Top Items:
Michelle Malkin:
A gaffetastic new Miss USA — She nearly tripped over her gown. — She called birth control a “controlled substance.” — She argued that contraceptives should be covered by health insurers because they are “expensive” — and then said you could get them for “free” from your OB/GYN's office.
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Daniel Pipes:
Affirmative Action in Beauty Contests? — News that Rima Fakih, 24, of Dearborn, Michigan, won the Miss USA beauty pageant today prompts me to recall some prior instances of Muslim women winning beauty contests in Western countries. … Juliette Boubaaya, 19, was Mlle Picardie in 2009.
Discussion:
Right Now, Detroit Free Press, TPM LiveWire, Guardian, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Swampland, Talking Points Memo and The New Republic
Debbie Schlussel:
Donald Trump, Dhimmi: Miss Hezbollah Rima Fakih Wins Miss USA; Rigged for Muslima? Miss Oklahoma's Arizona Immigration Answer — It's a sad day in America but a very predictable one, given the politically correct, Islamo-pandering climate in which we're mired.
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, alicublog, Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Jesus' General and Emptywheel
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CONSERVATIVES FIND GREAT IMPORTANCE IN MISS USA PAGEANT.... Who knew political conservatives cared so deeply about a beauty pageant? — Last week, organizers of the Miss USA pageant published promotional photos recently of contestants wearing lingerie. Fox News' Sean Hannity and Rep. Louie Gohmert …
Oskar Garcia / Associated Press:
Arab-American from Michigan crowned 2010 Miss USA — LAS VEGAS - A 24-year-old Arab American from Michigan beat out 50 other women to take the 2010 Miss USA title Sunday night, despite nearly stumbling in her evening gown. — Rima Fakih of Dearborn, Mich., won the pageant …
Peter Beinart / New York Review of Books:
The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment — In 2003, several prominent Jewish philanthropists hired Republican pollster Frank Luntz to explain why American Jewish college students were not more vigorously rebutting campus criticism of Israel. In response, he unwittingly produced …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, ATTACKERMAN, The Atlantic Online, Tablet Magazine, Maggie's Farm, Mondoweiss, Israel Matzav, Newsweek Blogs, AmSpecBlog, Democracy in America, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Matthew Yglesias, Mother Jones, The Washington Note, Ben Smith's Blog, The Huffington Post, Swampland, The Other McCain and Newshoggers.com
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Quinnipiac University:
Specter-Sestak Dem Primary Down To The Wire, Quinnipiac University Pennsylvania Poll Finds; Onorato Leads Dem Governor Primary — The Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary goes down to the wire with U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak taking 42 percent of likely primary voters to Sen. Arlen Specter's 41 percent …
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
White House bracing for Arlen Specter loss? — If this is true, it's significant: CBS chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer is now saying that he has it on good authority that the White House is privately bracing for Arlen Specter to lose tomorrow. — Schieffer, to my knowledge, has not said this on national TV yet.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Daily Beast, CBS3.com, Ballot Box, Swampland, New York Times, Politics Daily, Taegan Goddard's …, Open Left, AmSpecBlog, Philly.com, Time and Raw Story
Jesse J. Holland / ABCNEWS:
Court: Sexually Dangerous Can Be Kept in Prison — Supreme Court says federal officials can indefinitely hold sexually dangerous prisoners — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal officials can indefinitely hold inmates considered “sexually dangerous” after their prison terms are complete.
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Laura Rozen / Laura Rozen's Blog:
Wrinkles with Iran fuel deal — Two potential problems have emerged with the nuclear fuel swap deal that Iran agreed with Brazil and Turkey Sunday and announced today. — Under the agreement (available here), Iran has essentially accepted the October 2009 fuel swap deal …
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Michael Slackman / New York Times:
Uranium Offer by Iran May Hinder Efforts on Sanctions
Uranium Offer by Iran May Hinder Efforts on Sanctions
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, RubinReports, Commentary, The Washington Independent, The Page and FrumForum
Glynnis MacNicol / Mediaite:
Too Far? Family Guy's Vietnam Veterans Memorial ‘Joke’ — It's not a secret that Family Guy is famous for its offensiveness and tendency to cross the politically correct line. That said, I suspect they may be called upon to issue some sort of apology after tonight's episode (not that they will …
CNN:
Obama doesn't take questions at Freedom of Press Act signing — Obama declined to answer questions at bill signing for the Freedom of Press Act. — Washington (CNN) - After the signing of the Freedom of Press Act on Monday, President Obama declined to take any questions from the press.
Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
Interior official who oversees offshore drilling for MMS resigns — The top Interior Department official who oversees offshore oil and gas drilling for the Minerals Management Service will retire on May 31, The Washington Post has learned. — Chris Oynes, who oversaw oil and gas leasing …
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
GINGRICH, MEET GODWIN.... It was the latest in a series of reminders that this is nothing — literally, nothing — that a far-right media personality can say to be driven from polite American society. — Disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), inexplicably one of the nation's …
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Rebecca Mead / New Yorker:
Andrew Breitbart's empire of bluster. — On Sunday, March 21st, the day that the House voted to pass health-care reform, Andrew Breitbart, the conservative Internet entrepreneur, was thousands of miles away, at home in Westwood, a neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Rowan Hooper / New Scientist:
Bat fellatio causes a scandal in academia — University College Cork in Ireland is coming under international pressure to lift a punishment meted out to one of its academics. Dylan Evans, a psychologist at the university's school of medicine, has been saddled with a two-year period …
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Great Consolidation — This feels like a populist moment. Americans are Tea Partying. Greeks are rioting. Incumbents are being thrown out; the Federal Reserve is facing an audit; Goldman Sachs is facing prosecution. In Kentucky, Ron Paul's son might be about to win a Republican Senate primary.
The Huffington Post:
Class Warfare: Hundreds Protest Outside Bankers' Houses In DC — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Huge raucous crowds converged outside bank employees' houses on Sunday afternoon to demand banks stop lobbying against Wall Street reform. — “Bank of America: bad for America!” …
JSOnline:
Big Ten Conference likely seeking universities that fit its identity in expansion talks — By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel — It was an exciting time in college sports, an era of great change and large dreams. — Faculty delegates from the big conference of the Midwest gathered …
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Why Does Academia Treat Its Workforce So Badly? — A piece on adjuncts in Inside Higher Ed has been attracting a lot of attention among academics of my acquaintance. Its description of academic life is shockingly brutal—shocking even to me, who knows enough PhDs to be acquainted with the dismal facts:
Discussion:
Will Wilkinson
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Going to Extreme — Utah Republicans have denied Robert Bennett, a very conservative three-term senator, a place on the ballot, because he's not conservative enough. In Maine, party activists have pushed through a platform calling for, among other things, abolishing both the Federal Reserve and the Department of Education.
Discussion:
The Note, BBC, Wall Street Journal, No More Mister Nice Blog, AMERICAblog News and Prairie Weather
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
The amazing campaign ads of Alabama — Alabama Republicans have, for reasons that I don't understand but which I hope a reader will explain, produced a raft of strange and memorable television ads this cycle: Young Boozer's broadside; ‘This is Alabama. We speak English’; the scornful attack on an accused evolutionist.