memeorandum: Pawlenty to release budget plan (Jordan Fabian/The Hill)

1:20 PM ET, April 20, 2011

Top Items:

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 …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Speaker, The Hill, The Politico, Balloon Juice, Washington Wire, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and AMERICAblog News

Myglesias / Yglesias:

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:

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Jan Brewer: White House snubbed me on immigration talks

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Pajamas Media, Washington Post, Wonk Room and Front page feed

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Gov. Brewer: White House snubbed me

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Foundry

Janny Scott / New York Times:

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: Wonkette, The Political Carnival, The Daily What, Don Surber, Swampland, The Awl, Oliver Willis and The Page

George Stephanopoulos / George's Bottom Line:

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: Mediaite, TPMDC, GOP 12, Outside the Beltway and Opinion L.A.

Christian Heinze / Ballot Box:
Bachmann's bid: The what-if game

Discussion: Cubachi, Liberty Pundits Blog, ABCNEWS and GOP 12

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Bachmann: Obama's certification of live birth ‘should settle’ birther issue

Discussion: The Politico

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Sarah Palin: Don't pick on Donald Trump — Even though Donald Trump has wholeheartedly embraced the wall-to-wall media coverage that's come with his promotion of the widely discredited “birther” issue, Sarah Palin argued Tuesday that the press is treating him “unfairly” …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Conservatives4Palin, ABCNEWS, Guardian, Wake up America, The Page, Wonkette, FrumForum, Weasel Zippers, alicublog and The Hill

David Weigel / Weigel:
Pay Attention to Sarah Palin!

Discussion: TVNewser, Comments from Left Field, Taylor Marsh, Datechguy's Blog, Rumproast, The Daily Dish, Riehl World View and Los Angeles Times

Club for Growth:
Trump Abuses Eminent Domain

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Talking Points Memo, LifeNews.com, Wonkette, No More Mister Nice Blog, TPMDC, Mediaite, National Review, Outside the Beltway, The Lonely Conservative, Hot Air and George's Bottom Line

Lauraklairmont / CNN:
Trump headed to another early voting state

Discussion: The Politico

Washington Post:

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: Washington Monthly, Guardian, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Raw Story, Poll Watch Daily, The New Republic, Daily Kos, Connecting.the.Dots, FrumForum, National Review and McClatchy Washington Bureau

The Hill:

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

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

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 …

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, National Review, Boing Boing and Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Alasdair Allan / O'Reilly Radar:
Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves

Discussion: Washington Post and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Newt Gingrich struggles to raise hard money — Newt Gingrich raised a meager $53,000 into his political action committee in the first three months of the year, highlighting potential fundraising difficulties as the former House Speaker girds for a campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

Discussion: Questions and Observations, The Mahablog, CNN, Outside the Beltway, MyDD, The Political Carnival and The Page

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:

New Jersey voters label Christie a ‘bully’? — (CNN) - He says he's not, but if Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey runs for the White House, he will face some stiff competition from President Barack Obama, according to a new poll of Garden State voters.

Discussion: Oliver Willis, Poll Watch Daily and The Political Carnival

Jordan Fabian / The Hill: Gov. Christie's approval rating slips

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

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: Weasel Zippers and HotAirPundit

Steve Kornacki / Salon:
A reminder: Obama could easily lose next year

Discussion: The Politico, The Daily Caller, The Atlantic Online and Alas, a Blog

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:

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: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, JammieWearingFool, Instapundit and FrumForum

Robert Pear / New York Times:

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.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Yglesias, Wall Street Journal, Taylor Marsh, The New Republic, Paul Krugman, Modeled Behavior, Hot Air and National Review

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

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: Washington Wire, Poll Watch Daily, Taegan Goddard's … and Indecision Forever

Deborah Arthurs / Daily Mail:

‘I wanted to be free’: Muslim model upsets family by posing nude for Playboy cover — Sila Sahin, a 25-year-old Turkish German living in Berlin, had until now been regarded as a glowing example of how a modern Muslim girl should behave in a multicultural society.

Discussion: UNCOVERAGE.net, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

Jeff Poor / The Daily Caller:

Does Paul Ryan's admiration for Ayn Rand make him pro-terrorist? Possibly, warns MSNBC guest — If a fictional character in a piece of literature from an author you admire commits some acts that would likely result in a felony conviction, does that mean you're a proponent of felonious acts?

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, protein wisdom and The Gateway Pundit

Ben Domenech / Coffee & Markets:
Paul Ryan Doesn't Require Staffers to Read Ayn Rand

Discussion: alicublog, Left Coast Rebel, protein wisdom and AmSpecBlog

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Pawlenty to release budget plan — Likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday he plans to unveil his own budget proposal — one that would tackle Social Security reform. — The former Minnesota governor echoed his previous praise of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) …

Discussion: National Review, FrumForum and AmSpecBlog

New York Times:

A Rational Budget for the Pentagon — In their budget-cutting zeal, Republicans are demanding harsh sacrifices from the country's most vulnerable citizens. At the same, they are determined to leave one of the biggest areas of wasteful government spending untouched: the Pentagon budget.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, BLACKFIVE and The Hill

Army Court-Martial Defense Specialist / The Law Office …:

Why Was PFC Manning Moved to Fort Leavenworth? — Like many others, the defense first learned of PFC Manning's move to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas by reading that a government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, leaked the information to the Associated Press.

Discussion: Salon, Firedoglake, Emptywheel, msnbc.com and Runnin' Scared

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:

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: Lawyers, Guns & Money, msnbc.com, National Review and FrumForum

Kerry Picket / Washington Times:

(video) Left wing DC activist to TWT: ‘Drop dead’ — During a press conference last Thursday held by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray regarding his opposition to Congress's re-authorization of DC's school voucher program, an anti-school voucher activist became angry with me over questions I asked Mr. Gray.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, JammieWearingFool, The Right Scoop, The Blast, Hot Air and Verum Serum

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Obama lauds progress after Gulf spill but says 'the job isn't done' — President Obama marked the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill Wednesday by vowing a continued commitment to Gulf of Mexico recovery and restoration, lauding “significant” progress while proclaiming that “the job isn't done.”

Discussion: FrumForum