog Posts, Washington Monthly and The Campaign Spot
Fox News:
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S. — While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico. — FOXNews.com
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Tobacco regulation approved by House — The House today voted to give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented powers to regulate the tobacco industry, after years of crusading by anti-smoking groups for the government to exert more control. — The measure would allow the FDA to reject …
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Blue Texan / Firedoglake:
Eric Cantor Predicts GOP House Takeover in 2010 — Heee-larious. … Keep praising super unpopular public figures, Eric. Electoral gold. … Exactly. — What we really need right now are forward-thinking, out-of-the-box, truly untried and innovative policies, like tax cuts.
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Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Cantor: Feds ‘overreacting’ to crisis [UPDATED]
Cantor: Feds ‘overreacting’ to crisis [UPDATED]
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, The Plum Line, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News, D-Day, Oliver Willis, PoliticalBase.com Blog and TPMDC
Terry Frieden / CNN:
Deadline nears for release of ‘torture documents’ — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Administration officials faced a close-of-business deadline Thursday to decide whether to release Justice Department legal memos from 2005 that guided the CIA on what “enhanced interrogation” techniques it could use against suspected terrorists.
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Peter Hamby / CNN:
Terry McAuliffe not laughing at Huckabee joke — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Terry McAuliffe, the jovial former chairman of the Democratic National Committee now running for governor in Virginia, is not laughing at one of Mike Huckabee's jokes. — During a recent appearance on behalf of Bob McDonnell …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
cbpp.org:
Lincoln-Kyl Estate Tax Amendment is Both Unnecessary and Unaffordable — Senators Blanche Lincoln and Jon Kyl will offer an amendment to the Senate budget resolution to substantially weaken the estate tax, by going well beyond President Obama's proposal to make the 2009 estate tax rules permanent.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, PERRspectives, Salon, Think Progress, Washington Post and Washington Monthly
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Dana Goldstein / American Prospect:
WHO'S MISSING FROM THE G-20 PHOTO OP? — The male spouses, that's who. Check out this photograph of the G-20 spouses. Conspicuously absent are Néstor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina and husband of that nation's current leader, Cristina Kirchner, as well as Joachim Sauer …
David M. Halbfinger / City Room:
Paterson Bids Rush Limbaugh Farewell — Rush Limbaugh is fed up with taxes in New York and with Gov. David A. Paterson in particular. The radio talk-show host denounced the so-called millionaires' tax in the new state budget and then announced on the air this week that he would be packing up and leaving town.
Discussion:
Salon
Quinnipiac University:
Dodd Falls Way Behind As Approval Drops To Lowest Ever, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Voters Are Angry At AIG Bonuses And Blame Dodd — Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd trails former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, a possible Republican challenger, 50 - 34 percent in the 2010 Senate race …
Discussion:
CBS News, FiveThirtyEight, Taegan Goddard's …, Democracy in America, Swing State Project, MyDD, Clusterstock, Hot Air, Scorecard's Blog, Poll Tracker, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Washington Independent, AmSpecBlog, Hotline On Call, The Fix, TPMDC, Daily Kos, Truthdig and Washington Wire
Megan McArdle:
Department of awful statistics — Every time you find yourself saying that there must be some causal relationship between two strongly correlated variables, you should go back and look at this graph: — As Atlantic Business contributor Derek Lowe, from whom I stole that graph, notes,
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Bricka Bracka Firecracker, Sis Boom Bah! — The century-old Russell Senate Office Building, a palace of marble and granite where lawmakers have examined everything from the Titanic to Watergate, is not ordinarily a spot for political rallies. But these are not ordinary times.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Note and Cato @ Liberty
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Nihilism And Gay Marriage — Sometimes you can't say it better than the people who are going through it. From Andrew, who I will quote at length: … That last point about paranoia is key, and it really defines, not just anti-Semitism, but bigotry itself.
Jerusalem Post:
Army searches for Bat Ayin terrorist — Article's topics: Terror Attack, Bat Ayin, West Bank, Gideon Ezra, IDF — The army has “a lead” in the search for the perpetrator of the deadly terror attack in Bat Ayin in which 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ was murdered and another boy, 7, was wounded, an IDF officer said Thursday.