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VIDEO: Paul Ryan Booed At Town Hall For Defending Tax Breaks For The Wealthy — ThinkProgress filed this report from a town hall meeting in Milton, WI. — Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) embarked on a series of town halls across his southern Wisconsin congressional district.
Discussion:
TPMDC, Sky Dancing, Wonk Room, Hullabaloo, Indecision Forever and Raw Replay
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Poll shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem — Despite growing concerns about the country's long-term fiscal problems and an intensifying debate in Washington about how to deal with them, Americans strongly oppose some of the major remedies under consideration …
Discussion:
Capital Gains and Games blogs, Charleston Gazette, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, ThinkProgress, The New Republic, Poll Watch Daily, The Raw Story, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Harry's Place, FrumForum, National Review, Little Green Footballs, Connecting.the.Dots and McClatchy Washington Bureau

Entitlement-hating Paul Ryan collected Social Security benefits until he was 18 — I guess it's only when social programs help other people that they're bad, because I haven't seen Paul Ryan acknowledging how Social Security benefits helped him and his family in trying times: … Continued below...
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, No More Mister Nice Blog, Nice Deb and The Raw Story

Dems needn't negotiate — Shudders went through the Beltway on Monday on the news that Standard & Poor's had lowered its outlook for U.S. debt because of its “fears” that the Democrats and Republicans wouldn't be able to come together to eliminate the deficit.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo

IGNORING ‘THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’.... Following up on an earlier item …
Discussion:
WBUR, Eschaton and Little Green Footballs

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — Liberals attack Paul Ryan …
Discussion:
Conservatives4Palin, POWIP and National Review

Pawlenty to release budget plan
Discussion:
National Review, FrumForum and AmSpecBlog


The $4 trillion gap: Obama vs. Ryan, an apples-to-apples budget comparison — OK, let's try and actually compare the new Obama budget plan — “The Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility” — with Rep. Paul Ryan's “Path to Prosperity.”
Discussion:
National Review, The Daily Dish and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*
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Obama administration officials tried to keep S&P rating at ‘stable’ — The Obama administration privately urged Standard & Poor's in recent weeks not to lower its outlook on the United States — a suggestion the ratings agency ignored Monday, two people familiar with the matter said.
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool, Weasel Zippers, Sister Toldjah, Pajamas Media, Verum Serum, Instapundit, Marathon Pundit, Pundit Press and FrumForum

Obama Officials Tried to Convince S&P Not to Issue Credit Warning
Discussion:
National Review and HotAirPundit

WH tried to keep S&P from issuing bond warning
Discussion:
White House Dossier and James Pethokoukis


Obama's Young Mother Abroad — The photograph showed the son, but my eye gravitated toward the mother. That first glimpse was surprising — the stout, pale-skinned woman in sturdy sandals, standing squarely a half-step ahead of the lithe, darker-skinned figure to her left.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Daily What, Don Surber, The Political Carnival, Wonkette, The Awl, Swampland, Althouse, Oliver Willis and The Page


‘Restrepo’ Director Is Killed While Working in Libya — BENGHAZI, Libya — Tim Hetherington, the conflict photographer who was a director and producer of the film “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged city of Misurata on Wednesday, and three photographers working beside him were wounded.


The Right Bailing The Left Out On Spending — I wrote about this earlier in the specific context of Grover Norquist, but Elise Foley's account of the Obama administration's rapidly unraveling deficit reduction initiative is another illustration of the fact that at the moment the right is big government's best friend:
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
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White House Deficit Talks Coming Apart At The Seams … WASHINGTON — The White House's proposed deficit talks with Congress appear to be unraveling before they've even begun. — House and Senate Republican leaders announced Tuesday that their sole appointees to the May 5th meeting …

iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go — Privacy fears raised as researchers reveal file on iPhone that stores location coordinates and timestamps of owner's movements — Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go - and saves every detail …
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Apple is Logging and Storing All Your iPhone's Location Data
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, Gothamist and Vox Popoli

