memeorandum: Imam dies in mosque arson attack in Belgian capital (BBC)

12:00 AM ET, March 13, 2012

Top Items:

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Santorum Concedes: He Can't Win The Nomination Outright — Winning by losing? Strategy memo is less a “path to victory” as it is a path to a contested convention. — Santorum talks with supporters during a stop at Sweet Peppers Deli, Sunday, March 11, 2012, in Tupelo, Miss. — (AP / Eric Gay)

Discussion: Reuters, Hot Air, Business Insider, Politico, Washington Post, Guardian, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, Indecision Forever, Little Green Footballs, The Hill, The Spectacle Blog, The Other McCain and A plain blog about politics

David Corn / Mother Jones:

Michael Steele: “I Wanted a Brokered Convention” — Before he was booted as GOP chair, Steele changed the party's primary contest rules—and now Romney and the Republican establishment are paying for his chaos theory experiment. — Is the never-ending and ever-bitter 2012 Republican presidential race …

Discussion: Mediaite, The PJ Tatler, Indecision Forever, Hot Air, The Impolitic and The Other McCain

Jake Sherman / Politico:
Mitt Romney wishes Mobile 'good mornin"

Discussion: CNN, Ballot Box, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Don Surber and Daily Kos

CNN:
Foxworthy on hunting with Romney: More dangerous than Cheney

Discussion: GOP 12

CNN:
Romney: If battle to convention, ‘signaling our doom’

Discussion: Politico

Bobby Jindal / CNN:
Jindal won't endorse before Louisiana primary

Discussion: GOP 12, Politico and The Page

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Specter says Obama ditched him after he helped pass health law — Former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) writes in a new book that President Obama ditched him in the 2010 election after he helped Obama win the biggest legislative victory of his term by passing healthcare reform.

Discussion: YID With LID, National Review, Ricochet Conversations Feed, CNN, Power Line, The Other McCain and The Spectacle Blog

Josiah Ryan / The Hill:

Reid: Republicans clogging judicial confirmation process to embarrass Obama — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) charged Senate Republicans on Monday of gumming up the Senate's judicial confirmation process in order to embarrass President Obama, and said he plans to file cloture …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, RedState, Firedoglake and ThinkProgress

Meredith / Senate Democrats:

Cloture filed on 17 Judicial nominations — Today Senator Reid filed cloture on the following 17 Judicial nominations. Under the rule, the first vote would occur 1 hour after the Senate convenes on Wednesday, March 14. — Cal.#408, Gina Marie Groh, of West Virginia; Cal.#441, David Nuffer, of Utah;

Discussion: LGBTQ Nation, ACS Blog and Poliglot

Manu Raju / Politico: Harry Reid vows floor fight for judicial nominees

New York Times:

Obama Approval Rating Shows Serious Slip in New Poll — Despite improving job growth and an extended Republican primary fight dividing his would-be opponents, President Obama is heading into the general election season on treacherous political ground, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Discussion: Power Line, The Last Tradition and Politico

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:

Poll: Obama's approval rating sinks to new low — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — (CBS News) President Obama's approval rating has hit the lowest level ever in CBS News polling, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times survey.

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, Althouse and Patterico's Pontifications

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:
Obama Fares Worse Among Women after Month-Long Contraception Mandate Battle

Discussion: LifeNews.com, Washington Post, Campaign 2012, Instapundit and American Prospect

Washington Post:
Gas prices sink Obama's ratings on economy, bring parity to race for White House

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Ezra Klein, BREITBART.COM, The Huffington Post, The Hill, msnbc.com, GOP.com, Business Insider, Politico, Fox News, Seeing the Forest, Los Angeles Times, Outside the Beltway, PERRspectives, National Review, FiveThirtyEight, FITSNews, Taylor Marsh, Michelle Malkin, Firedoglake, Hot Air, New York Times, American Prospect, The Enterprise Blog, americanthinker.com, Don Surber, Wake up America, Ballot Box, Washington Free Beacon, A plain blog about politics, The Right Sphere, Indecision Forever, The Daily Caller, CNN, The New Republic, The Daily Dish, rubber hose, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, Pundit & Pundette, The PJ Tatler, Washington Monthly, GOP 12, Prairie Weather, Campaign 2012, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, News Desk, Political Insider, The Lonely Conservative, The Page, Scared Monkeys and ABCNEWS

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

EXCLUSIVE: 141 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh — ThinkProgress has obtained an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks listing 96 national companies that have “specifically asked” their advertisments not be played during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Premiere is the distributor of Limbaugh's program.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, rubber hose, The Last Tradition, The Raw Story, The Political Carnival, Mediaite, The Impolitic, RADAMISTO, skippy the bush kangaroo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and ECHIDNE of the snakes, more at Mediagazer »

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Rush Limbaugh losing more advertisers? — Think Progress gets its hands on an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks that lists nearly 100 national companies that have asked that their advertisements not be played on the Rush Limbaugh show — companies that have not been publicly named until now.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and The Mahablog

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Other notes from Alabama and Mississippi — In addition to asking about the Presidential race in Alabama and Mississippi we also touched on some other issues in those states: —There's considerable skepticism about Barack Obama's religion with Republican voters in them.

