The real unemployment rate?  It sure isn't 8.3%  —  Even if it were a legit number, the 8.3% February unemployment rate, released today by the Labor Department, would be simply terrible - and unacceptable.  It would still extend the longest streak of 8%-plus unemployment since the Great Depression.

Reaching Critical Mass  —  In one of the funnier, or scarier, videos I have seen recently, Breitbart.com's Editor-In-Chief Joel Pollak acquits himself well in a heated discussion with Soledad O'Brien of CNN about critical race theory.  A major point of contention revolved around the description of CRT:

LIMBAUGH REJECTS COMPANY THAT SUSPENDED ADS FROM SHOW OVER FLUKE REMARKS  —  Rush Limbaugh has rejected an advertiser's apparent attempt to reunite with his show after the company initially dropped its ads from the program following his remarks about contraception advocate Sandra Fluke.

Former Navy SEAL booted from Gov. Christie town hall after heated exchange  —  FLORENCE TOWNSHIP — The most-heated town hall clash of the year started today with a shouting match, drove Gov. Chris Christie to call a vocal opponent to the proposed Rutgers Camden-Rowan merger an “idiot,” and ended with a stern talking-to by police.

Alabama GOP Primary: Gingrich 30%, Santorum 29%, Romney 28%, Paul 7%  —  Alabama Republicans are up to bat next, and right now it's a near three-way tie going into next Tuesday's primary.  —  The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters …

New Republic Gets an Owner Steeped in New Media  —  The newest owner of The New Republic magazine is Chris Hughes, a new-media guru who co-founded Facebook and helped to run the online organizing machine for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  —  Mr. Hughes's purchase of a majority stake …

Ignorance Is Strength  —  One way in which Americans have always been exceptional has been in our support for education.  First we took the lead in universal primary education; then the “high school movement” made us the first nation to embrace widespread secondary education.

Study shows health care bill may have cost Democrats the House  —  A top Democrat acknowledged Thursday that President Obama's health care bill hurt his party in 2010.  And a new study suggests it cost the Democrats something pretty specific: their House majority.

Government-subsidized green light bulb carries costly price tag  —  The U.S. government last year announced a $10 million award, dubbed the “L Prize,” for any manufacturer that could create a “green” but affordable light bulb.  —  Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the prize would spur industry …

The Unchained Woman  —  What used to be a normal family life is now available only to the affluent.  —  Susanna Mancini, a 27-year-old lawyer, sent her boyfriend a photo of herself wearing a swimsuit and sunglasses.  “Too bad you can't see my eyes,” she wrote him.  “I am so proud of my tough yuppie stare!”

An American Auto Bailout for France?  —  Attention U.S. taxpayers: You now own a piece of a French car company that is drowning in red ink.  —  That's right.  In a move little noticed outside of the business pages, General Motors last week bought more than $400 million in shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen …

I refuse to go to the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner - no one should go  —  Another pig....and a media association has hired the pig, Louis C.K., to be their headliner for the big media dinner?  Really?  I am not going.  I refuse to go.  Everyone in the media should join me in this boycott.

IRS May Make Political Groups Pay Dearly for Keeping Donors Secret — And Out Them … REACT:  —  FOLLOW:  —  Elections-2012, Tea Party, Video, 501c4, Crossroads GPS, Donors, Irs, Irs-Tea-Party, Non-Disclosure, Political Groups, Priorities Usa, Super Pac, Politics News

About Virginia Postrel  —  Virginia Postrel writes about commerce and culture, innovation, economics and public policy.  Shes the author of “The Future and Its Enemies” and “The Substance of Style,” and is writing a book on glamour.  —  Fight Birth-Control Battle Over the Counter: Virginia Postrel

Breakfast Is Ready  —  Who says Mitt Romney can't appeal to southern voters.  —  The man likes grits, and he'll tell you so.  —  Video below the jump.  —  Paul Werdel  —  Paul Werdel is an Associate Editor at TPM.  Before joining TPM he was a News Editor with Al Jazeera English, and before that a Producer with BBC News.

Was Soledad O'Brien Bailed Out by Producers on Critical Race Theory Definition?  —  CNN's Soledad O'Brien's venomously sarcastic interview with Breitbart.com editor-in-chief Joel Pollak culminated with her throwing out her definition of “Critical Race Theory” in the heat of her interview over the Obama/Bell Tapes released last night.

Apple to build $304M campus, hire 3,600 in Austin … will expand its Austin presence with a $304 million campus that will ultimately create 3,600 new jobs, according to an announcement today by Gov. Rick Perry.  —  The new campus will more than double the size of Apple's workforce in Texas over the next 10 years.

Director of Obama ad couldn't find negative to put in ‘documentary’  —  The director of a new 17-minute campaign advertisement that President Obama's reelection campaign has described as a “documentary” said Thursday night he couldn't find a negative side of the president's first term to put in the new film.