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Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret support for Libya rebels — (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
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New York Times, The Daily Dish, Firedoglake, The Hill, Pajamas Media, Outside the Beltway, The Lonely Conservative, TPMDC, BLACKFIVE, The Raw Story, The Atlantic Online, Israel Matzav, National Review, The Page, Taylor Marsh, No More Mister Nice Blog, American Glob, Swampland, This Just In and Gawker
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Washington in Fierce Debate on Arming Libyan Rebels — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is engaged in a fierce debate over whether to supply weapons to the rebels in Libya, senior officials said on Tuesday, with some fearful that providing arms would deepen American involvement …
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BBC, Firedoglake, Political Punch, Washington Times, Ross Douthat, The Daily Dish, Washington Post, Guardian, NewsReal Blog, Danger Room, AMERICAblog News, Booman Tribune, Salon, FrumForum, No Cure for That, TalkLeft, US Department of State, Indecision Forever, RealClearWorld, The Caucus, CBS News and Gallup

Retreat for Rebels; Libyan Foreign Minister Quits — BREGA, Libya — Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi advanced rapidly on Wednesday, seizing towns they ceded just days ago after intense allied airstrikes and hounding rebel fighters into a chaotic retreat.
Discussion:
Newshoggers.com, Outside the Beltway, JustOneMinute and FrumForum

Looking for Luck in Libya — There is an old saying in the Middle East that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee. That thought came to my mind as I listened to President Obama trying to explain the intervention of America and its allies in Libya — and I don't say that as criticism.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, The only adult in the room, Pajamas Media, Eschaton, JustOneMinute and First Draft

President Obama Authorizes Covert Help for Libyan Rebels
Discussion:
Political Punch and HotAirPundit

CNN: US changing war “strategy” to all-out attack on Gaddafi forces
Discussion:
CNN, Questions and Observations and Guardian

The wisdom and legality of arming Libyan rebels
Discussion:
Guardian, Danger Room and FAIR Blog


House Republican leaders turn to moderate Democrats for budget deal — Having difficulty finding consensus within their own ranks, House Republican leaders have begun courting moderate Democrats on several key fiscal issues, including a deal to avoid a government shutdown at the end of next week.
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The Politico, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Firedoglake, Washington Examiner, Washington Monthly, TPMDC, Democracy in America, The Atlantic Online, FrumForum, The Raw Story, National Review, New York Times, Instapundit, Guardian, Prairie Weather, protein wisdom, Associated Press, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Don Surber, Wonk Room and RedState
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Budget Negotiators Reach Tentative Deal To Avert Government Shutdown
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Daily Kos, Hot Air and National Review

Cantor and the budget — My colleague David Rogers …
Discussion:
The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Washington Post, Daily Kos and The Political Carnival

White House, GOP edge closer to a deal on 2011 budget
Discussion:
The Politico, The Other McCain and Hot Air


Republicans Pitch Unusual Backup Plan as Fragile Budget Talks Resume
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Fox Nation

House Republicans plan symbolic bill to pressure Senate on shutdown

Obama Gets Lowest Approval, Reelect Score Ever, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; More Voters Oppose U.S. Involvement In Libya — American voters disapprove 48 - 42 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing and say 50 - 41 percent he does not deserve to be re-elected in 2012 …
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Poll: Obama's approval hits new low
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Outside the Beltway, protein wisdom, Indecision Forever and HotAirPundit

Americans Less Likely to View Obama as a Strong Leader
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Hot Air, Connecting.the.Dots, The Other McCain, National Review, The Raw Story, The Politico and The Moderate Voice


Setting the Record Straight on State's Film Production Tax Credit — Goodness, cleaning up the sloppiness of reporters could be a full time job. In response to The Daily Caller's online inquiry, I gave them a statement that the writer buried on his story's second page …
Discussion:
Cubachi, National Review and Liberty Pundits Blog
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Sarah Palin Rips Into Daily Caller For Not Featuring Her Quote High Enough — Sarah Palin launched a lengthy attack on The Daily Caller via Facebook on Wednesday in which she slammed the conservative-leaning news organization for not featuring her quotes prominently enough.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mediaite, Salon and Conservatives4Palin


GOPers Demand Sean Duffy Salary Tape Be Pulled From The Internet (VIDEO) — First the Republican Party in Polk County, Wisconsin, pulled the tape of Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) fretting about making ends meet on his $174,000 a year salary from its own website. Now they want it gone from the whole Internet.


