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Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire — · NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the court's current term. — The court has completed hearing oral arguments for the year and will be issuing rulings and opinions until the end of June.
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NBC: Souter to retire from Supreme Court — His retirement would give Obama his first chance to nominate a justice — WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire, after more than 19 years on the court, once the current term ends in late June, NBC News reported Thursday night.
Discussion:
The Politico, JONATHAN TURLEY, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Moderate Voice, CNN and Lawyers, Guns and Money


Souter Said to Be Leaving Court in June — WASHINGTON — Justice David H. Souter plans to retire at the end of the term in June, giving President Obama his first appointment to the Supreme Court, four people informed about the decision said Thursday night. — Justice Souter …
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Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias, Election Law, First Draft, Wonkette and The Volokh Conspiracy

Specter Defection Will Haunt Dems On Souter Replacement — News is breaking that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring. There will be a fight over his replacement, for sure. And Arlen Specter switching may have given Republicans a trump card to block an unacceptable replacement.
Discussion:
TigerHawk

Does Souter's silence on hiring mean he's leaving? — WASHINGTON (AP) — The case of the missing law clerks is this spring's most-watched mystery at the Supreme Court. — It could be, to borrow a page from Sherlock Holmes, the court's dog that didn't bark, offering a clue as to the retirement plans of Justice David Souter.
Discussion:
MyDD

A Few More Thoughts — Some stories, like the Souter retirement, mainly speak for themselves. Almost to a certainty we knew President Obama would get one or more nominations to the Court. With Souter being the first, it seems likely he'll get one or two more in his first term.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice


The CIA's $1,000 a Day Specialists on Waterboarding, Interrogations — The New Focus on Two Retired Military Psychologists Called the ‘Architects’ of the CIA's Techniques — As the secrets about the CIA's interrogation techniques continue to come out, there's new information about the frequency …
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ABC's Shame — ABC runs a report showing the names and faces of two CIA contractors who may have had a role in the waterboarding of KSM and Abu Zubaydah. The network apparently outsourced this report to a freelancer named Matthew Cole, whose record in Nexis includes just three bylines …


Bunning poised to retire — Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, the most endangered Republican up for reelection in 2010, appears headed for retirement after giving his leading GOP rival the blessing to prepare to run for his seat next year. — Bunning's retirement would be a huge victory …
Discussion:
The Fix, Lynn Sweet, The Caucus, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Don Surber, The Page, MyDD and The Plank

Tipping Point? — I think most of us can see that despite some painful setbacks, and likely more to come, time is definitely on the side of marriage equality in the United States. But are we hitting some sort of tipping point under a new administration and with a rush of recent successes in several states around the country?
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Quinnipiac University, Neuroworld, The Daily Dish, The Huffington Post and FiveThirtyEight
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Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana — ABC News-Washington Post Poll: 49 Percent Support Gay Marriage, New High — Support for gay marriage, legalizing illegal immigrants and decriminalizing marijuana all are at new highs.


New GOP ad: Do you feel safer? — House Republicans are using images of the Pentagon burning on 9/11 and President Obama's “bow” to the Saudi leader in a video that accuses the president of making America less safe in his first 100 days. — But the new video has already created blowback …

Our Obligation to Investigate — In President Obama's inaugural address, he declared that “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man …
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NRSC abandoning Toomey? — The National Republican Senatorial Committee is recruiting Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) to run for the Senate because it views Pat Toomey as unelectable against Sen. Arlen Specter, according to Gerlach's lead consultant. — According to Gerlach consultant Mark Campbell …
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Top Conservatives On Twitter FAIL — Ok, quick twitter post and then back to...serious...business. Several weeks ago, those of us who (for reasons unclear) communicate with friends, colleagues, and complete strangers on Twitter, began scratching our heads when we noticed various conservatives …
Discussion:
Politics Daily
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Senate Rejects Bankruptcy Bailout for Troubled Homeowners — ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports from Capitol Hill: On the same day that the White House announced that overextended Chrysler would go into a “quick” bankruptcy — its loans rewritten by a judge to emerge for life another day …
Discussion:
The Politico
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Tapper to Gibbs: Can you clarify Biden's moronic comment about subways? — Funny but mean in that it's a question designed simply to make Gibbs squirm. No one can “clarify” what Greasy Joe said because what he said was perfectly clear: He's freaked out about swine flu — needlessly …
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys, The Sundries Shack, No More Mister Nice Blog, TigerHawk, JustOneMinute and protein wisdom

Memo to President Obama on Torture — This memorandum is VIPS' first attempt to inform you on a major intelligence issue, as we did your predecessor; thus, some background might be helpful. — Five former CIA officers established Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) …

Obama's 100 Days Press Conference Draws 28.8M Viewers — Last night's primetime press conference to mark Barack Obama's 100th day in office was viewed by 28.8 million people in the U.S., according to The Nielsen Company. The event pulled an 18.8 household rating on 10 TV networks.
Discussion:
Michael Calderone's Blog
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Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild — Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter. — As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Hot Air, Politics Daily, Blue Crab Boulevard and NewsBusters.org

Petraeus: Next Two Weeks Critical to Pakistan's Survival — Gen. David Petraeus said he is looking for concrete action by the Pakistani government to destroy the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining the United States' next course of action. — FOXNews.com
Discussion:
ThreatsWatch

McLeroy confirmation blocked — The confirmation of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy is dead in the water, Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, said Thursday. — Jackson, chairman of the Senate Nominations Committee, said McLeroy will be left pending in committee …

Candidate for Georgia governorship says he'd kill his own son to secede — A longshot Georgia candidate for governor who's already admitted having sex with a mule before finding God says he's ready to sacrifice his own son in an effort to get his state to secede from the union.


A Chrysler Creditor Finds Himself Torn — Geoffrey Gwin is wrestling with the knowledge that the retirement plans of some 80,000 Americans may rest in his hands. — “I am in turmoil,” says Mr. Gwin, principal of the Group G Capital Partners LLC hedge funds in New York.

Pew: Church-Goers Like Torture More — They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them …
Discussion:
American Prospect

Senate Refuses to Let Judges Fix Mortgages in Bankruptcy — WASHINGTON — The Senate handed a victory to the banking industry on Thursday, defeating a Democratic proposal that would have given homeowners in financial trouble greater flexibility to renegotiate the terms of their mortgages.