memeorandum: Excellent Sam Ash NYC bus ad. (copyranter)

6:35 PM ET, March 13, 2012

Top Items:

Santorum: Fox News is ‘shilling’ for Mitt Romney — On Tuesday's “Kilmeade & Friends” radio show on Fox News Radio, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, accused Fox News of being in the tank for his competitor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Discussion: GOP 12, The Other McCain, Hot Air, Don Surber, The Raw Story, Business Insider and The Mental Recession

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Mitt Romney's 1994 Letter To The Log Cabin Republicans — Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney doesn't spent much time during the Republican primary talking about his past support for gay rights. But in a 1994 letter to the pro-gay Republican group The Log Cabin Republican seeking …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Joe. My. God. and BuzzFeed

Jonathan Martin / Politico:
Alabama and Mississippi primaries: Mitt Romney could seal deal in Dixie

Discussion: CNN, msnbc.com, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, American Spectator, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, The Caucus, U.S. News, PERRspectives, Swampland, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, Washington Wire, Shakesville, The Lonely Conservative, BuzzFeed and The Page

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Santorum: Fox News is ‘shilling’ for Mitt Romney

Discussion: National Review and Washington Post

Sean Trende / Real Clear Politics:
The Slog to 1,144: So Far, Demographics Trumps Momentum

Discussion: Hit & Run, Patterico's Pontifications and Washington Post

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:
Romney's Spending Dominance In One Chart

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Sarah Palin's foolishness ruined U.S. politics — At some point while watching HBO's absolutely smashing (and terrifying) movie “Game Change,” it occurred to me that Sarah Palin has ruined America. The movie has been scalloped out of the book by the same name and focuses on Palin, rather than on the entire 2008 presidential campaign.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Rumproast, his vorpal sword, Wonkette, No More Mister Nice Blog, A plain blog about politics, The Right Sphere and The Reality-Based Community

Paul Glastris / Washington Monthly:

False Equivalence Watch, Richard Cohen Version — James Fallows, Jonathan Chait and others have done much to open our eyes to the wondrous breadth and diversity of false equivalence in American journalism—that is, the media's insistent efforts to match any mention of egregious lying by a member …

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

Let's Talk About the Real Issues, Mr. President — The far Left continues to believe American voters are not smart enough to grasp the diversionary tactics it employs to distract us from the issues our President just doesn't want to talk about - issues that affect us all every day and must be addressed.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Hill, Hot Air, New York Times, Power Line, Don Surber, Washington Wire, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Little Green Footballs, Mediaite, Israel Matzav, The Mental Recession, Cold Fury and The Raw Story

Ben Shapiro / BREITBART.COM:

OBAMA TARGETS BREITBART, PALIN, HANNITY WITH HEAVILY-EDITED AD — The Obama re-election campaign has released an internet ad targeting Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, and Breitbart.com. Coming up short in the fundraising department and under fire for President Obama's longtime association …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, protein wisdom, Wake up America, Conservatives4Palin and Patterico's Pontifications

Andrew Malcolm / Investor's Business Daily:

Online, liberals far less tolerant than normal people — Not exactly shocking news for those exposed to them for years, but the respected Pew Research Center has determined that political liberals are far less tolerant of opposing views than regular Americans.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, americanthinker.com, protein wisdom, Whiskey Fire, Ricochet Conversations Feed and Patterico's Pontifications

Pew Internet:

Social networking sites and politics — Home - > - Reports - > - Social networking sites and politics - > - Main findings - > - Social networking sites and politics — Main findings — Social networking sites have become places where political conversation, debate, and proselytizing occur, especially during campaign seasons.

Discussion: Wonkette, Mediaite, The Volokh Conspiracy and Mashable!

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Pew: Liberals most intolerant online

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, New York Times, pandagon.net, The PJ Tatler, Ed Driscoll, CNN, The Daily Caller and Addicting Info, more at Mediagazer »

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims' Group — Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have gone to court to compel the group to disclose …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos, Shakesville, Joe. My. God., The Daily Dish and Campaign 2012

Josh Glasstetter / rightwingwatch.org:
Bill Donohue Gets Tough on Rape Victims, Wants to Fight Them ‘One by One’

Discussion: The Raw Story and Newshoggers.com

Dennis Woltering / WWL-TV:

Santorum leads GOP candidates in La., exclusive WWL-TV poll shows — NEW ORLEANS - A new, exclusive statewide poll of likely Republican voters in Louisiana conducted for WWL-TV shows voters favoring Rick Santorum, with the primary election two weeks away. — The telephone poll …

Discussion: Ballot Box, Bloomberg, Hot Air, msnbc.com, USA Today and CNN

Rick Santorum / CNN:
TRENDING: Santorum rails against Maher on ‘Christian madrassa’ comment

Discussion: Hot Air

Rick Santorum / CNN:
Alabama governor votes for Santorum

Discussion: Hot Air, The Daily Caller, American Spectator and Washington Post

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Obama Poll Drop Mystery: Explained! — Yesterday morning, a new Washington Post poll showed a sharp drop in President Obama's approval rating, from 50 percent approval (and 46 percent disapproval) to the reverse. People on Twitter started tittering. Jonathan Bernstein insisted it was all just random statistical noise.

