Top Items:
Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:
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, Indecision Forever, The Politico and Raw Replay
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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:
Firedoglake, Capital Gains and Games blogs, Charleston Gazette, Guardian, ThinkProgress, The New Republic, Poll Watch Daily, The Raw Story, Washington Monthly, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Harry's Place, Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, FrumForum, Connecting.the.Dots, 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
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
IGNORING ‘THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’.... Following up on an earlier item, several recent national polls have shown overwhelming opposition to the Republican agenda, most notably GOP plans to eliminate Medicare and replace it with a privatized voucher system. — My question for Republicans, then …
Discussion:
WBUR, Eschaton and Little Green Footballs
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:
Discussion:
TalkLeft
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The Huffington Post:
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 …
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Jan Brewer: White House snubbed me on immigration talks
Jan Brewer: White House snubbed me on immigration talks
Discussion:
Hot Air, CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Pajamas Media, Wonk Room and Front page feed
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:
Washington Monthly, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, TPMDC, msnbc.com, 24Ahead, Mediaite, Wonkette, Outside the Beltway and Opinion L.A.
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Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
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:
iOwnTheWorld.com, Instapundit and Althouse
Christian Heinze / Ballot Box:
Bachmann's bid: The what-if game
Bachmann's bid: The what-if game
Discussion:
Cubachi, ABCNEWS, Liberty Pundits Blog and GOP 12
Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Bachmann: Obama's certification of live birth ‘should settle’ birther issue
Bachmann: Obama's certification of live birth ‘should settle’ birther issue
Discussion:
The Politico
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:
The Daily What, Don Surber, The Political Carnival, Wonkette, Althouse, The Awl, Swampland, Oliver Willis and The Page
C.J. Chivers / New York Times:
‘Restrepo’ Director Is Killed in Libya — BENGHAZI, Libya — Tim Hetherington, the Oscar-nominated film director and conflict photographer who produced the film “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged city of Misurata on Wednesday, and three photographers working beside him were wounded.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, Outside the Beltway and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
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 …
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Nathan Goulding / National Review:
Apple is Logging and Storing All Your iPhone's Location Data
Apple is Logging and Storing All Your iPhone's Location Data
Discussion:
New York Times, Pajamas Media and Vox Popoli
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:
Crooks and Liars, Shakesville, Law Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, msnbc.com, National Review 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:
The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Opinion L.A., Wonk Room, Modeled Behavior, Yglesias, Taylor Marsh, Paul Krugman and National Review
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Hans Bader / Washington Examiner:
BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — Liberals attack Paul Ryan because his father died young, resulting in survivor benefits — At the age of 16, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., suffered the death of his 55-year-old father. Because of his father's early death, the government made survivor payments for a few years …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, National Review, Weasel Zippers and Nice Deb
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Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Pawlenty to release budget plan
Pawlenty to release budget plan
Discussion:
National Review, FrumForum and AmSpecBlog
Ben Domenech / Coffee & Markets:
Paul Ryan Doesn't Require Staffers to Read Ayn Rand
Paul Ryan Doesn't Require Staffers to Read Ayn Rand
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, The Sundries Shack, Left Coast Rebel, alicublog, The Gateway Pundit and AmSpecBlog
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.
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:
The Politico, Weasel Zippers and HotAirPundit
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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, Wonkette, Conservatives4Palin, Weigel, Guardian, ABCNEWS, The Page, Wake up America, FrumForum, alicublog, Weasel Zippers and The Hill
RELATED:
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, Hotline On Call, Poll Watch Daily and The Political Carnival
RELATED:
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Gov. Christie's approval rating slips
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:
The Atlantic Online, Washington Wire, Poll Watch Daily 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
Tim Murphy / Mother Jones:
Mitch Daniels Was Once Caught With 2 Shoeboxes Full of Weed? — When it comes to pot, we've come a long way from the days of “I did not inhale.” Fifteen states (plus the District of Columbia) currently permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and according to a recent Pew survey …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and The Impolitic
James Pethokoukis:
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 and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*
The Nation:
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:
ThinkProgress, Ben Smith's Blog and Washington Monthly
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:
CNN, Questions and Observations, The Mahablog, Gawker, MyDD, The Political Carnival, Outside the Beltway and The Page
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, msnbc.com, Emptywheel and Runnin' Scared