On a Senate Call, a Glimpse of Marching Orders  —  Um, Senators, ever heard of the mute button?  —  Moments before a conference call with reporters was scheduled to get underway on Tuesday morning, apparently unaware that many of the reporters were already on the line, Charles Schumer of New York …

Judge again blocks GOP collective-bargaining plan  —  But Van Hollen assistant says law is in effect  —  By Patrick Marley, Bill Glauber and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison - For the second time in less than two weeks, a Dane County judge Tuesday issued an order blocking …

CRUISE SHIP CONFESSION: Top Fox News Executive Admits Lying On-Air About Obama  —  In newly uncovered audio, a Fox News executive boasts that he lied repeatedly during the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign when he speculated on-air “about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism.”

Why I Won't Vote to Raise the Debt Limit  —  Everyone in Washington knows how to cut spending.  The time to start is now.  —  Americans have built the single greatest nation in all of human history.  But America's exceptionalism was not preordained.  Every generation has had to confront …

Sarah Palin Exaggerates Cost of Libya Intervention By 700%  —  Last night on Fox News, Greta van Susteren hosted former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to discuss what Palin termed the “squirmish” in Libya.  True to form, the former governor was reckless with basic facts and casually septupled the cost of U.S. intervention.

Maher on Palin and Bachmann: I'm sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings, but no, I wasn't wrong  —  This may be the first time that this particular permutation of “apology” has been offered for dropping a C-bomb on someone.  A forthright apology would be one thing, a “sorry if you were offended” …

Bill Maher at the Winspear on Sunday night: 'Your new theater isn't gonna be clean for long'  —  I've seen Kathy Griffin perform live, and Joan Rivers and Lisa Lampanelli and Chris Rock — and they are all hilarious and edgy and daring comics who say outrageous things and go places that scare …

Take Two: Donald Trump Releases Official Birth Certificate  —  ABC News Michael Falcone reports:  —  Donald Trump learned the hard way this week that if you're going to call on the president to release his official birth certificate, you'd better do the same.

Huckabee Continues to Lead in GOP Positive Intensity Tracking  —  Little-known Herman Cain generates strong enthusiasm among those who recognize him  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Mike Huckabee continues to generate the strongest favorable reactions from Republicans who recognize him, with a Positive Intensity Score of 26.

Tom Tomorrow:  —  A period of transition  —  I don't really remember the exact date, but at some point in late 1994 or early 1995, I met my editor from the SF Examiner, David Talbot, for lunch at the Rincon Center food court in San Francisco.  Over some cheap take-out …

Calling BULLS**T on Rolling Stone  —  Seldom do I waste time with rebutting articles, and especially not from publications like Rolling Stone.  Today, numerous people sent links to the latest Rolling Stone tripe.  The story is titled “THE KILL TEAM, THE FULL STORY.”  It should be titled: “BULLS**T, from Rolling Stone.”

Not All Choices Are False  —  One of President Obama's recurrent rhetorical tropes during the 2008 campaign was the “false choice” maneuver, in which he would distance himself from straw men of the left and right to better sell himself as a post-partisan figure.

Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor  —  Fukushima meltdown fears rise after radioactive core melts through vessel - but ‘no danger of Chernobyl-style catastrophe’  —  • In pictures: Fukushima nuclear emergency - week three  —  • Interactive: Japan earthquake …

Why Obama had to act in Libya  —  “We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi - a city nearly the size of Charlotte - could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.  It was not in our national interest to let that happen.

House votes to end HAMP  —  The House Tuesday voted to eliminate the last of four Obama administration housing programs, in an effectively symbolic vote to end the controversial Home Affordable Modification Program 218 to 109.  —  The loan program launched at the beginning …

NATO Chief Opens The Door to Libya Ground Troops  —  The mantra, from President Obama on down, is that ground forces are totally ruled out for Libya.  After all, the United Nations Security Council Resolution authorizing the war explicitly rules out any “occupation” forces.

CAN'T ANYBODY HERE PLAY THIS GAME?.... At face value, congressional Republicans went into budget talks playing a strikingly weak hand.  They're an unpopular party, pushing unpopular spending cuts, going up against a more popular president.  Of the three main players — the House, the Senate …

Conservative Think Tank Seeks Michigan Profs' Emails About Wisconsin Union Battle ... And Maddow  —  A free enterprise think tank in Michigan — backed by some of the biggest names in national conservative donor circles — has made a broad public records request to at least three in-state universities …

Justice Lawyers Cleared in Voting Case  —  The Justice Department's internal ethics watchdog on Tuesday told Congress that it had cleared all department lawyers of wrongdoing in relation to a much-disputed voter-intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party, a black-nationalist fringe group.

Greater Wisconsin Committee says Supreme Court Justice David Prosser mishandled allegation of sex abuse by priest  —  A new TV ad claims that in 1978, when Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser was a district attorney, he didn't ask police to investigate an abuse case involving …

Howard Dean: Democrats Should Be ‘Quietly Rooting’ for Shutdown  —  Speaking at the National Journal Insiders Conference on March 29, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said that a government shutdown would be bad for the country but good for Democrats.

Scott incredibly unpopular  —  You could say Rick Scott's honeymoon is over...but that would suggest he had one in the first place.  A December PPP poll shortly before Scott took office found that only 33% of Florida voters had a favorable opinion of their new Governor to 43% who viewed him negatively.

Anti-genocide advocate credits Obama for Libyan uprising  —  White House aide Samantha Power, a former news reporter turned anti-genocide advocate, said President Obama's two-year campaign to promote human rights helped trigger the uprising in Libya against Col. Moammar Gadhafi's rule.

Levin takes on Ron Paul supporters: ‘I promise you his followers are the biggest a-holes of them all’  —  There's no doubt that 2008 Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas has some dedicated followers, and they're especially ambitious in using the Internet to spread their message.

Graham: Those Engaged In Anti-Muslim Hate Speech Are ‘Putting Our Soldiers At Risk’  —  Today, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) convened a hearing on “Protecting the Civil Rights of American Muslims” — the “first of its kind for Congress.”  A counterweight to House Homeland Security …

Gingrich fears ‘atheist country ... dominated by radical Islamists’  —  Newt Gingrich at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.  —  Hours after declaring Sunday that he expects to be running for president within a month, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he's worried the United States could be …

Dem losers still blaming Nancy Pelosi  —  As victims of the House Democratic election massacre speak out about what caused their ouster last November, they are pointing their fingers squarely at a Washington duo: Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.  —  Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) …

Voting With Their Feet  —  The latest published data from the 2010 census show how people are moving from place to place within the United States.  In general, people are voting with their feet against places where the liberal, welfare-state policies favored by the intelligentsia are most deeply entrenched.