memeorandum: An Obama Insider, Running the Race From Afar (Jeff Zeleny/New York Times)

5:25 AM ET, April 3, 2011

Top Items:

Romney slams Obama foreign policy, avoids Libya — Speaking in Las Vegas, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Saturday criticized President Barack Obama's foreign policy in the Middle East. — Romney said the president hasn't been tough enough on Iran and its nuclear program.

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Another Black Conservative, Eunomia and Ballot Box

Kasie Hunt / The Politico:

Mitt's health care defense — LAS VEGAS — Mitt Romney directly addressed the Obama administration's backhanded plaudits of his Massachusetts health care law Saturday, defending the law's controversial individual mandate for the first time and promising that it wouldn't impede an aggressive attack …

Discussion: The Note and FrumForum

Matt Viser / Boston Globe:
Romney comes for foreign policy, leaves defending Mass. health care

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Ron Radosh / Pajamas Media:

Judge Richard Goldstone's Stunning Re-evaluation of His Own Report — In a stunning and unexpected turn of events, Judge Richard Goldstone has essentially reversed himself on the findings of the Goldstone Report. He does, of course, qualify his remarks to make it appear that he has not reversed himself.

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Doug Ross and FrumForum

Washington Post:
Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Haaretz, Elder of Ziyon, YID With LID, New York Times, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, Israel Matzav, Atlas Shrugs, Maggie's Farm, Moe Lane, FrumForum and normblog

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
Richard Goldstone Confirms He Was A Useful Idiot

Discussion: New York Times, The Atlantic Online and Pajamas Media

Aljazeera:

Libyan rebels ‘receive foreign training’ — Rebel source tells Al Jazeera about training offered by US and Egyptian special forces in eastern Libya. — US and Egyptian special forces have reportedly been offering covert armed training to rebel fighters in the battle for Libya, Al Jazeera has been told.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers and Another Black Conservative

BBC:
Libya: Coalition air strike near Brega kills rebels

Discussion: Sky News, CNN, The Last Tradition, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit, The Other McCain and FrumForum

New York Times:
NATO Airstrike Reportedly Kills Rebels in Libya

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, FrumForum and JustOneMinute

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:

Obama '12 launch likely next week — In a long-anticipated move, President Barack Obama is expected to file his reelection papers with the Federal Election Commission as soon as next week — possibly as early as Monday — and follow up with an announcement to supporters sometime soon after, Democrats say.

Discussion: Pat Dollard, CNN, RedState, The Gateway Pundit and FrumForum

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

An Obama Insider, Running the Race From Afar — CHICAGO — For two years, Jim Messina worked 41 steps from the Oval Office, a distance he counted when he first arrived at the White House. His next assignment — in an office 700 miles from President Obama — will test whether proximity is the key to power.

Discussion: CBS News, Ben Smith's Blog and AMERICAblog News

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

House GOP passes ‘force of law’ spending bill mocked by Dems — The House narrowly passed legislation on Friday that calls for a House-passed FY 2011 spending bill to become law should the Senate fail to approve a spending bill by April 6. It would also prevent members of Congress from being paid during a government shutdown.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Volokh Conspiracy

Ben Geman / The Hill:
Obama talks spending with Reid, Boehner as shutdown deadline looms

Discussion: CNN

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Can the House “deem” a bill into law?

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Philip Sherwell / Telegraph:

Pastor Terry Jones: ‘I may put Mohammed on trial’ — Terry Jones, the radical pastor who oversaw the burning of a Koran in his Florida church last month after a mock court hearing, may put the Islamic prophet Mohammed on trial in his next ‘day of judgement’, he told The Sunday Telegraph.

Discussion: The Last Tradition, Weasel Zippers and Left Coast Rebel

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Koran-burning pastor says murders of UN staff aren't his fault

Discussion: Blue Collar Philosophy, Mediaite, Pajamas Media, protein wisdom, Moe Lane, ABCNEWS, Da Techguy's Blog, Guardian and Fausta's Blog

ABCNEWS:
Terry Jones Says Afghan U.N. Violence ‘Proves My Point’

Discussion: NewsReal Blog, Big Journalism, Blue Collar Philosophy, Outside the Beltway and The Last Tradition

Mike Allen / The Politico:

House GOP to target ‘tens of trillions’ on entitlements — Bush war aide: Libya could become Obama's Iraq — Lessons learned: 'clear goals ... Don't sell public on a best-case scenario' — BULLETIN: President Obama plans to announce his reelection campaign early next week in an electronic message …

Ed Vulliamy / Guardian:

The US bank and Mexico's bloody drugs war — As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored

Discussion: naked capitalism and TalkLeft

Raymond Colitt / Reuters:

Al Qaeda members hide in Brazil, raise money: report — BRASILIA (Reuters) - Al Qaeda operatives are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading news magazine reported Saturday, renewing concerns about the nation serving as a hide-out for Islamic militants.

CNN:

Huckabee wins 2012 county straw poll in South Carolina — Washington (CNN) - Mike Huckabee won a 2012 presidential straw poll conducted in a key South Carolina county Saturday. — The informal vote was the first of many upcoming straw polls taking place this month at grassroots GOP …

Discussion: GOP 12, Donklephant, Ballot Box and Washington Post

Susie Madrak / Crooks and Liars:

Joseph Stiglitz: The Fate of The Top 1% Is Bound Up With How The Other 99% Live — Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that America's top economists are running around with their hair on fire? (Or whatever passes for it with economists.) Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz in Vanity Fair sounds …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Brilliant at Breakfast

Jason Millman / The Hill:

List of health reform waivers keeps growing — The number of waivers the Obama administration has awarded for a provision of the year-old healthcare reform law grew by 128 in March. — With the new waivers, that means 1,168 businesses, insurers, unions and other organizations have received …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

CNN:

Workers struggle to plug leak at Japan nuclear plant — Tokyo (CNN) — A first attempt to plug a cracked concrete shaft that is leaking highly radioactive water into the ocean off Japan failed Saturday, so officials are now exploring alternatives, spokesmen for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Discussion: Firedoglake and Mediaite