memeorandum: Critical Letter By Catholics Cites Boehner On Policies (Laurie Goodstein/New York Times)

11:50 PM ET, May 11, 2011

Top Items:

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

GOP Freshmen On Medicare Attacks: Let's Let Bygones Be Bygones — House Republican freshmen admit that their so-called “MediScare” attacks on Democrats helped them win a big majority in 2010. Democrats had voted for the health care law, which included $500 billion in “cuts” to Medicare …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Wonkette, Daily Kos and Paul Krugman

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Trump blames Ryan budget for GOP woes in NY special election — If Republican Jane Corwin goes down in defeat in the May 24 special election in New York's 26th congressional district, blame Rep. Paul Ryan's (R) budget, Donald Trump said Wednesday. — Trump, speaking in the first-in-the …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Ballot Box, The Politico, The Caucus, Daily Kos, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and The Other McCain

CNN:
House Democrats say Medicare vote already hurting GOP with voters, cite NY special election

Discussion: The Politico, The Other McCain, The Lonely Conservative and Ballot Box

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
A serious Trump turns up in New Hampshire

Discussion: Hot Air, The Hill and Ballot Box

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
House GOP freshmen conveniently forget 2010

Discussion: The Politico, The Impolitic, The Reid Report and Eschaton

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Paul Ryan takes aim at AARP, but misses

Discussion: Daily Kos and Balloon Juice

Wall Street Journal:

Obama's Running Mate — Mitt Romney's ObamaCare problem. — Mitt Romney travels to Ann Arbor today to deliver what his campaign bills as a major address laying out his “2012 principles for health-care reform.” These are likely to be sensible, but what we'll be listening for is how he explains …

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:

Romney Death Watch, Even Deathier Edition — Tomorrow Mitt Romney ventures straight into the lion's den — Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of Jonathan Cohn, where he will deliver a health care speech attempting to explain the unexplainable. Just as Luke Skywalker was bound to seek out and confront Darth Vader, Romney must confront Cohn.

Discussion: The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Blue Mass Group, Left Coast Rebel and National Review

David / Blue Mass Group:

Romney backed a *federal* individual health care mandate in 1994 — Bumped, for Seamus. - promoted by david — We're all positively breathless with anticipation over what Mitt Romney might have to say about health care tomorrow in Michigan. He's tried so many times to explain …

Discussion: National Review, Weigel, Boston Globe, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Ben Smith's Blog, GOP 12, msnbc.com and Washington Post

Steve Holland / Reuters:

Obama way ahead of Republicans for 2012 election — (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has a wide lead over potential Republican rivals for the presidential election in 2012, but faces serious doubts about his handling of the U.S. economy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found Wednesday.

Discussion: Public Policy Polling, Salon, The Reid Report, The Raw Story, Weigel, The Politico, Taegan Goddard's … and Associated Press

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
Latest AP Poll Sample Skews to Democrats by 17 Points

Discussion: Guardian, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
And the award for the most ridiculous poll sampling goes to ...

Discussion: The New Editor, Nice Deb, Pajamas Media, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Moe Lane, The Moderate Voice, JammieWearingFool, iOwnTheWorld.com and Gawker

Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Obama's Approval Bump Hasn't Transferred to 2012 Prospects

Discussion: Fire Andrea Mitchell!, Wake up America and The Huffington Post

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
No bin Laden bounce on generic ballot

Discussion: FrumForum and HotAirPundit

Michael Sean Winters / ncronline.org:

Catholic Academics Challenge Boehner — A group of prominent Catholic academics have signed a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, on the occasion of his forthcoming commencement address at the Catholic University of America. I will provide commentary later today …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, NewsReal Blog, National Review, Swampland, Washington Post, Bold Faith Type, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Firedoglake, The Reality-Based Community, The Moderate Voice, Left Coast Rebel and Hullabaloo

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Critical Letter By Catholics Cites Boehner On Policies — Speaker John A. Boehner, a Republican who grew up in a Roman Catholic family in Ohio, is scheduled to give the commencement address on Saturday at the Catholic University of America in Washington, a prestigious setting in church circles …

Discussion: Bold Faith Type, Hit & Run and Booman Tribune

Southern Fried Scientist / Southern Fried Science:

Florida Senate fails basic biology, accidentally outlaws sex. — Question: If your elected officials fail basic taxonomy, promote anti-science curriculum, and consistently attempt to undermine the fundamental unpinning of all biology, what happens when they start trying to legislate from this flawed view of reality?

