Top Items:
The Politico:
What's Donald Trump really after? — Despite an almost universal refusal by Republican establishment figures and the press to take him seriously, Donald Trump is taking very concrete steps toward forming - and announcing - a presidential campaign. — He has interviewed at least two people …
Discussion:
Daniel W. Drezner, CNN, New York Times, No More Mister Nice Blog and Taegan Goddard's …
RELATED:
Rasmussen Reports:
Obama 49%, Trump 34% — President Obama leads Donald Trump by 15 percentage points in a hypothetical 2012 match-up, but the president is unable to top the 50% level of support even against an opponent some are deriding as a joke. — The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds …
Discussion:
GOP 12, Michelle Malkin and Outside the Beltway
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Let's Not Be Civil — Last week, President Obama offered a spirited defense of his party's values — in effect, of the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society. Immediately thereafter, as always happens when Democrats take a stand, the civility police came out in force.
CNBC:
S&P Affirms US AAA Rating, Cuts Outlook to Negative — Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded the outlook for the United States to negative, saying it believes there's a risk U.S. policymakers may not reach agreement on how to address the country's long-term fiscal pressures.
Discussion:
Don Surber, HyperVocal, The Gateway Pundit, Moonbattery, Pajamas Media and Vox Popoli
RELATED:
Matthew Saltmarsh / New York Times:
S.&P. Lowers Outlook for U.S., Sending Stocks Down
Discussion:
Paul Krugman and Balloon Juice
Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
Vandals Break In WI Office - Steal Fleebagger Recall Petitions Hours After It Was Announced Enough Signatures Were Collected (Video) — On Thursday Wisconsin conservatives announced that they had collected enough signatures 15,000 to recall fleebagger Senator Dave Hansen of Green Bay.
RELATED:
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Middle-Class Tax Trap — “Let's tell the truth,” Walter Mondale said, accepting the Democratic nomination in 1984. “Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.” — Three months later, Mondale lost 49 states, and liberal politicians learned a valuable lesson.
Discussion:
National Review, Booman Tribune, The New Republic, Mother Jones and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Matthew Boyle / The Daily Caller:
TheDC Exclusive: Conservatives hit Beck for taking content without attribution — A number of conservative activists and bloggers say they're furious at media magnate Glenn Beck for what they call content theft. Over the past several years, Beck has relied on video, audio and written content …
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, YID With LID, FishbowlDC, Outside the Beltway and Riehl World View
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Huntsman team plans South Carolina campaign — Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) - If ambassador to China Jon Huntsman does decide to run for president after returning to the United States in early May, his advisers are planning to make a serious play for South Carolina, the early primary state …
Discussion:
GOP 12 and Ben Smith's Blog
RELATED:
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Bachmann non-committal on first GOP debate
Discussion:
Cubachi, Ballot Box, Liberty Pundits Blog and The Political Carnival
Robin Bravender / The Politico:
President Obama to ignore ‘czar’ ban — President Barack Obama is planning to ignore language in the 2011 spending package that would ban several top White House advisory posts. — House Republicans tacked on language to the contentious spending bill to cut the salaries for four so-called czars …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Scared Monkeys, FrumForum, Weasel Zippers, HotAirPundit and The Hill
RELATED:
Lisa Lerer / Bloomberg:
Ryan Budget Plan Defended as Republicans Return Home to Voters — First-term Representative Bobby Schilling is getting ready for some uncomfortable conversations. — The pizzeria owner-turned-Republican lawmaker supported his party's 2012 budget plan that passed in the House last week …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Los Angeles Times, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Swampland
RELATED:
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
As debt ceiling vote nears, the pressure's on House Republican freshmen — They ran against debt. They swore and swore again that they'd cut up the nation's credit card. — But now the 87 freshmen House Republicans are facing intense pressure from administration officials …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Left Coast Rebel, New York Times, FrumForum and Balloon Juice
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Where the Tax Money Is — Obama targets the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich. — A dominant theme of President Obama's budget speech last Wednesday was that our fiscal problems would vanish if only the wealthiest Americans were asked “to pay a little more.”
Discussion:
The Lonely Conservative, Betsy's Page and The Other McCain
Reuters:
Al-Jazeera has fans in Obama W.H. — In the halls of American power, the Arab Spring has brought Al-Jazeera in from the cold. — Seven years after then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the broadcaster's reporting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” and President George W. Bush joked …
Discussion:
The Caucus, FrumForum, White House Dossier, JammieWearingFool and Jihad Watch, more at Mediagazer »
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
GANG OF SIX ‘VERY CLOSE’ TO AN AGREEMENT, INTENDS TO ‘MAKE EVERYBODY MAD’.... Two months ago, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” deficit-reduction talks, said the group was “getting close” to striking a deal. Two weeks ago, however, the negotiations …
Discussion:
The Politico, Firedoglake and The Hill
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Relieve Pain by Swearing, Study Says — Hey, after all these years, I'm vindicated at last: … And, indeed, some of what we were taught in schools was wrong. — For instance, the story has it Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty or give me death.” He really said: “Wear one of those dreadful Tory hats?
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:
Ha'aretz: Bibi, Barak, Lean Toward Confronting Iran; Mossad More Skeptical — This weekend brought us a fascinating and complicated report from Ha'aretz's Amir Oren, who suggests that the early success of the Iron Dome missile-interception system makes it somewhat more likely that Israel …
Rebel Pundit:
Unhinged Lunatics Message to Madison Tea Party & Sarah Palin — These protesters at the Madison, Wisconsin Tea Party Protest featuring Andrew Breitbart and Sarah Palin unleashed a furious message in the following video. Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea what this message means...
Discussion:
The Powers That Be, Conservatives4Palin, Weasel Zippers, Breitbart.tv, The Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View and Wonkette
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Boehner, House delegation visits Pakistan for ‘frank’ talks on extremism — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and five other lawmakers were in Pakistan Monday to meet with top government and military officials. — The group met with Prime Minister Yousaf Gillani and Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and had a …
Discussion:
The Politico
Patrick Poole / Pajamas Media:
DOJ Source: Gov't Muslim ‘Outreach’ Jeopardized Active Terror Investigations — An explosive, must-read interview brings sunlight to our counterproductive “outreach” programs. The case of the missing Somali men from Minneapolis highlights the failure and the absurdity.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report and National Review
John Fund / Wall Street Journal:
Wisconsin's Election Snafu Is a National Wake-Up Call — The need for greater transparency grows as we head toward 2012. — It's been over a decade since the Bush-Gore recount in Florida was supposed to spur a wholesale modernization of our election systems.
Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
‘$58,000 per second’: Member wants debt clock displayed in House chamber — Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) last week introduced a resolution that would place a clock measuring the U.S. debt in the House chamber as a “visual gesture” that reminds members of the need to reduce spending.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin and Weasel Zippers
New York Times:
Justice, Too Much and Too Expensive — HABEAS corpus: it is, as Alexander Hamilton suggested, the “bulwark” of a Constitution. A habeas petition gives a single federal judge the authority to decide if a prisoner is being held unlawfully and order his release.
Discussion:
PointOfLaw Forum
E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
E.J. Dionne Jr. — America's elites have a duty to the rest of us — The American ruling class is failing us — and itself. — At other moments in our history, the informal networks of the wealthy and powerful who often wield at least as much influence as our elected politicians accepted …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Corrente
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