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 — Who needs Washington when you can have White Castle? Kal Penn's reps confirm that the actor will leave his post as Barack Obama's associate director of public engagement to return to his acting career.
Discussion:
Political Punch, Ezra Klein, Washington Wire, Politics Daily, Ben Smith's Blog, DCist, Beltway Confidential, The Hill and Gawker
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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Elizabeth Scalia / NPR:
Today, On Good Friday, Here's Why I Remain Catholic — text sizeAAA — Elizabeth Scalia is a contributing writer to First Things Magazine as the blogger known as The Anchoress. — The question has come my way several times in the past week: “How do you maintain your faith in light …
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:
PoliBlog, The Political Carnival, Mediaite, The Hill, Taylor Marsh, Atlas Shrugs and protein wisdom
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Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama stiffarms Limbaugh and Beck
Obama stiffarms Limbaugh and Beck
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Althouse, Riehl World View, The Swamp, The Moderate Voice and Daily Kos
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:
Confederate Yankee, RedState, YID With LID, Left Coast Rebel, Power Line, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Mudville Gazette and HotAirPundit
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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
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
BREAKTHROUGH MONTH FOR U.S. JOB MARKET.... For a year, the most common Republican talking point on the economy has been a straightforward, four-word question: “Where are the jobs?” In light of the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released this morning, the GOP may need a new argument.
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Javier C. Hernandez / New York Times:
U.S. Adds 162,000 Jobs in March; Rate Remains 9.7%
U.S. Adds 162,000 Jobs in March; Rate Remains 9.7%
Discussion:
Economy Watch, FiveThirtyEight, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The Moderate Voice, Newsweek Blogs, Firedoglake, The Caucus, Lynn Sweet, Economix, New Deal 2.0, The Plum Line, Wonkette, Michelle Malkin, Questions and Observations, Taegan Goddard's …, PoliBlog and DISSENTING JUSTICE
GOP.com:
Unacceptable — New Jobs Report Shows Disappointing Results …
Unacceptable — New Jobs Report Shows Disappointing Results …
Discussion:
Media Matters Action Network, Think Progress, ABCNEWS, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Climate Progress and The Gavel
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
Blazing Cat Fur:
Palestine House Thugs Screams “You need another Holocaust” — Update1: We have a new Camel Girl! Meet Denise Balkissoon crack reporter for the Toronto Star — Update2: Frumpy has the video - “We love jihad. We love killing you.” — Partial transcript: — JDL Guy: “No more jihad.”
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) — I've spent ten years now on Boing Boing, finding cool things that people have done and made and writing about them. Most of the really exciting stuff hasn't come from big corporations with enormous budgets, it's come from experimentalist amateurs.
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.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, Mediaite, Crooks and Liars, NewsBusters.org, Erick's blog and The Impolitic
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.
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:
Hullabaloo, Firedoglake, Questions and Observations, Gawker, The Hill, Mediaite, Balloon Juice, Swampland and The Washington Independent
Robert Weisman / Boston Globe:
Mass. rejects proposed health care premiums hikes — Making good on Governor Deval Patrick's promise to reject health insurance rate hikes deemed excessive, the state Division of Insurance this morning turned down 235 of 274 increases proposed by Massachusetts health insurers for small businesses and individuals.
the CNN Wires / CNN:
Extremist group demands governors resign, FBI says — Washington (CNN) — A domestic extremist group has sent letters to more than 30 U.S. governors demanding they resign, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said in an intelligence note. — The note, dated Monday …
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs
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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, New York Times, And So it Goes in Shreveport, The Monkey Cage, Mediaite, TPM LiveWire, Fausta's Blog, Hot Air, Don Surber, The Political Carnival, NewsBusters.org, The Impolitic, HotAirPundit, The Lonely Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, American Power, Joe. My. God., Gateway Pundit, Washington Monthly, Scared Monkeys, JammieWearingFool, Washington Post, Babalú Blog, Shakesville, Ruby Slippers, Weasel Zippers and Another Black Conservative
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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.
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.
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
Barbara Boxer Blog:
Welcome President Obama to LA — I hope you've already heard the news: — President Barack Obama is coming to Los Angeles on Monday, April 19 for an event to support my reelection campaign! — I'm really looking forward to the President's visit, and I want to invite you to join us.