Top Items:
New York Times:
Nation's Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows — Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Nation, msnbc.com, Guardian, The Note, Weasel Zippers, New Deal 2.0, The New Republic, CBS News, White House Dossier, Questions and Observations, Outside the Beltway, Scared Monkeys, Sweetness & Light, The Awl, TalkLeft, Don Surber, FrumForum, New York Times, Daily Kos, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Moderate Voice, Salon, Runnin' Scared and The Daily Dish
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Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Poll: Most Americans oppose raising debt limit — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — Despite Obama administration warnings that failing to do so would devastate the economy, a clear majority of Americans …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Slate, Wake up America, TPMDC, Don Surber, Patterico's Pontifications, Scared Monkeys, Gothamist, Washington Post, Hotline On Call, RedState and The Atlantic Online
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Patients Are Not Consumers — Earlier this week, The Times reported on Congressional backlash against the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a key part of efforts to rein in health care costs. This backlash was predictable; it is also profoundly irresponsible, as I'll explain in a minute.
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Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Medicine Is Not a Consumer Good — Conservatives frequently argue …
Shadowfax / Movin' Meat:
Why Patients are Not Consumers — Republican budget guru Paul Ryan …
Why Patients are Not Consumers — Republican budget guru Paul Ryan …
Discussion:
The Incidental Economist and The Daily Dish
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Huckabee, Trump, Romney Set Pace for 2012 GOP Field — Trump leads among liberal and moderate Republicans — PRINCETON, NJ — Donald Trump debuts in a first-place tie in Gallup's latest update of Republicans' preferences for the party's 2012 presidential nomination among potential contenders.
Discussion:
Ballot Box, Michelle Malkin, Taylor Marsh, USA Today, GOP 12, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and The Political Carnival
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Michael McAuliff / The Huffington Post:
9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI's Terrorism Watch List (EXCLUSIVE) … WASHINGTON — A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned.
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared, The Mahablog, Atlas Shrugs and FrumForum
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Attaturk / Firedoglake:
A trio of self-proclaimed GOP heroes
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The Electoral Implications of Ensign's Resignation — Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada is expected to appoint Dean Heller, currently the Republican incumbent in the state's Second Congressional District, to replace Senator John Ensign, who is resigning. — Mr. Heller was already expected …
Discussion:
USA Today, Slate, Booman Tribune, Gawker and New York Times
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Shane D'Aprile / Ballot Box:
Sharron Angle could face party insiders in Nevada
Sharron Angle could face party insiders in Nevada
Discussion:
Roll Call, TPMDC and The Maddow Blog
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Senator Ensign to Resign Amid Inquiry
Senator Ensign to Resign Amid Inquiry
Discussion:
USA Today, ThinkProgress, Prairie Weather, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, DailyHowler.com and Balloon Juice
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GOP Rep. Patrick Meehan Faces Constituent Anger After Breaking Campaign Promise To Not Privatize Medicare — CNN reports this morning that freshman GOP Rep. Patrick Meehan (PA) faced a “tough crowd” back home after voting for Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) budget proposal that would effectively end Medicare …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Delaware County Times, CNN and Pennsylvania Ave.
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Earth Day co-founder killed, composted girlfriend — Ira Einhorn preached against Vietnam War and violence, but had dark side — Below: — Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970.
