RNC “census” mailer offers phone sex number  —  A new entrant in the when-it-rains-it-pours category.  —  The Republican National Committee sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone-sex line offering “live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl …

Rep. Hank Johnson: Guam could ‘tip over and capsize’  —  Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) is afraid that the U.S. Territory of Guam is going to “tip over and capsize” due to overpopulation.  —  Johnson expressed his worries during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the defense budget Friday.

USA fumes over politics  —  WASHINGTON — Seven months before the midterm elections, Americans seem disaffected about nearly everything political.  —  A majority disapprove of both political parties, their leaders and most members of Congress, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Liberal group march meets pushback  —  A handful of liberal groups - but only a few dozen protesters — marched on the Republican National Committee offices Thursday to denounce the threats against members of Congress during the health care vote.  —  But in an oddly Washington moment …

A different kind of company name  —  Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google.  We've been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture.  Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM …

Anarchists Plan War On April 15th Tea Parties  —  WARNING: Be on the lookout-  —  Bring your cameras.  —  Violent anarchists are planning on infilitrating and sabotaging the Tea Party Protests on April 15th.  —  The Jawa Report posted this call to arms from the violent anarchists at Infowars today:

McCain: GOP hopes to sidestep veto in repeal efforts  —  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday backed a plan that he says would allow the Republicans to avoid a presidential veto while negating the effects of a new healthcare law.  —  The 2008 GOP presidential nominee backed a plan …

Returning the Census is Our Constitutional Duty  —  I'm worried about this year's census.  —  I'm not worried about ACORN rigging the count - we already succeeded in kicking them out of the census.  I'm not worried about the President's attempt to run the census out of the White House - we beat that power grab back last year.

Pope has immunity in abuse trials: Vatican  —  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, accused by victims' lawyers of being ultimately responsible for a cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests, cannot be called to testify at any trial because he has immunity as a head of state, a top Vatican legal official said on Thursday.

State of the Art: David Pogue's Review of the iPad  —  In 10 years of reviewing tech products for The New York Times, I've never seen a product as polarizing as Apple's iPad, which arrives in stores on Saturday.  —  “This device is laughably absurd,” goes a typical remark on a tech blog's comments board.

Study Claiming Link Between Stimulus Funding and Partisanship is Manifestly Flawed  —  A study purporting to find a connection between stimulus spending and the partisanship of a district suffers from an obvious flaw.  But in so doing, it provides an example of why it's important to retain …

Judge: Bush overstepped wiretapping authority  —  (03-31) 17:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has rejected the Bush administration's justification for warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists and ruled that federal agents had eavesdropped illegally on a U.S.-based Islamic charity.

The Best-Covered News Story, Ever  —  This week's On the Media laments the low quality of press coverage in health care reform.  It's certainly easy to find examples of shoddy journalism and public ignorance to bolster this charge.  Every night, one could watch cable TV screamers trafficking …

The Evangelical “Mainstream” Insanity Behind the Michigan “End Times” Militia  —  A federal prosecutor in Michigan says authorities decided to arrest members of the Hutaree Christian militia after learning “they were prepared to kill.”  —  When I first learned of the news I went …

Democrat Boxer warns colleagues: Don't take your seats for granted  —  Democratic incumbents must be wary of taking their seats for granted this election cycle, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Thursday.  —  Boxer, who's facing one of the most competitive election challenges in her own career …

The War on Terror-Bush Without the Stetson — By: Victor Davis Hanson  —  There is much to criticize about President Obama on foreign policy, but increasingly, despite all the “reset button” rhetoric and the obligatory nods to the Left, his anti-terrorism policies are becoming near identical extensions …

Those Ignorant, Racist Tea-Baggers; Meredith Shakes Her Broomstick  —  Those Ignorant, Racist Tea-Baggers  —  “The collective IQ of Searchlight, Nevada plunged over the weekend as the Tea Party Tart, Sarah Palin, brought her flannel-and-flapjacks followers to Harry Reid's hometown.

Barney Frank directs his staff not to talk to aide-turned-lobbyist  —  Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Thursday barred his staff from having any contact with an aide-turned-financial lobbyist.  —  In a statement, the House Financial Services Committee chairman said the normal one-year ban …

Snowe, Collins decline invitation to Obama event  —  Both Maine Senators declined the White House's invitation to attend President Obama's event in their home state today, according to White House spokesman Bill Burton.  —  Burton said the Maine Republicans decided not to attend Obama's healthcare speech in Portland, Maine.

SUDERMAN: Whimsical FCC encroaches on First Amendment rights  —  A doddering bureaucracy whose time has passed  —  As exercises in bureau-cratic hairsplitting go, it is tough to beat the sheer audacity of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's recent declaration …

Economics without mathematics  —  Justin Fox sums up the overwhelming majority of economics papers in one sentence: … What he doesn't (need to) mention is the way that journalists, myself included, read economics papers: we generally have no ability or inclination to try to understand …

White House mandates new fuel efficiency standards  —  The Obama administration finalized the first national rules curbing greenhouse gas emissions Thursday, mandating that the U.S. car and light-truck fleet reach an average fuel efficiency of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

Democratic operative Steve Hildebrand goes rogue  —  On a recent afternoon in his exposed-brick office, Steve Hildebrand coolly explains why his latest target is the woman down the hall.  —  “She voted against health care because she thought it was bad politically,” Hildebrand says …

Kingston cools rhetoric  —  The day after the U.S. House of Representatives passed an overhaul of the national health care system, U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-1, came out swinging against it and pledged to repeal it.  —  But on Wednesday, nine days later, he opted for a softer approach …

Exclusive: The new federal menu mandate meets the real world  —  Yesterday, I spent a little time at a local pizzeria to find out more about the impact of the new federal menu mandate in the real world.  Davanni's has 21 locations throughout the Twin Cities, a smaller, local chain …

An Electoral Majority for Obama?  —  Over the last two years, there has been a massive increase in the number of people who have no place to turn except to the government.  Enactment of the Obama administration's health care reform legislation demonstrates the growing power of this burgeoning constituency …