Top Items:
Jonathan Martin / Ben Smith's Blog:
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 …
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Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson worries loading too many people onto Guam could capsize the island — First, before you watch this short but remarkable video, a little background on Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson. — He's from Georgia's Fourth District. A Washington, D.C. native …
Discussion:
CNET News, American Power, Swampland, Indecision Forever, Left Coast Rebel, NewsBusters.org, Riehl World View and The Hill
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Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Hank Johnson Worries Guam Could “Capsize” After Marine Buildup
Hank Johnson Worries Guam Could “Capsize” After Marine Buildup
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel, neo-neocon, RedState, NO QUARTER, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Newsweek Blogs
Stephanie Condon / CBS News:
Obama: “I Can Go to My Right, but I Prefer My Left” — President Obama hit the basketball court and talked politics with CBS “Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith this morning. — Smith asked Mr. Obama, who is left-handed, if he can ever go to his right. — “I can go to my right, but I prefer my left,” the president says.
Rachel Slajda / TPMDC:
Three Congressmen Defy GOP Earmark Ban, Face Losing Committee Seats — Three Republican congressmen have defied their party's decision to ban all earmarks for one year, a move that could cost them their committee posts. — According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Reps. Anh “Joseph” …
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Jonathan Tilove / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Rep. Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao opts out of GOP moratorium on earmark requests
Rep. Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao opts out of GOP moratorium on earmark requests
Discussion:
Think Progress
Breitbart.tv:
'IT'S TROUBLESOME': OBAMA SLAMS BECK & LIMBAUGH FOR ‘THIS KIND OF VITRIOL’ — “It's pretty apparent.”
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
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 …
The Huffington Post:
Barney Frank Permanently Bans Staff From Communicating With Aide-Turned-Lobbyist — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has instituted a permanent ban on committee staff communication with Peter Roberson, an aide who left the panel …
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Rick Berman / The Politico:
Debt disaster dead ahead — When the credit rating agency Moody's announced recently that the United States had moved “substantially” closer to losing its AAA bond rating, it largely ran as a wire brief, buried in newspaper business sections. — But this obscure announcement may one day be regarded …
Philip Pullella / Reuters:
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.
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Erik Telford / Washington Times:
Barack isn't my Daddy — And Congress can't just rewrite the facts — In 1897, a bill was introduced in the Indiana General Assembly that attempted to legally redefine the value of pi (the mathematical ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter). The Indiana Pi Bill stands …
Jake Sherman / The Politico:
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 …
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit, Don Surber, American Power, Confederate Yankee, GayPatriot, Riehl World View and Weasel Zippers
Mark Bowden / Vanity Fair:
The Professor of War — At 57, General David Petraeus has revolutionized the way America fights its wars, starting with the surge in Iraq and continuing into his current command, with responsibility for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen. Charting Petraeus's relentless challenge …
Rep. Patrick McHenry / RedState:
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.
Discussion:
Think Progress, American Power, CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, Talking Points Memo and The Caucus
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John Collins Rudolf / New York Times:
More Struggling Borrowers Face Pay Garnishment — PHOENIX — When the bank sued Leann Weaver for not paying her credit card balance, her reaction was typical for someone in that situation. Personal and financial setbacks weighed her down, and she knew she owed the $2,470.
Discussion:
Calculated Risk
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
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 …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …, The New Republic, Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Paul Krugman, Progressive Fix and The Mahablog
Wall Street Journal:
Would the Founders Love ObamaCare? — The resistance to ObamaCare is about a lot more than the 10th Amendment. — The left-wing critics are right: The rage is not about health care. They are also right that similar complaints about big government were heard during the New Deal and the Great Society, and the sky didn't fall.
Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
New ProgressiveSpeak: Denial On Obama's Triangulation — Booman just can not accept that he is endorsing triangulation. So he invents a new definition - triangulation is NOT what Barack Obama does, even though it is exactly like triangulation: … All of this is a prelude to Booman tying himself …
Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times:
Abortion provider's killer is sentenced to life in prison — Scott Roeder is defiant in a Kansas courtroom as he receives a harsher sentence for shooting Dr. George Tiller in the face in 2009. — Scott Roeder sits in court Thursday. (Jeff Tuttle / Associated Press)
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
CNN:
Presidential spokesman who resigned over Nixon pardon dies — (CNN) - Jerald terHorst, who resigned as President Gerald Ford's press secretary just 30 days after taking the job because of the pardon Ford granted former President Richard Nixon, has died of congestive heart failure, his son said Thursday.
Discussion:
Politics Daily
Eric Zimmermann / The Hill:
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.
Discussion:
Talk Back South Florida!
Adam Serwer / American Prospect:
The Tea Party Of The Future. — I think Cato's Gene Healy is misjudging how integration works here while imagining the future of small government conservatism: … Healy's problem is he's looking into the future with a mind-set that the eroding tribal rivalries of the present will resemble today.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
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Hindustan Times:
Islamic groups block shaving contest — The banned Jamaat-ut Dawah (JuD) organisation, along with other religious parties in Karachi, have prevented the holding of a promotion event organised by a leading multinational company for its shaving razors by ransacking the venue.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
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.”
Dan Barry / New York Times:
Health Care for All, With Obama Down the Street — PORTLAND, Me. — First through the door of the Portland Community Health Center on Thursday morning was a stick figure of a man, oblivious to the homemade signs and the White House advance team across the street.
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Investigation Shows Ensign Appealed to Company — WASHINGTON — Senator John Ensign sought financial backing for a troubled Nevada energy company in 2008, and at the same time he urged the company to hire his mistress's husband, according to people involved in the matter.
Arnold Kling / National Review:
Break Up the Banks — Big banks are bad for free markets. Far from being engines of free enterprise, they are conducive to what might be called “crony capitalism,” “corporatism,” or, in Jonah Goldberg's provocative phrase, “liberal fascism.” There is a free-market case for breaking …