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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 …
Discussion:
Another Black Conservative, The Politico, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, RedState, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, YID With LID, Salon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Indecision Forever, National Review, Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, Power Line, The Lonely Conservative, Ben Smith's Blog, The Atlantic Online, Wake up America, Donklephant, Grim's Hall, msnbc.com, FrumForum and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »
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BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — Schumer coordinates Dem budget attack on GOP — Chief Congressional Correspondent Follow Us @Examinerpolitic — Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Democratic Senate leadership, got on a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning without realizing the reporters were already listening in.
Discussion:
protein wisdom, Wizbang, Pajamas Media and Doug Ross

Cantor says, ‘Time is up’ to reach a spending deal for fiscal year 2011
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Post and FrumForum

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 …
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Judge Blocks Wisconsin Anti-Union Law (Again) — Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi has just blocked — again — Gov. Scott Walker's (R-WI) new law curtailing public employee unions, after the state Republican leadership moved last Friday to circumvent her previous order that blocked the law on procedural grounds.
Discussion:
The Nation, WisPolitics Budget Blog, Balloon Juice and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion


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 …
Discussion:
Another Black Conservative, CNN and National Review

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.”
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Obama a Socialist? Fox News Exec Said So, but Didn't Believe It
Discussion:
The Right Sphere, nancynall.com, Liberal Values, The Daily Beast, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, Salon and Poynter


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” …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, iOwnTheWorld.com, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Moe Lane

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.
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Sarah Palin Wonders Aloud if Libya Action is a “Squirmish”
Discussion:
Wonkette, The Moderate Voice, Little Green Footballs and Salon

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.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, TPMCafe, Pajamas Media and LewRockwell.com Blog
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Administration Denies That Libya Mission Goes Beyond UN Mandate
Discussion:
Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars

Analysis: Obama doesn't mention Libyan rebels
Discussion:
Reuters, Sweetness & Light and Newshoggers.com


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.

Japan ‘has lost race’ to halt meltdown — 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: Ian Sample on efforts to contain the nuclear accident
Discussion:
Climate Progress

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.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, GOP 12 and The Daily Caller
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Pawlenty: ‘Every One Of Us’ Running For President Has Flip-Flopped On Climate Change
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Mother Jones and Climate Progress

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.
Discussion:
FrumForum, The Caucus and Democracy in America
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Obama: Qaddafi regime's “days are numbered”
Discussion:
Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and msnbc.com

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 …
Discussion:
Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

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.
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Left Coast Rebel and JammieWearingFool


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.
Discussion:
Eunomia, democracyarsenal.org and The Daily Dish


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 …
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...how much overtime would the drones at Media Matters rack up?
Discussion:
Brutally Honest, The Underground Conservative, The New Editor and Weasel Zippers

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.
Discussion:
The Raw Story, Pajamas Media, Guardian, Saideman's Semi-Spew, Hot Air, Wonkette, Israel Matzav, The Lonely Conservative, Firedoglake, CNN, National Review and cnas.org

Media Ignores Calls For Socialist Revolution at ‘Anti-War’ Rally in Chicago — Chicago media reported on a recent march in Chicago as being an “Anti-War” march organized by students and “faith based groups” who “hope to spark change in our democracy.” What they left out was the clear fact …
Discussion:
The Blast and Weasel Zippers

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 …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Instapundit and JSOnline


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.
Discussion:
Don Surber, Hot Air, TPMDC and AmSpecBlog

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.”
Discussion:
RealClearWorld, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Jawa Report, Fausta's Blog and iOwnTheWorld.com

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 …
Discussion:
New York Times


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 …
Discussion:
New York Times, Mother Jones, AlterNet, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Raw Story, Veracity Stew and The Maddow Blog

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.
Discussion:
Weigel, The Lonely Conservative, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Orlando Sentinel and Oliver Willis

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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Fox News