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama makes ‘birther’ joke at fundraiser — President Obama on Thursday lightened up talk of high gas prices and the budget deficit on his West Coast swing with a joke about those who question his citizenship. — “A lot of you got involved when the prospect of electing Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office was slim.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
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Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama suggests low poll numbers due to high gas prices
Obama suggests low poll numbers due to high gas prices
Discussion:
CNN, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, FrumForum and The Hill
Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
Allen West: It's Fair To Call Obama A ‘Low Level Socialist Agitator’ Because He Called Paul Ryan An ‘Accountant’ — Bomb throwing tea party Rep. Allen West (R-FL) appeared on Fox News host Greta Van Susteren's show last night to defend his latest attack against President Obama …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Fox Nation, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Weasel Zippers, The Blaze, TPMDC and Mediaite
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Krauthammer: Trump is running — Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says Donald Trump reached out to him after a piece he wrote that laced into the developer's potential 2012 bid — a phone call he said convinced him The Donald is running for president.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Cubachi, National Review, FrumForum, Outside the Beltway and Don Surber
Henry / Crooked Timber:
The Anniversary — And so the year rolls around yet again to Krauthammer Day, the day on which we all celebrate Charles Krauthammer's confident assertion eight years ago that: … Or nearly all of us celebrate it anyway. Charles Krauthammer himself seems to prefer to mark the occasion …
Discussion:
Yglesias
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Birtherism: Where it all began — Just when it appeared that public interest was fading, celebrity developer Donald Trump has revived the theory that President Barack Obama was born overseas and helped expose the depth to which the notion has taken root—a New York Times poll Thursday found that a plurality of Republicans believe it.
Discussion:
Right Wing News and White House Dossier
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Bright, Careful and Sadistic: Profiling Long Island's Mystery Serial Killer — He is most likely a white male in his mid-20s to mid-40s. He is married or has a girlfriend. He is well educated and well spoken. He is financially secure, has a job and owns an expensive car or truck.
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared, American Prospect, Gizmodo and Gothamist
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Writing Teachers: Still Crazy After All These Years — After spending four depressing days this month at a meeting of 3,000 writing teachers in Atlanta, I can tell you that their parent group, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, is not really interested in teaching students to write and communicate clearly.
Discussion:
TigerHawk and protein wisdom
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EXCLUSIVE: MEL GIBSON FINALLY TALKS — EXCLUSIVE: On May 6th, Mel Gibson's much-delayed comeback picture, The Beaver, will open in limited release. It's directed by his longtime friend and co-star Jodie Foster. The movie has already garnered reviews praising Gibson's performance as …
Discussion:
This Just In, Guardian, PopEater, Jezebel and The Daily What
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama speaks to the stars; Tom Hanks suggests ‘five-and-a-half more years’ — President Obama asked for support Thursday from a small Los Angeles audience dotted with Hollywood stars. — Speaking in a tiny room of the Italian restaurant Tavern to a an audience of 60 that included Steven Spielberg …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and FrumForum
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Jared Bernstein, Biden's Economic Adviser, to Leave — Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden's economic adviser and one of the longest serving economists in the Obama White House, will leave the administration at the end of the month, a White House official said.
Discussion:
Firedoglake
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Ayn Rand's adult-onset adolescence — The movie “Atlas Shrugged,” adapted from Ayn Rand's 1957 novel by the same name, is a triumph of cinematic irony. A work that lectures us endlessly on the moral superiority of heroic achievement is itself a model of mediocrity.
Discussion:
Hit & Run and The Daily Caller
Debra Cassens Weiss / ABA Journal Daily News:
What Is the Cost of a Law Review Article by a Top Prof? Estimate Is $100K — Top law professors make big bucks—money that supports law review articles that can cost as much as $100,000 each in salaries and other costs, according to an estimate made at a conference on the future of legal education.
Discussion:
Clayton Cramer's Blog
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Delaware politics: Christine O'Donnell amends campaign financing reports — Software blamed for 2009-10 errors — A lawyer for former Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell is blaming computer software for “inadvertent errors” in fundraising reports the Delaware Republican filed in 2009 and early 2010.
Discussion:
Wonkette and The Politico
Washington Examiner:
Federal labor board seeks to ground Boeing — Can federal bureaucrats tell a private company where to build a factory? — Members of President Obama's National Labor Relations Board think they can. In a decision that even the New York Times is describing as “highly unusual for the federal government …
Discussion:
Sweetness & Light and RedState
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Large Tax Increases are Not A Semantic Question — Yesterday I argued that simply covering our medium-term fiscal problems with tax hikes was not going to be easy or relatively painless; we'd have to go back to the Clinton era tax rates, and then hike rates again by at least a third, possibly more.
Discussion:
TBogg, The Daily Dish and Instapundit