Discussion: Addicting Info, Firedoglake and Little Green Footballs

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Republicans' war on the TelePrompter — and its limits

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Washington Monthly, Mediaite and The War Room …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Obama Still Muslim, Report Southern Republicans

Discussion: American Prospect, Prairie Weather, The Reaction, Washington Monthly, Connecting.the.Dots, The New Republic, The Maddow Blog, Bloomberg, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway and ThinkProgress

Mj Lee / Politico:
Mitt Romney: I'm weak? What about Newt Gingrich?

Discussion: Wonkette, CNN, The Lonely Conservative and The Hill

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

Justice Department bars Texas voter ID law — The Justice Department has blocked a new law in Texas requiring voters to show a photo ID, saying that it disproportionately harms Hispanic residents. — The action is the second time in three months that the Obama administration has blocked a state voter ID law.

Discussion: The POH Diaries and The Lonely Conservative

JSOnline:
Judge rules Wisconsin's voter ID law unconstitutional

Discussion: New York Times and The Maddow Blog

Associated Press:
Justice Dept opposes Texas voter ID law

Discussion: Roger L. Simon, The PJ Tatler, The Other McCain and Clayton Cramer's Blog

Shushannah Walshe / ABCNEWS:

Rick Santorum Says America Should Apologize for Afghanistan Shooting — BILOXI, Miss. - Rick Santorum said today that if a U.S. soldier shot and killed 16 civilians, as U.S. officials have suggested, then the Afghan people deserve an apology. — After an energy conference here …

Discussion: Indecision Forever

BBC:
How it happened: Massacre in Kandahar

Discussion: World Now and msnbc.com

Fox News:
Taliban vows revenge after US soldier allegedly kills 16 Afghan civilians

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Associated Press and The Heritage Foundation

BBC:

Homeless hotspots plan causes controversy for BBH ad agency — Google Maps was used to alert the public to where the Homeless Hotspots participants were — An “experiment” which involved using homeless people as mobile wi-fi hotspots has attracted criticism, forcing the advertising agency behind it to defend itself.

Discussion: Gawker and Balloon Juice

Tim Carmody / Wired:
The Damning Backstory Behind ‘Homeless Hotspots’ at SXSW

Discussion: New York Times, BuzzFeed, Gawker, Colorlines, Los Angeles Times, US Politics and Washington Free Beacon

BuzzFeed:

Santorum Campaign Responds To Dutch Euthanasia Outrage — Rick Santorum has drawn fire for controversial statements about assisted suicide in the Netherlands. In an impromptu interview with Dutch television station RTL4, Santorum press secretary Alice Stewart offered no explanation …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, Mediaite and A plain blog about politics

Joshua Keating / FP Passport:
In his heart, Rick Santorum knows that Dutch people are forcibly euthanized

Discussion: Angry Black Lady Chronicles, Washington Monthly and Washington Post

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Rep. Stearns On Obama Birth's Certificate: ‘The Question Is, Is It Legitimate?’ — New video of a February town hall shows Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) pandering to birthers and raising questions about the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate. — When Stearns met with constituents …

Discussion: Politico, The Raw Story and Booman Tribune

Josh Lederman / Ballot Box:
Longtime GOP lawmaker questions legitimacy of Obama birth certificate

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Digby / Hullabaloo:

Welfare queens and college sluts — CNN, you really need to examine your hiring policies. Your “analyst” Dana Loesch wrote this piece of drivel on her site yesterday: … I assume that CNN knows that Fluke wasn't testifying about herself and they know that she wasn't talking about her own sex life …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Eschaton

Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:

TPMDC — The Many Misleading Claims In Mitt's Monday Medicare Memo — As part of an effort to reverse the public's perception of the parties' positions on Medicare, Mitt Romney's campaign is appropriating a common Democratic attack and using it against President Obama.

Discussion: Washington Post, ABCNEWS, The New Republic, Firedoglake and The Maddow Blog

CNN:
Romney to forgo Medicare

Discussion: The Hill, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, Indecision Forever, Politico, No More Mister Nice Blog and ABCNEWS

Allysia Finley / Wall Street Journal:

Coffee Is an Essential Benefit Too — Here are some other health-care mandates that government should impose on employers. — Dear President Obama, — Can you believe the nerve of employers? Many of them still seem to think that they should be allowed to determine the benefits they offer.

Discussion: Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, JustOneMinute, National Review and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:

Georgia Republican Compares Women to Cows, Pigs, And Chickens — Republican Georgia State Representative Terry England — A speech from a Georgia Republican state representative surfaced last week in which he compared women seeking abortions of stillborn fetuses to cows and pigs.

Discussion: Jezebel

Scott Wong / Politico:

Marco Rubio builds A-Team to control image, bio — Rubio's PAC also employs Malorie Miller, who worked for Jeb Bush when he was Florida governor and led the Rubio campaign's online messaging, fundraising and grass-roots outreach, as well as Alberto Martinez, a Tallahassee-based operative …

Reed Johnson / Los Angeles Times:

‘Doonesbury’ abortion story arc moves to Op-Ed page — A story line about a woman seeking an abortion in Texas prompts Times editors to relocate the strip from the comics pages for the arc's six-day run. — “Doonesbury” comic strip. (Universal Uclick) — A series of “Doonesbury” …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Political Carnival, Opinion L.A. and Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:

Romney: NFL owners ‘friends of mine’ — Mitt Romney described two National Football League owners as “friends” during a Monday evening radio show, a comment that echoed one made earlier that he has “some friends who are NASCAR team owners.” — The comment came on an Alabama sports talk show …

Discussion: CNN