Top Items:
Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
Communications Corruption at the White House — The communications team at the White House has an extremely difficult job — and I admire how hard Ben Rhodes, Bill Burton, Tommy Vietor, and of course Robert Gibbs and others work to connect the President's policy direction with a communications effort that furthers the Obama agenda.
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CNN:
Report: Actor to leave Obama administration — The White House wouldn't confirm a report Friday that actor Kal Penn is leaving the Obama administration. — Washington (CNN) - The White House isn't confirming a report that actor Kal Penn is leaving the Obama administration.
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
Nicole Sperling / Hollywood Insider:
Kal Penn returns from Washington for Christmas-themed ‘Harold & Kumar’ movie
Kal Penn returns from Washington for Christmas-themed ‘Harold & Kumar’ movie
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Washington Wire, Ezra Klein, Political Punch, Ben Smith's Blog, DCist, The Hill and Gawker
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Limbaugh responds to Obama: ‘Never in my life have I seen a regime like this’ — In his new interview with CBS, President Obama refers to the “troublesome” talk and “vitriol” of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. “Keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out,” Obama says.
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Political Carnival, PoliBlog, Taylor Marsh, The Hill, Atlas Shrugs and protein wisdom
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CBS News:
Obama: Extreme Right-Wing Shows “Troublesome” — Tells Harry Smith He's Concerned about “Demonization” in Politics; Calls on Dems, GOP Alike to “Tone Down” Rhetoric — (CBS) President Obama has noticed the “vitriol” in the nation's political atmosphere these days and says it's time both sides cooled it.
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama stiffarms Limbaugh and Beck
Obama stiffarms Limbaugh and Beck
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Althouse, Riehl World View, The Moderate Voice, The Swamp and Daily Kos
CBS News:
Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Low — Posted by Tucker Reals 15 comments - Share - - - Share - E-mail - Print - Font Last week, President Obama signed historic health care reform legislation into law — but his legislative success doesn't seem to have helped his image with the American public.
Javier C. Hernandez / New York Times:
U.S. Adds 162,000 Jobs in March; Rate Remains 9.7% — The American economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported Friday, in a month when the government hired thousands of temporary census workers. — Multimedia — The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent …
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
BREAKTHROUGH MONTH FOR U.S. JOB MARKET.... For a year …
BREAKTHROUGH MONTH FOR U.S. JOB MARKET.... For a year …
Discussion:
AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, American Power, skippy the bush kangaroo, Taylor Marsh, The Atlantic Online and THEROOT.COM
Timothy R. Homan / Bloomberg:
U.S. Economy: Gain in Payrolls Shows Recovery More Entrenched
U.S. Economy: Gain in Payrolls Shows Recovery More Entrenched
Discussion:
Think Progress
New York Times:
At Vatican Service, Persecution of Jews Is Invoked — ROME — A senior Vatican priest speaking at a Good Friday service compared the uproar over sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church — which have included reports about Pope Benedict XVI's oversight role in two cases …
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Stephen Hudak / Orlando Sentinel:
Mount Dora doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere — (Photo by Deirdre Lewis / April 1, 2010) — MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care “elsewhere.”
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, TPM LiveWire, Don Surber, The Monkey Cage, Mediaite, Hot Air, And So it Goes in Shreveport, The Jawa Report, Fausta's Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, The Impolitic, The Political Carnival, NewsBusters.org, American Power, Washington Monthly, Scared Monkeys, HotAirPundit, JammieWearingFool, Joe. My. God., Ruby Slippers, Another Black Conservative, Babalú Blog, Shakesville, Washington Post and Weasel Zippers
RELATED:
ZIP / Weasel Zippers:
Black Dem Rep. Who Was Reportedly Spit on by Tea Party Protester: I Never Claimed to Have Been Spit on Intentionally, Others Are Making the Claim on My Behalf, Refuses to Confirm it Happened.. (Update) He's Full of S**t... More proof this claim is 100% bulls**t.