Discussion: American Prospect, The Daily Caller, A plain blog about politics, The Huffington Post, Campaign 2012, Gallup, Guardian, Business Insider, Indecision Forever, The Daily Dish and The New Republic

Shannen W. Coffin / National Review:
New York Times: It's Just a Poll. Nothing to See Here.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, NewsBusters.org blogs, Daily Kos and Cold Fury

David A. Graham / The Atlantic Online:

The Problem With Polls About Whether Obama Is a Muslim — By asking voters what they think about the president's religion, pollsters help to perpetuate a falsehood. — Liberal blogs and sites are having a field day with new data from Public Policy Polling that shows that 52 percent …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, BuzzFlash.org, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com and Prairie Weather

Sandra Fluke / CNN:

Slurs won't silence women — Editor's note: Sandra Fluke is a third-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center and has served as president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice. — (CNN) — Last month, students from several Catholic universities gathered to send …

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, rightwingwatch.org, Little Green Footballs, Business Insider, Mediaite, Townhall.com, NewsBusters.org blogs, JustOneMinute, Hot Air, Feministing and The PJ Tatler

Philip Klein / Campaign 2012:

CBO: Obamacare to cost $1.76 trillion over 10 yrs — President Obama's national health care law will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade, according to a new projection released today by the Congressional Budget Office, rather than the $940 billion forecast when it was signed into law.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Business Insider, The Right Sphere and National Review

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:

McConnell offers support for Obama Afghan drawdown — “I support the policy the administration has laid out to move toward a transition over the next couple of years,” McConnell said. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he supports the Obama administration's plans …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog

New York Times:
U.S. Officials Debate Speeding Afghan Pullout

Discussion: Washington Post, Yahoo! News, The Heritage Foundation, Reuters, Guardian, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, Daniel W. Drezner, Global Spin, Hit & Run, FP Passport, News Desk, The Hill, Politico, Political Insider and Balloon Juice

Brady Dennis / Washington Post:

Supervisors directed banks' mortgage misconduct, HUD report says — Employees at major banks who churned out fraudulent foreclosure documents, forged signatures, made up fake job titles and falsely notarized paperwork often did so at the behest of their superiors, according to a federal investigation released Tuesday.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Los Angeles Times and Reuters

New York Times:
Federal Report Cites Bank Officials in Foreclosure Surge

Discussion: Firedoglake, ThinkProgress and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Polling in Deep South Has Posed Challenges — The polls suggest a tight race in Alabama and Mississippi, which will hold their primaries on Tuesday. Our polling-based forecasts show Newt Gingrich with a very small lead in Alabama and Mitt Romney with an equally small one in Mississippi.

Discussion: Guardian, The Other McCain, Crooks and Liars, Time, americanthinker.com and News Desk

Alec MacGillis / The New Republic:
Is The South Too Republican For Republicans?

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, The Caucus and The Moderate Voice

Eryn Brown / Los Angeles Times:

All red meat is bad for you, new study says — A long-term study finds that eating any amount and any type increases the risk of premature death. — Eating any amount and any type of red meat increases the risk of premature death, a new study says. (William Thomas Cain / Getty Images / March 12, 2012)

Discussion: Archives of Internal …, Gothamist, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Opinion L.A., Jezebel, Truthdig, Guardian and americanthinker.com

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Obama energy chief disavows '08 remark favoring higher gas prices — Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday disavowed his 2008 comments about increasing gas prices to European levels, remarks that Republicans have pounced on in recent weeks. — “I no longer share that view,” …

Discussion: Indecision Forever, Hot Air, NewsBusters.org blogs, Weasel Zippers and BREITBART.COM

Ben White / Reuters:

Jake Siewert, former Geithner aide, heads to Goldman — Jake Siewert, former counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and press secretary at the end of the second Clinton administration, has landed at Goldman Sachs, where he will be a managing director and head of global corporate communications.

Discussion: Gretawire

Saul Loeb / National Post:

Dick Cheney cancels Toronto trip, says Canada is too dangerous — TORONTO — Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney has cancelled an April appearance in Toronto citing concerns Canada is too dangerous. — “He felt that in Canada the risk of violent protest was simply too high,” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Los Angeles Times, The Impolitic, The Mahablog, The Raw Story and National Review

Felix Salmon:

The taco-truck mystery — Click here to view the embedded video. — Why is the food at food trucks better than the food in restaurants, at least when it comes to tacos? It doesn't make a huge amount of sense, on its face. Food trucks are much more limited in what they can cook …

Discussion: Marginal Revolution and Mother Jones

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Rush Limbaugh Syndicator Suspends National Ads For Two Weeks — Radio-Info.com reports that Premiere Networks, which syndicates the Rush Limbaugh show, told its affiliate radio stations that they are suspending national advertising for two weeks. Rush Limbaugh is normally provided …

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:

Sen. Schumer calls out Arizona Gov. Brewer — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is not done calling out Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer for turning down his request to testify before a Senate hearing on immigration legislation. … Schumer's office announced on Tuesday that former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Kathy Potts / TheGazette:

Stand together — I am a proud evangelical Christian Republican and a native of Mississippi. I moved to Iowa and fell in love with the political process here during caucus season. — I love how candidates crisscross the state and make a point to engage with voters.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Towleroad News #gay

copyranter:

Excellent Sam Ash NYC bus ad. — “If it makes music we sell it.” — I've bought percussion equipment from Sam Ash, a New York institution. Their workers can be dickish, though. Thanks Georgina. This awesome takeover by the Copenhagen Zoo, however, is still my favorite bus ad ever.

Discussion: Gothamist