Top Items:
Washington Post:
Obama turns to his bipartisan deficit commission's blueprint for reducing debt — Video: White House press secretary Jay Carney reiterated Monday that President Obama “regrets” his vote in 2006 as a senator against raising the debt ceiling. (April 11) — President Obama plans this week …
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Wall Street Journal:
President Open to Deal on Debt Cap — White House officials have opened the door to a deal with Republicans that would allow the U.S. to increase its ability to borrow, potentially easing worries in financial markets that the country might default on its debt.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Yglesias, Washington Post, TalkLeft, The Hill, The New Republic, The Page, FiveThirtyEight, Keith Hennessey, Wonk Room and Daily Kos
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF GOP FEARS OVER RYAN PLAN.... Congressional Republicans clearly like Paul Ryan's radical House budget plan; the question is whether they're ready to put their careers on the line by voting for it. As of last week, there was a fair amount of GOP anxiety over this.
Discussion:
The Politico
Peter Nicholas / Los Angeles Times:
Obama to draw sharp contrast with GOP over deficit — In a speech Wednesday, the president is expected to call for higher taxes on wealthier Americans, as opposed to Republican plans to slash Medicare and Medicaid. — Reporting from Washington — President Obama will call for shrinking …
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel, Balloon Juice, Suburban Guerrilla and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
New York Times:
Republican Medicare Plan Could Shape 2012 Races — WASHINGTON — Just four months into their new majority, House Republicans face a potentially defining Medicare vote this week that is sure to become a centerpiece of Democratic efforts to recapture the House in 2012 and spill into the presidential and Senate campaigns as well.
Discussion:
The Politico, Reuters, msnbc.com, The Caucus, Washington Post and The Page
Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:
Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Will ‘Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show’
Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Will ‘Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show’
Discussion:
theblogprof and Weasel Zippers
Russell Berman / The Hill:
House GOP grapples with its transparency oath on budget deal
House GOP grapples with its transparency oath on budget deal
Discussion:
The Note, msnbc.com, Washington Post and The Hill
Washington Wire:
Trump Will ‘Probably’ Run as Independent If He Doesn't Win GOP Nomination — Donald Trump will “probably” run as an independent candidate for U.S. President in 2012 if he does not receive the Republican party's nomination, he told the Wall Street Journal in a video interview on Monday.
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Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Mike Huckabee says he met with Donald Trump in New York last weekend
Mike Huckabee says he met with Donald Trump in New York last weekend
Discussion:
GOP 12
Lauraklairmont / CNN:
TRENDING: Trump now considering independent run
TRENDING: Trump now considering independent run
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Washington Post
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Trump says he'd ‘probably’ run as Independent if he loses GOP nod
CBS News:
Budget deal details: Cuts that aren't quite cuts — $38B in savings agreed to by GOP and Democrats averted a government shutdown, but new details indicate some accounting sleight-of-hand — Details of the $38 billion worth of spending cuts factoring in last Friday's 11th-hour budget …
Discussion:
Sweetness & Light, Associated Press, The Reaction and AMERICAblog News
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Wall Street Journal:
Who's the Extremist Now? — The president would have shut down government over Planned Parenthood funding. — The senior senator from New York was on to something when he complained about ideology getting in the way of spending cuts. Just not in the way he would have us believe.
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog and The Lonely Conservative
Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Six-month spending bill unveiled: What's cut and what's not
Six-month spending bill unveiled: What's cut and what's not
Discussion:
ABCNEWS and AMERICAblog News
New York Times:
France and Britain Urge Stronger NATO Action in Libya — PARIS —France and Britain urged NATO on Tuesday to intensify airstrikes against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's forces and called on the alliance to do more to shield noncombatants from loyalist attacks. — The remarks could well embolden rebels …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Outside the Beltway, Booman Tribune, Global Public Square and CNN
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Washington Post:
Japan rates nuclear crisis at highest severity level — TOKYO — Japanese authorities raised Tuesday their rating of the severity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis to the highest level on an international scale, equal to that of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Democratic Daily, Suburban Guerrilla, The Agonist and AMERICAblog News
BooMan / Booman Tribune:
Our Structural Disadvantage — The intertubes are clogged with the choral wailing of frustrated liberals. Digby provides a good example, but the same is available pretty much anywhere else you'd think to look. … This is exactly right. But what's strange is that it almost seems to come as a surprise to people.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway, odd time signatures, Zandar Versus The Stupid and Hullabaloo
Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
AOL, Arianna Huffington Hit with Class Action Suit — Jonathan Tasini. Image via Wikipedia — Huffington Post bloggers who think they ought to get paid for their volunteer writing have been litigating their case in the court of public opinion. Now they're taking it to a real one.