Discussion:
Power Line, YID With LID, Left Coast Rebel, RedState, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative and HotAirPundit
RELATED:
Jack Cashill / American Thinker:
How Quickly Spread the Tea Party Smear
How Quickly Spread the Tea Party Smear
Discussion:
Doug Ross, Big Government, Gateway Pundit, NewsBusters.org, Riehl World View and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Erickson: I'll 'pull out my wife's shotgun' if someone comes to my door for the American Community Survey. — Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) took to the conservative blog RedState to call out “blatant misinformation coming from otherwise well-meaning conservatives” about this year's Census.
Bill Liss / WXIA-TV:
Anti-Obama Billboards Appear on Metro Highways — ATLANTA — One group is taking freedom of speech and freedom of expression to the limits in a series of Metro Atlanta highway billboards voicing strong opinions against President Barack Obama. — The billboards are the latest move to sway public opinion …
Dan Quayle / Washington Post:
Don't let the tea party go Perot — Like many influential causes before it, the “tea party” movement appeared on the scene uninvited by the political establishment. Democrats in the White House and in Congress recognize it for what it is — a spontaneous and pointed response to the Obama agenda …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Hullabaloo, Questions and Observations, Gawker, The Hill, Mediaite, Balloon Juice, Swampland and The Washington Independent
Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:
An Absurdist Take On “Both Sides” — Charles Lane compares the radicalism of white supremacists with the radicalism of escaped slaves: … Lane is referencing, in rather disrespectful fashion, the awesome Shadrach Minkins. A Norfolk-area slave, Minkins' unthinking extremism deluded him into believing that he was a human being.
ABCNEWS:
FBI Warns Extremist Letters Might Encourage Violence — FBI warns extremist letters to more than 30 governors may encourage violence — The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence by others.
RELATED:
the CNN Wires / CNN:
Extremist group demands governors resign, FBI says
Extremist group demands governors resign, FBI says
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs
Felix Gillette / New York Observer:
Inside the CNN Stockroom: Network Recently Shot Pilot Staring MSNBC's Shuster and NPR's Martin — Amid the recent news of CNN's rough first quarter, there's been much speculation about what CNN U.S. chief Jon Klein should do to revitalize the cable news network's line up.
Discussion:
Mediaite, NewsBusters.org, Michael Calderone's Blog, Media Decoder and The Political Carnival
Byron York / Associated Press:
Obamacare was mainly aimed at redistributing wealth — It hasn't attracted much notice, but recently some prominent advocates of Obamacare have spoken more frankly than ever before about why they supported a national health care makeover. It wasn't just about making insurance more affordable.
Calculated Risk:
Employment-Population Ratio, Part Time Workers, Unemployed over 26 Weeks — Here are a few more graphs based on the employment report ... Employment-Population Ratio — The Employment-Population ratio ticked up slightly to 58.6% in March, after plunging since the start of the recession.
John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Sen. Corker Clarifies: Repeal Isn't Going to Happen after “This Election Cycle” — John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and most Republicans say that the GOP platform is to repeal Obamacare (or “repeal and replace it with real reform"). Yuval Levin argues in this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD that …
Lindsay Beyerstein / AlterNet.org:
Trendy Fashion Buys Reimbursed as “Office Supplies” to RNC Finance Officials — For one Republican National Committee official, a spin through a trendy clothing boutique racked up hundreds in “office supplies,” all billed to party donors. And there's more.
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blog:
Payback — Remember when Rudy Giuliani was counting on Gov. Charlie Crist's endorsement in the GOP prez primary? As Mark Halperin and John Heilemann recounted in “Game Change,” it was a big f'ing deal at the time and the Rudy folks had a plan mapped out on how they would maximize their expected get.
New York Times:
The Myth of Mean Girls — IF nine South Hadley, Mass., high school students — seven of them girls — are proved to have criminally bullied another girl who then committed suicide, as prosecutors have charged, they deserve serious legal and community condemnation.
Discussion:
pandagon.net, Feministe, psychologytoday.com, Motherlode, Latest Open Salon Blog and Joanne Jacobs
Bill Hutchinson / NY Daily News:
Birthday bash for ‘dying’ Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi sickens crash victims' kin — The Lockerbie bomber celebrated his 58th birthday on Thursday at a Libyan mansion, defying the imminent death Scottish officials predicted when they compassionately freed him from prison nearly eight months ago.