Discussion: Election Law, Balloon Juice, Discourse.net, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Politics and Gawker

Greg / New York Communities for Change:

May 12'ers taking over NYC! — Leading up to Thursday, the On May 12 Coalition has been paying surprise visits to JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and House Speaker John Boehner! — The momentum for Thursday's On May 12th actions to hold big banks and corporations accountable for crashing …

Discussion: Seeing the Forest

Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone: The People vs. Goldman Sachs

Bloomberg:
Boehner's Views on Economy Contradicted by Studies

Discussion: New York Times, Paul Krugman, Crooks and Liars, Yglesias, Washington Post, Reuters, Wonkette, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, The Caucus, TPMDC and Political Correction RSS

Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:

Referring To Grammy-Winning Hip-Hop Artist, Rove Slams The Obamas For ‘Inviting A Thug To The White House’ — Tonight, the president and first lady will host an evening of American poetry at the White House to celebrate the art form's influence in American culture and, apparently …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Times, Mediaite, American Prospect, No More Mister Nice Blog and Washington Monthly

Patrick Courrielche / Big Hollywood:
Like Rapper Common, White House Guest Jill Scott ‘Winces’ at Interracial Relationships

Discussion: Mediaite, NBC New York, Scared Monkeys, Patterico's Pontifications, Weasel Zippers, iOwnTheWorld.com and Little Green Footballs

Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
White House Condemns Some of Common's Lyrics but Praises his Larger Body of Work

Discussion: Washington Post, Weasel Zippers, Truthdig, The Nation and The Daily Caller

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

Removing the Boot from the Throat of American Businesses — President Obama has the opportunity to prove that he cares about keeping jobs for working class families in America. He can speak up about his appointees at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) who have their boots on The Boeing Company's neck.

Discussion: Cubachi, The Politico, Taylor Marsh and Washington Wire

Josiah Ryan / The Hill:
Reid defends labor board's decision

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, National Review and FrumForum

Erik Hedegaard / Rolling Stone:

Donald Trump Lets His Hair Down — A conversation with the host of The Celebrity Apprentice — Like you, we've always wondered what's inside Donald Trump's wallet. So, on a recent visit to his office at the top of Trump Tower in Manhattan, the epicenter of his vast real estate empire …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, NY Daily News, Gothamist, Runnin' Scared, CNN, Pajamas Media, Outside the Beltway and AMERICAblog News

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

After approving NBC buyout, FCC Commish becomes Comcast lobbyist — Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC. — The news, reported this afternoon …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Wire, Reuters, Opinion L.A., Gawker and Emptywheel, more at Techmeme »

Edward Wyatt / Media Decoder:
F.C.C. Commissioner Leaving to Join Comcast

Discussion: Truthdig, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Rand Paul: If You Believe In A Right To Health Care, ‘You Believe In Slavery’ — Conservatives have slung all kinds of hyperbolic, outlandish, and phony attacks on attempts to provide health care to all Americans over the years, but tea party darling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) …

Discussion: Lez Get Real

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape — WASHINGTON — Jess Smochek arrived in Bangladesh in 2004 as a 23-year-old Peace Corps volunteer with dreams of teaching English and “helping the world.” She left six weeks later a rape victim after being brutalized in an alley by a knife-wielding gang.

Discussion: Wizbang, Blog of Rights, Boing Boing, Doughnut Orbitals, The Raw Story, Feministing, The Other McCain, The Lonely Conservative, AlterNet.org, First Response Action and ABCNEWS

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

House Dems protest GOP's plans for permanent war against terror — Nearly three dozen House Democrats are calling on Republicans to withdraw a section of the 2012 defense authorization bill that they say would effectively declare a state of permanent war against unnamed Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Nation and Weasel Zippers

Erica Ho / newsfeed.time.com:

Survey: 85% of New College Grads Move Back in with Mom and Dad — The kids are coming home to roost. — Surprise, surprise: Thanks to a high unemployment rate for new grads, many of those with diplomas fresh off the press are making a return to Mom and Dad's place.

Discussion: Firedoglake and The Lonely Conservative

Larry O'Connor / Breitbart.tv:

ACORN's Bertha Lewis Sings ‘Wal-Mart Sucks’ at Church Service — This defies any further explanation.

Discussion: Verum Serum

Tom Geoghegan / BBC:

Why are Americans so angry about petrol prices? — Rising petrol prices in the US are expected to be one of the key issues in the 2012 presidential election. But Americans still pay half of what Europeans fork out on the forecourt. So why is it such a big deal?

Discussion: Climate Progress

Robert Gehrke / Salt Lake Tribune:

Huntsman's pro-civil unions stance breaks with GOP orthodoxy — In the days after he was nominated as U.S. ambassador to China, congratulations poured in to former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., including one from Bob Page, a North Carolina businessman. — “I write to thank you for your leadership …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and Oliver Willis

Larry McShane / NY Daily News:

Upstate New York man says sign pointing to mosque stating ‘BOMB MAKING NEXT DRIVEWAY’ stays — An angry upstate New York man says there's not a prayer that he'll remove a nasty sign prompted by a feud with the mosque next door. — “BOMB MAKING NEXT DRIVEWAY,” reads the stenciled message on the front lawn of Michael Heick.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Gawker and Gothamist

George Talbot / Breaking News from the Press-Register:

Inside the Alabama Democrats' 5-point comeback plan (Talbot) — Can Mark Kennedy lead the Alabama Democratic Party out of the wilderness? — That's the question facing the former state Supreme Court Justice as he takes on one of the most daunting tasks in American politics.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Brian Calle / Orange Punch:

Lifeguarding in OC is totally lucrative; some make over $200k — High pay and benefits for lifeguards in Newport Beach is the latest example of frustrating levels of compensation for public employees. More than half the city's full-time lifeguards are paid a salary of over $100,000 …

Discussion: RedState, Pajamas Media, Hot Air and Wizbang