For Rush Limbaugh advertisers, backlash could hit hard in social media age  —  Rush Limbaugh advertisers, like most of the corporate world, need to carefully cultivate their image on social-media networks.  That makes them more sensitive to social-media campaigns.  —  Let's call it old media versus new media.

Breitbart's Obama Video Is a Total Dud  —  That movie stunk.  —  Breitbart.com's explosive, blockbuster video that would expose Barack Obama as a radical commie who wasn't vetted by the media was almost entirely hype.  —  Breitbart.com's Editor-in-Chief Joel Pollak and Editor …

How Would Santorum Do Without Gingrich?  —  One of the reasons to be skeptical that Rick Santorum could win the Republican nomination is that we now have a pretty good idea of how the vote will play out from state to state — and the coalition that he is building seems short of a majority.

Obama lobbying Dems over Keystone XL pipeline  —  President Barack Obama is intervening in a Senate fight over the Keystone XL oil pipeline and personally lobbying Democrats to reject an amendment calling for its construction, according to several sources familiar with the talks.

Joe the Plumber blows a gasket on CNN  —  Samuel Wurzelbacher, who on Thursday morning accused CNN of being like TMZ and trying to trap him with “gotcha questions,” explained to POLITICO immediately following the tense interview that he is “sick of the gossip and drama.”

International Slutty Women's Day: A Story in GIFs  —  The year was 2012.  Women were basically just hanging out.  —  You know, doing lady stuff.  —  We'd gotten used to the fact that, for decades, people have been trying to tell us what to do.  —  That we should pay attention …

U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers  —  Justice Department Threatens Lawsuits, Alleging Collusion Over E-Book Pricing  —  The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Top-Down Romney Campaign  —  Much of the coverage of the moment is about the problem Mitt Romney is having with Republican base voters, who seem to neither like nor trust him.  Their hesitation doesn't seem to be enough to stop Romney from becoming their nominee, but it has …

Wind farms in Pacific Northwest paid to not produce  —  Wind farms in the Pacific Northwest — built with government subsidies and maintained with tax credits for every megawatt produced — are now getting paid to shut down as the federal agency charged with managing the region's electricity grid …

Pat Robertson Says Marijuana Use Should be Legal  —  Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader — including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing — his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate.

Won't Be Long Now, Folks!  —  And the odds that we'll get to somebody dropping the ni-CLANG word on President Obama took a really big step forward today, along with bonus misogyny to boot.  They say a picture's worth a thousands words, and judging from the latest Mike Lester political cartoon from the Rome …

The Influence Industry: Obama gives administration jobs to some big fundraisers  —  Big donors considering whether to work the phones raising money for President Obama's reelection campaign might consider the fate of his 2008 bundlers.  Many of them, it turns out, won plum jobs in his administration.

U.S. Unemployment Up in February  —  Underemployment is 19.1%, up from 18.7% in January  —  PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 9.1% in February from 8.6% in January and 8.5% in December.  —  The .5-percentage-point increase …

Rep. Jean Schmidt's Defeat Serves as Warning  —  Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt had tough primaries before, but it's obvious she didn't see this one coming.  —  Podiatrist Brad Wenstrup defeated Schmidt by 6 points in Tuesday's GOP primary, likely ending the controversial Congresswoman's career.

Dogging Mitt Romney  —  I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but Mitt Romney once drove to Canada with the family Irish setter on the roof of the car.  —  Seamus, the dog-on-the-roof, has become a kind of political icon.  You cannot go anywhere without running into him.

Number of U.S. Hate Groups Is Rising, Report Says  —  ATLANTA — Fed by antagonism toward President Obama, resentment toward changing racial demographics and the economic rift between rich and poor, the number of so-called hate groups and antigovernment organizations in the nation has continued to grow …

US offered Israel advanced weaponry in exchange for delaying Iran attack: report  —  WASHINGTON — The US offered to give Israel advanced weaponry — including bunker-busting bombs and refueling planes — in exchange for Israel's agreement not to attack Iranian nuclear sites, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Thursday.

Texas Women's Clinics Retreat as Finances Are Cut  —  Leticia Parra, a mother of five scraping by on income from her husband's sporadic construction jobs, relied on the Planned Parenthood clinic in San Carlos, an impoverished town in South Texas, for breast cancer screenings, free birth control pills and pap smears for cervical cancer.

Romney's wrong-headed assertions about Iran  —  Obama also worked closely with Congress to pass legislation that strengthened existing unilateral sanctions, and he signed an executive order enforcing tough new sanctions on Iran and its central bank.  —  Iran is virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system.

Secret Service agent: Clinton's staff rude, Hillary aloof  —  In a breach of tradition, a former U.S. Secret Service agent has self-published a book that savages the Clinton White House staff as arrogant and rude, suggests former first lady Hillary Clinton was aloof and charges …

Op-Ed Contributor: Reforms for the New Upper Class  —  THERE'S been a lot of commentary from all sides about my recently published book, “Coming Apart,” which deals with the divergence between the professional and working classes in white America over the last half century.

First Thoughts: Why isn't this GOP race over?  —  Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters  —  Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney pauses while speaking to supporters at his “Super Tuesday” primary election night rally in Boston, Massachusetts, March 6, 2012.

HERE'S THE OUTRAGE: Why are we outraged by Rush Limbaugh now?  —  Part 3—At long last, we take our stand: In our view, the liberal world has given Rush Limbaugh a pass for decades now.  —  Limbaugh has always had a pernicious effect on the public discourse.