memeorandum: FLASHBACK: Obama campaigned to walk picket line as president if collective bargaining rights threatened (Jeff Poor/The Daily Caller)

1:20 PM ET, February 25, 2011

Top Items:

Question to Broun: Who's going to shoot President Obama? — At Rep. Paul Broun's town hall meeting on Tuesday, the Athens congressman asked who had driven the farthest to be there and let the winner ask the first question. — We couldn't hear the question in the back of the packed Oglethorpe …

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Secret Service interviews Georgia constituent who asked who will ‘shoot’ Obama; case is ‘closed matter’ — UPDATE, 11:50 a.m.: In a new statement Rep Paul Broun appears to admit he should have condemned his constituent: … ORIGINAL POST: — By now you may have heard that GOP Rep. Paul Broun …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, TPMMuckraker and Salon

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:

Broun is asked who'll ‘shoot Obama’ — A constituent at a town hall for Georgia Rep. Paul Broun drew laughter on Tuesday when asked, “Who is going to shoot Obama?” and the Republican didn't come anywhere near condemning the question in his response. — “The thing is, I know there's a lot …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Prairie Weather

Michelle Malkin:

Hate-a-rama: The vulgar, racist, sexist, homophobic rage of the Left — Projection. — My new syndicated column today does the reporting the Tea Party-bashing national media won't do on the rabid outbreak of progressive incivility and violence at Big Labor protests across the country.

Discussion: UNCOVERAGE.net

Justin Elliott / Salon:
Town hall question: “Who's going to shoot Obama?”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly and Althouse

Ryan J. Reilly / TPMMuckraker:
Witnesses: Republican Laughed When Asked 'Who's Gonna Shoot Obama?'

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Dish, The Right Sphere and msnbc.com

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:

WI Assembly GOP Passes Walker Budget In Surprise Vote — Dems Chant “Shame!” — MADISON, WI — The Wisconsin State Assembly has just passed Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill, including its controversial provisions to eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights for public employee unions …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Mother Jones, Taylor Marsh, MyDD, Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice and The Hill

Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:

Pulling Apart — Congress was more polarized last year than in any other year since National Journal began compiling its vote ratings. Overlap between the parties is disappearing. — Republicans in lockstep: House Speaker John Boehner, flanked by GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy (left) …

Discussion: The Note, WPRI.com Blogs, The Fix, USA Today, Hotline On Call and TPMDC

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin — The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment. The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

Discussion: PostPartisan, NewsBusters.org, Pajamas Media and Washington Examiner

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

LEFTIST GALLERY ERUPTS as Wisconsin GOP Assembly Passes Governor Walker's Budget Cut Bill (Video) — LEFTISTS ERUPT IN RAGE as the GOP majority passed Governor Walker's budget cut bill in the Wisconsin Assembly last night. — The far left politicians and supporters shouted “Shame!” and …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com, Fox Nation, The Daily Caller, POWIP, The Future of Capitalism, Althouse and Hot Air

Todd Richmond / host.madison.com:
Tempers explode as Assembly passes controversial budget repair bill

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, Indecision Forever and The Gateway Pundit

JSOnline:
Budget-repair bill approved in early-morning vote

Discussion: Hot Air, Weigel, Mother Jones, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Wake up America, Politics Daily, GayPatriot, The Politico and Nice Deb

Brad Reed / Crooks and Liars: Teabags and Sympathy — So the New York Times posted …

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Reid tied with eight others as most liberal senator

Discussion: Ballot Box, Weasel Zippers and TPMDC

Amy Merrick / Wall Street Journal:
Wisconsin Assembly Passes Bill on Union Rights

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senate Democrats eye the lockbox for Social Security, in Al Gore revival — Senate Democrats want to put the Social Security trust fund in a lockbox and insulate it from a broader budget-cutting package designed to reduce the national deficit. — It's a revival of the concept …

Discussion: CNN, Daily Kos, The Politico, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, SENATUS and Prairie Weather

Washington Post:
Senate Democrats draft spending cuts

Discussion: TalkLeft, Ezra Klein, Mother Jones, Right Turn, Betsy's Page, National Review and The Hill