Supreme Court rejects damages for innocent man who spent 14 years on death row — In a 5-4 ruling, justices overturn a jury verdict awarding $14 million to John Thompson, who had sued then-New Orleans Dist. Atty. Harry Connick Sr. because prosecutors hid a blood test that would have proved his innocence in a murder case.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Wonkette, Mother Jones, Washington Post, iOwnTheWorld.com, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Shakesville


Planned Parenthood CEO's False Mammogram Claim Exposed — Contact: Amy Kim, 323.454.3304, media@liveaction.org — WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30-A series of new undercover phone calls reveals that contrary to the claims of Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards and other supporters …
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel, The Brody File, Big Journalism, Washington Post, Erick's blog and NewsBusters.org blogs

VIDEO: Indiana GOP Rep Says Women Will Pretend To Be Raped To Get Free Abortions — Yesterday morning, the Indiana House considered an anti-abortion bill that “would put some of the tightest abortion restrictions in the nation into Indiana law.” Introduced by state Rep. Eric Turner (R) …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune
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Only 14, Bangladeshi girl charged with adultery was lashed to death — Shariatpur, Bangladesh (CNN) — Hena Akhter's last words to her mother proclaimed her innocence. But it was too late to save the 14-year-old girl. — Her fellow villagers in Bangladesh's Shariatpur district had already passed harsh judgment on her.
Discussion:
iOwnTheWorld.com, Patterico's Pontifications, Feministing and Clayton Cramer's Blog

Bench Brawl in Wisconsin — The Left long ago stopped pretending that court proceedings were anything other than exercises in raw-power politics, and so they've taken their fight against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to the state supreme court — not in the form of a lawsuit …


On NBC, the missing story about parent company General Electric — Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press - The story that General Electric did not pay federal taxes last year was widely reported everywhere but NBC. — It's the kind of accountability journalism that makes readers raise an eyebrow …
Discussion:
The Political Carnival, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Company Town, The Lonely Conservative, Poynter and Snark And Boobs

Obama's jaw-dropping hypocrisy on energy — The Post reports: … It's nice that he's discovered the importance of domestic energy development, but his rhetoric overlooks his own policies over the past two years. Yesterday on the Senate floor Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) …


Poll: Americans cooling on tea party — The tea party might be running out of steam. — The approval rating for the 2-year-old movement fell to 32 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research corporation poll released Wednesday, the lowest it's been since CNN first polled on the tea party in January 2010.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Washington Examiner, neo-neocon, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Daily Kos

“With Notably Rare Exceptions” — Alan Greenspan is back as free market evangelist, and it's rather wonderful. … It's best not to interpret this as an empirical claim, but a carefully-thought-out bid for Internet immortality. It has the sublime combination of supreme self-confidence …
Discussion:
Felix Salmon, Paul Krugman, Angry Bear, Marginal Revolution, Mother Jones and Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality …

House passes Boehner's DC school voucher bill over Dem objections — Over fierce Democratic opposition, the House on Wednesday approved a bill to re-establish a school choice voucher system for Washington, D.C., residents. — The vote came a day after the White House said it opposed …
Discussion:
The Politico and Cubachi

Threats Claim Nuclear Bombs Hidden All Over U.S. — CHICAGO (CBS 2) - The threats came in the mail and to date, there have been 25 letters that warn of nuclear bombs destroying America. — People who got them called the FBI and CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman learned, the Bureau's Chicago office is leading the investigation.
Discussion:
Maggie's Notebook and The Jawa Report


With New ‘Monkey Bill,’ Tennessee Takes Evolution Education Back To Scopes — Eighty six years after the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial opened Tennessee classrooms to the teaching of evolution, the state House is trying to slam the door shut again. Tennessee's House Education Committee approved …

Semi-Homemade Sandra Lee Dates Politician, Lives Her Own Life — I'm not a big fan of Semi-Homemade Sandra Lee as recipe writer, cook, or TV personality. But as a political spouse, she's the best we have. — First of all, she's not actually a political spouse: She and her sometime housemate …

Limiting Abortion Under the Guise of Anti-Racism — Reuters reports that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill yesterday that makes it illegal for doctors to provide abortions for parents seeking to terminate pregnancies on the basis of race or gender. As Planned Parenthood officials …
Discussion:
Reuters and ECHIDNE of the snakes