memeorandum: Super-PAC cuts off Lugar in Indiana (Cameron Joseph/Ballot Box)

2:30 AM ET, April 28, 2012

Top Items:

Ben Shapiro / BREITBART.COM:

WHAT ‘GUTSY CALL’?: CIA MEMO REVEALS ADMIRAL CONTROLLED BIN LADEN MISSION — Today, Time magazine got hold of a memo written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta after he received orders from Barack Obama's team to greenlight the bin Laden mission. Here's the text, which summarized the situation:

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, NO QUARTER, The Gateway Pundit, Little Green Footballs and TBogg

BuzzFeed:

McCain Goes Nuclear: “Shame On Barack Obama” — Republicans amp up attacks on Obama for campaigning on Bin Laden's slaying. “Shamelessly turning the one decision he got right into a pathetic political act of self-congratulation,” says McCain. — McCain and Mitt Romney last week in Arizona.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Paul Waldman / American Prospect:

Cool Kids Versus Squares, Continued — Yesterday, I wrote a post looking at an ad aired by GOP uber-super-PAC American Crossroads that went after Barack Obama for being a “celebrity” and doing things like going on Jimmy Fallon's television show. I argued that it looked like once again …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Hit & Run and Booman Tribune

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Obama bashes Romney, GOP as ‘being in a time machine’ on women's issues — President Barack Obama said Friday that Republican positions on women's health issues were “appalling” and “offensive” and equated an effort to block his regulation to mandate free contraception to like …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Jennifer Epstein / Politico:

Obama: Mitt Romney ‘backward’ on women — President Barack Obama told a group of women on Friday that he has been their fiercest advocate and warned that Mitt Romney's positions on women's issues represent a step back in time. — “The choice between going backward or moving forward has never been so clear …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama Campaign Trots Out Bin Laden, Spikes the Football (Updated: Romney Responds) — Barack Obama's reelection campaign has released a new ad that focuses on the president's decision to go after Osama bin Laden: — The narrator in the ad is former President Bill Clinton.

Discussion: CNN and The PJ Tatler

Wall Street Journal:

Strassel: The President Has a List — Barack Obama attempts to intimidate contributors to Mitt Romney's campaign. — Try this thought experiment: You decide to donate money to Mitt Romney. You want change in the Oval Office, so you engage in your democratic right to send a check.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, New York Magazine, The Jawa Report, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hit & Run and Betsy's Page

ABCNEWS:
FLASHBACK: Obama Campaign Accused Clinton Of Using Bin Laden To ‘Score Political Points’ In 2008

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Livewire, CNN, Mediaite, HotAirPundit, The Raw Story, National Review, Washington Post, msnbc.com, Weasel Zippers, Little Green Footballs, Hot Air and American Prospect

Dylan Byersand Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Obama talks bin Laden in rare sit room interview

Discussion: emptywheel, Weasel Zippers, Washington Free Beacon and Ballot Box

Josh Lederman / Ballot Box:
McCain: Shame on Obama for hyping the death of bin Laden

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Hill

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

Mourdock For Indiana — I join commonsense conservatives in endorsing Richard Mourdock to be the next Senator from Indiana. Conservatives of all stripes are uniting behind Richard Mourdock. It's not just Indiana that benefits from sending the right Senator to serve for the right reasons …

Discussion: CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, ABCNEWS and GOP 12

Alexander Burns / Politico:

American Action Network pulls out of Lugar race — The American Action Network is pulling out of the Indiana GOP Senate primary, dropping its efforts on behalf of embattled Sen. Dick Lugar less than two weeks before the May 8 election, sources told POLITICO.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:

Super-PAC cuts off Lugar in Indiana — The American Action Network, a super-PAC that backs establishment Republicans, has pulled out of Indiana's Senate race, the latest bad omen for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). — “We've decided we're going to let this race play out,” AAN spokesman Dan Conston told The Hill Friday evening.

Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress:

Romney's Advice To Students: Borrow Money From Your Parents — If you're young and you want to start your own business, Mitt Romney's has some advice from you: Borrow money from your parents. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio today, Mitt Romney told students that …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Impolitic and Balloon Juice

Washington Post:

Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem. — Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it's not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Balloon Juice

Richard A. Serrano / Los Angeles Times:

Republicans seek to hold attorney general in contempt over Fast and Furious — House GOP leaders draft a citation accusing Eric H. Holder Jr. and the Justice Department of hindering their inquiry into the ATF gun-tracking operation. — Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. says he and his Justice Department …

Discussion: Politico, The Raw Story, The PJ Tatler, The Heritage Foundation, Prairie Weather, The Hill and The Daily Caller

Fox News:
Issa, Chaffetz confirm contempt plans for Holder over Fast and Furious

Discussion: Campaign 2012

Washington Wire:

Romney Charters Jet From Campaign Treasurer — Mitt Romney has a new ride, a midsize jet that his campaign is chartering from its own treasurer. … Mr. Romney's campaign has paid more than $483,000 since Jan. 19 to Easterly Capital LLC to charter the Cessna CJ4, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Discussion: Politico

Matthew J. Franck / National Review: Who Is Richard Grenell Anyway?

Washington Free Beacon:

Carney: ‘I Never Lie’ — Jay Carney said he never lies in his capacity as White House press secretary at a Friday scholarship lunch hosted by the White House Correspondents' Association: … Carney has made a number of questionable statements as press secretary, however.

Discussion: Politico and Hot Air

Toddstarnes / Fox News:

Anti-Bullying Speaker Curses Christian Teens — As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy asses.”

Discussion: Campaign 2012

Ismail Sameem / Reuters:

Elite Afghan soldier kills U.S. special forces mentor — (Reuters) - An elite Afghan soldier shot dead an American mentor and his translator at a U.S. base, Afghan officials said on Friday, in the first rogue shooting blamed on the country's new and closely vetted special forces.

Discussion: emptywheel and National Review

ABCNEWS:

Obama Warns Women That Romney, GOP Will ‘Close Doors of Opportunity’ — President Obama warned women voters today that Republicans in Congress and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney want to “close doors of opportunity we thought we'd kicked open a long time ago.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Tom Harper / This Is London:

Koo Stark sues Murdoch in US courts over phone hacking — Former actress Koo Stark is set to launch a phone-hacking claim against News Corporation in the US courts, bringing the scandal across the Atlantic to Rupert Murdoch's base. — Scotland Yard has told Ms Stark, 55 …

Discussion: New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Landon Thomas, Jr / New York Times:

Spain Is Still Waiting for the Payoff From Austerity — LONDON — Since the onset of the debt crisis in Europe more than two years ago, defenders of the euro currency union have stuck to a basic argument: if the euro zone's weaker economies would only keep pursuing policies of austerity …

Discussion: Balloon Juice and The Raw Story

Sarah Kliff / Ezra Klein:

How the Prevention Fund is being spent — House Republicans want to use money earmarked for health reform's Prevention and Public Health Fund to hold down interest rates on student loans. The White House has threatened to veto the bill. So what's that money doing now?

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Washington Post, Democrats, Hot Air, ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

CNN:

Martin attorney: Put Zimmerman in jail — (CNN) — George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of wrongly killing Trayvon Martin, will not immediately have to turn over donations made to his website, a Florida judge said Friday. — Zimmerman collected about $204,000 …

Discussion: Colorlines, msnbc.com, New York Magazine and Balloon Juice

Alan Schwarz / New York Times:

At 92, Bandit to Hollywood but Hero to Soldiers — MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — One of the world's most prolific bootleggers of Hollywood DVDs loves his morning farina. He has spent eight years churning out hundreds of thousands of copies of “The Hangover,” “Gran Torino” and other first-run movies …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Techdirt, Boing Boing, City Room, The Consumerist, Gawker, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine and Gothamist

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Expected Retirement Age in U.S. Up to 67 — Average expected retirement age was 60 in mid-1990s — PRINCETON, NJ — The average nonretired American now expects to retire at age 67, up from age 63 a decade ago and age 60 in the mid-1990s. — The results are from Gallup's annual Economy …

Discussion: Firedoglake, HotAirPundit and americanthinker.com