Obama administration hits back on notion that it abandoned Chen in China  —  The Obama administration pushed back Thursday evening on the notion that U.S. diplomats abandoned Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng when they let him leave the Beijing embassy on Wednesday.

After A Twitter Win, Romney Meets The Online Right  —  A united front against Obama and the liberal media.  But: Huffington Post broke news of the meeting.  —  At the Republican National Committee yesterday, conservative online writers and bloggers who arrived to meet with Romney were also shown …

Who the hell is “Julia” and why am I paying for her whole life?  —  In the new Barack Obama campaign piece The Life of Julia, voters can “Take a look at how President Obama's policies help one woman over her lifetime — and how Mitt Romney would change her story.”

Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined?  —  Authors: Don Rassler, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Liam Collins, Muhammad al-Obaidi, Nelly Lahoud  —  This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC).

Post Poll: Obama leads Romney as campaigns converge on Virginia  —  President Obama leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Virginia but commonwealth voters are evenly divided on the White House's major policies, a new Washington Post poll shows.  —  Obama is ahead of Romney …

Conservative Activist: More Navy SEALs to Attack Obama  —  Joel Arends, the man behind the ad hammering the White House for “taking so much credit” on Bin Laden, believes more Special Forces operators will come out against Obama.  Arends objects to the term “swift boat.”

Horror!... Neo-Nazi #Occupy Phoenix Protester Goes On Shooting Rampage - 5 Dead  —  Back in October we reported that Neo-Nazi Jason Todd Ready was patrolling the #Occupy Phoenix camp with AR-15′s.  —  Neo-Nazi Jason Todd (J.T.) Ready pictured on left patrolling the Occupy Phoenix protest …

Bachmann: 'He Can't Beat Obama ... Not Going to Happen'  —  Michele Bachmann has finally decided to endorse Mitt Romney - 119 days after she dropped out of the race.  —  The endorsement will come at a joint Romney-Bachmann appearance on Thursday.  No doubt Bachmann will talk about the importance …

Another Misleading Edit Costs Another NBC News Employee Her Job  —  Lilia Luciano, a Miami-based NBC News correspondent, is no longer working for the network, TVNewser has learned.  —  Luciano last reported for NBC News March 31.  Until that point, she had been reporting mainly on the Trayvon Martin story.

T. Boone Pickens: Biggest Deterrent To U.S. Energy Plan Is Koch Industries  —  Investor T. Boone Pickens has made a fortune over the years running an energy-oriented hedge fund, and in recent years he's been placing big bets on the natural gas and wind industries.

Mitt Romney Commissioned Pro-America Pins, Made Them In China  —  At a fundraiser in Virginia last night, Mitt Romney touted his experinece running the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002 — a familiar refrain — but also introduced a new rhetorical line about something more specific: lapel pins.

GOP voters want Santorum, Rubio for VP  —  Republican voters would like to see Rick Santorum or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) standing at Mitt Romney's side this fall, a new poll found.  —  A Reuters-Ipsos poll released Thursday found Santorum and Rubio are the top choices among Republican voters to be Romney's running mate.

CNN Ratings Decline Stirs Worries  —  “Maybe CNN is just like an emergency room.”  —  That is what a longtime CNN employee theorized last year, during one of the channel's predictable defeats in the Nielsen ratings.  —  When elections and explosions happen, people tune in to CNN …

Rajan on Lessons from Recession  —  Tyler Cowen can't heap enough praise on this paper from Raghuram Rajan.  —  I am loathe to use such language, but at this late date I think it helps to be direct.  The paper reads to me like nonsense on stilts.  Ostensibly its about the ineffectiveness …

Video: The freaky quadruple deaky “tanning mom” clip  —  It's come to this.  —  Via Mediaite, I've been looking around all day for a palate cleanser.  And now, at last, I've found it.  Trust me: Whatever you have on your news palate right now, this'll clean it right out.  Doesn't matter how important it is.

Issa sends out draft contempt order against Holder, says ‘Furious’ response ‘cannot stand’  —  Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has circulated a lengthy pair of documents making the case for holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his “refusal” to cooperate in an investigation …

RNC campaign parodies Obama '08 sticker  —  The Republican National Committee is getting ahead of President Obama's official campaign kickoff in Ohio and Virginia on Saturday with a media blitz labeling his re-election drive the “Hype & Blame” tour.  —  The RNC will sell “Hype & Blame 2012” …

Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism  —  Colin Powell says his erroneous address to the United Nations about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction provides a lesson to business leaders on the importance of staying skeptical and following their intuition.

Obama's Cinco de Mayo wish: Signing the DREAM Act  —  President Barack Obama hosted a Cinco de Mayo party at the White House — “even though it's only tres de mayo, we just like to get the fiesta started early around here” — and promised to push for a comprehensive overhaul of America's immigration policies if he's reelected.

EXPOSED: Romney Campaign Silenced Gay Spokesman To Avoid Confronting Hate Groups, Misled Reporters  —  When presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's openly gay foreign policy spokesman resigned under pressure from right-wing anti-gay groups, the campaign sought to minimize …

Russia threatens to strike NATO missile defense sites  —  Russia's most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would preemptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the developing system continue to stall.