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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Latest AP Poll Sample Skews to Democrats by 17 Points  —  Wow!  The AP poll has Obama's approval rating hitting 60 percent!  And 53 percent say he deserves to be reelected!  —  And on the economy, 52 percent approve of the way Obama's handling it, and only 47 percent disapprove!

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 …

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?

Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says  —  CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday.

Reid defends labor board's decision  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday defended the National Labor Relations Board, which has come under heavy criticism from Republicans.  —  Reid said the NLRB “acts as a check on employers and employees alike” and is consistent with the …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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) …

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?

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.

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 …

As Breitbart and Loesch Cover Their Tracks, Professors Cleared By University Officials  —  You may recall this video.  It was the first of two posted on Big Government's site two weeks ago alleging that UMSL Professor Don Giljum and UMKC Professor Judy Ancel were teaching impressionable young college students …

How Microsoft Caused the DotCom Bubble and why their Skype ‘Hail Mary’ is irrelevant  —  Since the mid-nineties, I have nurtured a thesis about the dotcom bubble, tech bust, and the role Microsoft played in it.  The opportunity to discuss it has never came up.  —  That is, until Microsoft's purchase of Skype yesterday.

The £12m question: how WikiLeaks gags its own staff  —  “A typical open market valuation.”  —  This blog has previously described the bizarre legal world of WikiLeaks where, for example, the organisation claims some form of commercial ownership over the information that has been leaked to it.

A Polling-Based Forecast of the Republican Primary Field  —  This is the finale of a four-part series (Part I, Part II, Part III) evaluating the utility of early presidential primary polls as forecasting instruments.  My contention is that these polls have enough predictive power …