Discussion:
Mediaite and The Agitator, more at Mediagazer »
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
What Impact Has The New York Times Paywall Had on Traffic? [STATS] — The New York Times' paywall has now been up for two weeks. What impact has it had on the popular website's traffic? More importantly, is the paywall working as intended, or is it taking a bite out of The New York Times' revenues?
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
House liberal DeFazio: Obama should start acting like a Democrat — President Obama needs to start acting like a Democrat by not caving for a second time and allowing the George W. Bush-era tax rates on the wealthy to expire, according to a founding member of the House Progressive Caucus.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool
Roger Simon / The Politico:
Barack Obama faces problem on left, not right — I don't think Barack Obama will have a hard time defeating his Republican opponent in 2012, barring a financial meltdown or a major foreign crisis. It's a Democratic opponent he should worry about. — Obama continues to anger progressives …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Guardian, Betsy's Page and Washington Wire
New York Times:
Democrat in Missouri to Oppose Health Care Law — KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri's Democratic attorney general broke with his party on Monday and urged a federal judge to invalidate the central provision of the new health care law. — The filing of the court brief by Attorney General Chris Koster …
Discussion:
OpenMarket.org, Moe Lane, Hotline On Call, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, Don Surber, The Volokh Conspiracy and Pajamas Media
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Jake Wagman / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Koster files brief opposing mandatory health coverage
Koster files brief opposing mandatory health coverage
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
David Blaska / Isthmus:
Blaska Blogs the smoking gun of the teachers union's illegal sick-out — Only a fool would think that the sick out that closed down Madison schools for five days in February was anything but an illegal, union-coordinated, illegal strike. — But there are a lot of fools in Madison, aren't there?
Discussion:
Chicago Boyz
New York Times:
Pakistan Tells U.S. It Must Sharply Cut C.I.A. Activities — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it put on hold C.I.A. drone strikes aimed …
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Liz Goodwin / Yahoo! News:
Chicago school bans homemade lunches, the latest in national food fight — Students who attend Chicago's Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day. The students can either eat the cafeteria food—or go hungry.
Catholic Culture:
1,000 attack non-Muslim village in Nigeria — Armed with machetes and guns, 1,000 militants attacked the village of Bar Arewa in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi on April 7. “Almost every home in the village was destroyed, and some elderly people were reported to have been burnt …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Atlas Shrugs
Kasie Hunt / The Politico:
Michele Bachmann takes on heckler in Iowa — IOWA CITY, Iowa — Michele Bachmann said again Monday that the American intervention in Libya was a mistake — but this time she had to talk over a heckler who shouted vulgarities at her. — Jenny Watkins, 22, shouted at Bachmann …
Discussion:
Wonkette, Fox Nation, Cubachi and CNN
James S. Robbins / Washington Times:
Koran Burned in Iran (video) — Two anonymous young men in Iran, one Iranian and one Afghan, have burned a Koran in protest. This seven-and-a-half minute long video shows the two men, their faces obscured, holding the Muslim holy book and reading prepared statements.
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, The Jawa Report, The TrogloPundit and Moonbattery
Associated Press:
Charlie Crist apologizes to Talking Heads' David Byrne over campaign song — Crist posted apology in video on YouTube — TAMPA, Florida — Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has settled a lawsuit filed by Talking Heads singer David Byrne after Crist used one of the group's songs without permission …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Mediaite and Taegan Goddard's …
Erin Einhorn / NY Daily News:
NY Democrats criticize Obama's budget compromise, with Rep. Rangel calling it ‘immoral’ — Rangel went so far as to call the deal ‘irresponsible’ and ‘immoral.’ — New York's congressional delegation trashed President Obama's budget compromise Monday, calling it “irresponsible,” “dangerous” and “immoral.”
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Directorblue / Doug Ross:
Good news: Photos capture TSA repelling toddler terrorist threat with intrusive grope-downs of 6-year olds — This administration — and Janet Napolitano in particular — is simply out of control, that's all there is to it. — What possible excuse can someone use to grope a six-year old?
Discussion:
That Mr. G Guy's Blog, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, The Blast and Atlas Shrugs