Top Items:
Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
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.
Discussion:
Emptywheel, Outside the Beltway, BLACKFIVE, Taylor Marsh, Pajamas Media and Hit & Run
RELATED:
New York Times:
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 …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Washington Times, Political Punch, BBC, National Review, NewsReal Blog, Washington Post, AMERICAblog News, Ross Douthat, Guardian, Booman Tribune, Danger Room, Salon, FrumForum, US Department of State, TalkLeft, No Cure for That, Indecision Forever, RealClearWorld, CBS News, The Caucus and Gallup
New York Times:
Pro-Qaddafi Forces Push Rebels Into Chaotic Retreat
Pro-Qaddafi Forces Push Rebels Into Chaotic Retreat
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, JustOneMinute and FrumForum
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
CNN: US changing war “strategy” to all-out attack on Gaddafi forces
CNN: US changing war “strategy” to all-out attack on Gaddafi forces
Discussion:
CNN, Questions and Observations and Guardian
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The wisdom and legality of arming Libyan rebels
The wisdom and legality of arming Libyan rebels
Discussion:
Guardian, Danger Room and FAIR Blog
Quinnipiac University:
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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Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Americans Less Likely to View Obama as a Strong Leader — Six in 10 believe he is honest and trustworthy — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans have grown increasingly less likely to view President Obama as a strong and decisive leader since he took office. Roughly half now believe this aptly describes …
Discussion:
National Review, The Raw Story, The Politico, The Moderate Voice and Hot Air
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Poll: Obama's approval hits new low — President Barack Obama's approval rating and prospects for reelection have plunged to all-time lows in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. — Half of the registered voters surveyed for the poll think that the president does not deserve …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, protein wisdom, Indecision Forever and HotAirPundit
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Q-poll puts Obama approval at 42%, 48% disapproval
Q-poll puts Obama approval at 42%, 48% disapproval
Discussion:
Rasmussen Reports, The Other McCain, Cold Fury, Another Black Conservative and GayPatriot
Washington Post:
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.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, A plain blog about politics, Washington Monthly, The Hill, TPMDC, National Review, Instapundit, Democracy in America, The Atlantic Online, FrumForum, The Raw Story, protein wisdom, Guardian, The Politico, New York Times, Prairie Weather, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Associated Press, Don Surber, Wonk Room, RedState and NationalJournal.com
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Russell Berman / The Hill:
White House, GOP edge closer to deal
Anna Palmer / Roll Call:
House GOP Tries to Force Senate's Hand on Spending
House GOP Tries to Force Senate's Hand on Spending
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Impolitic, Mother Jones and FrumForum
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Cantor and the budget — My colleague David Rogers …
Cantor and the budget — My colleague David Rogers …
Discussion:
The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos and Washington Post
Russell Berman / The Hill:
House GOP tries to force Senate's hand in spending-cut battle
House GOP tries to force Senate's hand in spending-cut battle
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Live Action Blog:
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, NewsBusters.org blogs, Washington Post, The Brody File, Erick's blog and That's What She Said
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
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:
Washington Examiner, neo-neocon, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Daily Kos
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Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
CNN Poll: Unfavorable view of tea party on the rise — Washington (CNN) - Nearly half of all Americans have an unfavorable view of the tea party movement, putting it in the same company as the Democratic and Republican parties, according to a new national poll.
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight, Firedoglake, USA Today, CNSNews, Washington Post, Liberal Values, Hit & Run, The Political Carnival and The Page
Sarah Palin / Facebook:
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
RELATED:
Chris Moody / The Daily Caller:
Conservatives take on Palin for government-subsidized reality show, Palin calls criticism ‘ludicrous’
Conservatives take on Palin for government-subsidized reality show, Palin calls criticism ‘ludicrous’
Discussion:
GOP 12, Conservatives4Palin, National Review, Tax Foundation, Riehl World View, Outside the Beltway, Big Hollywood, FrumForum and Hit & Run
Benjy Sarlin / TPMDC:
Sarah Palin Rips Into Daily Caller For Not Featuring Her Quote High Enough
Sarah Palin Rips Into Daily Caller For Not Featuring Her Quote High Enough
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mediaite, Salon and Conservatives4Palin
David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
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.
Stan Pillman / CBS Chicago:
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:
The Jawa Report and Maggie's Notebook
National Review:
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 …
CNN:
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:
The Jawa Report, Patterico's Pontifications and Feministing
Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
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:
The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, The only adult in the room, Pajamas Media, Eschaton, JustOneMinute and First Draft
Monica Potts / American Prospect:
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 …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
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:
ThinkProgress, Mediaite, The Lonely Conservative, Company Town, Poynter and That's What She Said, more at Mediagazer »
Marco Rubio / Wall Street Journal:
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:
The Politico, Cubachi, The New Republic, George's Bottom Line, Washington Post, Questions and Observations, TPMDC, National Review, Orlando Sentinel, Liberty Pundits Blog, Hotline On Call, CNN, Post on Politics, Another Black Conservative, The Lonely Conservative, Pundit Press, FrumForum and Cold Fury
RELATED:
Sarah Laskow / American Prospect:
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 …
Discussion:
Yglesias
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Coburn spars with Norquist over tax breaks for ethanol — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ripped conservative activist Grover Norquist on Tuesday for defending tax breaks that benefit special interest groups. — In a letter to Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, The New Republic, Washington Post and The Politico
Henry / Crooked Timber:
“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 …
Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Schultz: ‘Are You With The Terrorists, Or Are You With The President Of The United States?’ — What's next: MSNBC hawking “America: Love It Or Leave It” bumper stickers? — The new fashion among the liberal network's anchors is to accuse critics of President Obama's Libya policy of being unpatriotic.
Discussion:
Questions and Observations, Michelle Malkin and Pajamas Media
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
As Economy Sputters, a Timid Fed — Whenever officials at the Federal Reserve confront a big decision, they have to weigh two competing risks. Are they doing too much to speed up economic growth and touching off inflation? Or are they doing too little and allowing unemployment to stay high?
Discussion:
Economix, The Hill, Rortybomb, Washington Monthly, Yglesias, The New Republic, Mother Jones and Calculated Risk
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Nelson in decent shape — Bill Nelson continues to have approval numbers that leave something to be desired...but he also has at least a 13 point lead over all of his prospective opponents for next year and against the nominal Republican front runner at this point, Mike Haridopolos, he's already hit 50%.
Discussion:
Ballot Box, DownWithTyranny! and Post on Politics