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Senate Dems Ding Boehner For Golfing Amid Shutdown Negotiations

Discussion: Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

National Review:

Koch Executives Speak Out on Wisconsin — Madison, Wis. — Earlier this week, a blogger impersonating industrialist David Koch spoke with Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is attempting to pass a budget-repair bill. The conversation between Walker and the poseur, which was recorded …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, protein wisdom, TPMMuckraker, Talking Points Memo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, JSOnline, Outside the Beltway, Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air, Teamster Nation, GayPatriot and Hit & Run

John / Power Line:
No Retreat, No Surrender

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Samizdata.net

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A. — Here's a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn't Cairo after all. Maybe it's Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence.

Discussion: The New Republic, Washington Examiner, Media Research Center, NewsBusters.org, Prairie Weather, Daily Kos, The Enterprise Blog and Hullabaloo

Molly Ball / The Politico:

Pelosi edits honorary resolution...on Pelosi — The Democratic National Committee wanted to honor Nancy Pelosi Thursday — but its praise wasn't good enough for the House minority leader. — When the DNC's Resolutions Committee brought up a resolution commemorating Pelosi's years as speaker of the House …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com, Weasel Zippers, Sweetness & Light, Wonkette and Right Wing News

New York Times:

U.S. Pulling Back in Afghan Valley It Called Vital to War — KABUL, Afghanistan — After years of fighting for control of a prominent valley in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the United States military has begun to pull back most of its forces from ground it once insisted …

Discussion: The Politico, The Moderate Voice, JustOneMinute, Registan.net, Parker Spitzer, Rethink Afghanistan War Blog, Connecting.the.Dots, White House Dossier and FrumForum

David Brooks / New York Times:

Run Mitch, Run — On Feb. 11, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana met with a group of college students. According to The Yale Daily News, he told them that there is an “excellent chance” he will not run for president. Then he mounted the podium at the Conservative Political Action Conference …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Politics and Shakesville

Annalyn Censky / CNNMoney.com:

GDP report: Economic growth revised sharply lower — NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Budget cuts by state and local governments hurt the economy more than originally thought, according to a government release Friday. — Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity …

Discussion: TalkLeft

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:
National Income and Product Accounts

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Economix, Free exchange and Calculated Risk

Kate Loveys / Daily Mail:

Foiled by the winter: The £25,000 eco-classroom that can't be used because solar panels don't provide enough heat — Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future. — Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, Moonbattery, Watts Up With That?, Right Wing News and The Gateway Pundit

New Jersey Online:

N.J. labor unions expected to rally in Trenton in support of Wisconsin public workers — TRENTON — In a sea of red shirts at the Statehouse today, members of New Jersey labor unions are expected to rally in support of Wisconsin public employees. — Their objectives will be transparent.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin and JammieWearingFool

aina.org:

Egyptian Armed Forces Fire At Christian Monasteries, 19 Injured — (AINA) — For the second time in as many days, Egyptian armed force stormed the 5th century old St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi el-Natroun, 110 kilometers from Cairo. Live ammunition was fired, wounding two monks and six Coptic monastery workers.

Discussion: Jihad Watch, Gates of Vienna, Weasel Zippers, UNCOVERAGE.net and Babalú Blog

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Mississippi Rates as the Most Conservative U.S. State — Vermont, Rhode Island, District of Columbia have highest percentages of liberals — PRINCETON, NJ — Mississippi is home to the largest percentage of conservatives among U.S. states, with a slim majority identifying their political views as conservative.

Discussion: CNN, USA Today and Taegan Goddard's …

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

The top political newcomers — Only two months have passed in 2011, but already a number of new faces have made names for themselves — sometimes for good and somtimes for bad — on the national political scene. — Some, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) …

Discussion: WBNG-TV

JSOnline:

Groups officially begin recall process for seven lawmakers — By Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel — The clock is now running for groups trying to collect enough signatures to trigger recall elections against seven Democratic senators, state officials said today.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys and The Lonely Conservative