Bachmann Says Obama's Certificate ‘Settles’ Birther Issue — For the first time, Rep. Michele Bachmann - who is actively considering a run for the White House in 2012 — has said that the birth certificate President Obama has released to the public puts an end to the “birther” issue.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, TPMDC, News Hounds, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Mediaite, msnbc.com, 24Ahead, Wonkette, National Review and Outside the Beltway
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Sarah Palin's Version Of Trig's Birth May Be More Troubling Than The Hoax — This past week, the draft of an academic paper that focuses on the 2008 birth of Sarah Palin's son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, and the various theories that surround his birth, was made public prior to publication through …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and FrumForum
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Liberal Website Wonkette Disgracefully Attacks Trig Palin On His Birthday
Discussion:
Weigel, Big Journalism, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers and National Review


The Death of Roe v. Wade — Supporters and opponents of abortion seem to agree: It's no longer the law of the land. — Supporters and opponents of abortion agree on nothing. One side says this is a conversation about fertilized eggs; the other says it's about fetuses.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Shakesville, Law Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Guardian, National Review, msnbc.com and FrumForum

Poll: Obama at 46 percent to Romney's 45 — President Obama would face a statistical tie against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) if the 2012 election were held today, a new poll found Wednesday. — A Marist/McClatchy News Poll released this morning suggested that the race between Obama …
Discussion:
The Politico, Weasel Zippers and HotAirPundit
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University of Iowa Professor Tells College Republicans to “F” Off — A University of Iowa professor felt the need to reply to a blast email by the College Republicans on Monday morning. Ellen Lewin, a professor of Anthropology and Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies in the Department of Gender …
Discussion:
National Review and The Gateway Pundit

Otter Signs Order Banning Health Care Reform — Order Prohibits State From Receiving Federal Funds — BOISE, Idaho — Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter signed an executive order on Wednesday that prohibits receiving federal funding for or otherwise implementing the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit
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Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch — On the eve of the November midterm elections, Koch Industries sent an urgent letter to most of its 50,000 employees advising them on whom to vote for and warning them about the dire consequences to their families, their jobs and their country should they choose to vote otherwise.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Monthly and Wonkette

Gay Marriage Opponents Now in Minority — A poll from CNN this week is the latest to show a majority of Americans in favor of same-sex marriage, with 51 percent saying that marriages between gay and lesbian couples “should be recognized by the law as valid” and 47 percent opposed.
Discussion:
Yglesias, Pam's House Blend, Taegan Goddard's …, Wonk Room, Equality Matters, Gawker, Mother Jones, The Daily Dish and ThinkProgress
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Cuomo Helps Groups Mobilize for Gay Marriage Bill
Discussion:
The Raw Story, Capital Tonight, Gothamist and Towleroad News #gay

Under Protest — Have you noticed all the huge antiwar demonstrations in the last twelve months? Yeah, me neither. It turns out that a lot of the energy for the movement seems to have been provided by Democrats who are a lot less worried about wars conducted by Democratic presidents.
Discussion:
Instapundit, Mudville Gazette, iOwnTheWorld.com, Wizbang and Althouse


Trump Most Visible Among Possible GOP Contenders — Most View News about Deficit as Unchanging — SUMMARY OF FINDINGS — Donald Trump has drawn a lot of attention in a slow-starting race for the GOP nomination. Roughly a quarter of all Americans (26%) name Trump as the possible …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Online, Ballot Box, Washington Wire, Poll Watch Daily and Indecision Forever

Mr. Obama: Taxing the rich won't increase revenues — TAGS: - 1970s - ABC - Barack Obama - Boris Bittker - Capital Gains Tax - capital gains tax rate - charlie gibson - Federal Budget - Federal Budget Deficit - federal government - George Washington University - government revenues …
Discussion:
The Glittering Eye


Obama Panel to Curb Medicare Finds Foes in Both Parties — WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans are joining to oppose one of the most important features of President Obama's new deficit reduction plan, a powerful independent board that could make sweeping cuts in the growth of Medicare spending.