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Supreme Court to Hear Campaign Finance Case — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to federal campaign contribution limits and issued decisions concerning a drug-sniffing dog, an international child-custody dispute and when the police may detain people while conducting a search.
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Supreme Court sides with drug-sniffing dog; supports soldier's child custody case — The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a drug-sniffing German shepherd named Aldo in ruling that police do not have to extensively document a dog's expertise to justify relying on the animal to search someone's vehicle.
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, Hit & Run, SCOTUSblog, TalkLeft and Watchdog.org



Supreme Court Takes Campaign Finance Case, Will Rule On Contribution Limits
Discussion:
Democracy21, Election Law Blog, SCOTUSblog, Daily Kos, Mother Jones and ACS Blog


Marco Rubio: The Electable Conservative? — Some commentators have expressed surprise upon learning about the very conservative voting record of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union address last week.
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Tearing down the conservative echo chamber — A “Morning Joe” discussion from Tuesday is sure to set off extremists within the Republican Party who remain more interested in defending the GOP's losing ways than charting a new course to victory. After Chuck Todd concluded that Republicans …
Discussion:
NY Daily News, TheBlaze.com, TVNewser and Riehl World News


THINGS IN POLITICO THAT MAKE ME WANT TO GUZZLE ANTIFREEZE, PART THE INFINITY — Every sportswriter learns one simple rule in a very quick hurry — namely, that nobody out in your readership cares how hard you think your job is. People, to paraphrase Michael J. Fox's channelling …
Discussion:
Politico, CNN, Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller and Pressing Issues
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Obama, DC Press Corps Locked in Mutual Loathing Pact
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Gawker, Balloon Juice, NBCNews.com and p m carpenter's commentary

Obama, the puppet master
Discussion:
Mediaite, CNN, American Prospect, NewsBusters blogs, Post Politics, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog, Guardian, Reuters, BizzyBlog, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Ricochet Conversations Feed, The Daily Caller, his vorpal sword, TVNewser, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, PostPartisan, Sky Dancing, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Daily Kos, TheBlaze.com, Algemeiner.com, Balloon Juice and Twitchy

A BIPARTISAN PATH FORWARD TO SECURING AMERICA'S FUTURE — Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson are co-chairs of the Moment of Truth project and formerly co-chaired the President's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. — The United States faces two big risks …
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Why Does the New Simpson-Bowles Deficit Plan Look So ... Republican? — Please see update at bottom. — The new deficit reduction plan from Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles calls for $5 trillion in savings this decade — $6 trillion including interest — roughly the same as their outline in December 2010.
Discussion:
The Dish and Hullabaloo


More Republican Denial — Conservatives keep reminding everyone that the sequester was Obama's idea. But, says Michael Tomasky, that doesn't mean he's to blame for the current crisis. — Whose “idea” was the sequester, and why should it matter? My Twitter feed these last couple of weeks …
Discussion:
The Dish, Washington Monthly, The Raw Story, The Week, Outside the Beltway and msnbc.com
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Who's afraid of the sequester's ax? Not us, say Republican lawmakers
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Post, New York Times, Right Turn, Taylor Marsh, The Maddow Blog and The Plum Line


Tea party group pictures Rove in Nazi uniform — A top tea party group is taking its clash with Karl Rove to a new level, sending out a fundraising email Tuesday featuring a photoshopped image of the GOP operative in an SS uniform. — “Wipe the Smirk Off Karl Rove's Face,” …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Little Green Footballs, msnbc.com, Mediaite, Mother Jones, The Week and Washington Examiner
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Tea Party challenger to McConnell emerging
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN, Politico, WHAS, Prairie Weather, First Read and Firedoglake


Missouri Bill Makes It A Felony For Lawmakers To Propose Gun Safety Legislation — Yesterday, Missouri state Rep. Mike Leara (R) proposed legislation making it a felony for lawmakers to so much as propose many bills regulating guns. Leara's bill provides that “[a]ny member of the general assembly …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Truthdig and The Raw Story
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Missouri Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Make It A Felony To Propose Gun Control Legislation
Discussion:
The Maddow Blog and Business Insider

What Data Can't Do — Not long ago, I was at a dinner with the chief executive of a large bank. He had just had to decide whether to pull out of Italy, given the weak economy and the prospect of a future euro crisis. — The C.E.O. had his economists project out a series of downside scenarios …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
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Aaron Swartz's FBI File — When I heard the news of Aaron Swartz's suicide I was deeply saddened or more accurately profoundly irritated. Why had the government - or should I say U.S Attorney Carmen Ortiz - wasted so much time and resources destroying someone over such an inconsequential act?
Discussion:
Guardian


Exclusive: Apple, Macs hit by hackers who targeted Facebook — (Reuters) - Apple Inc was recently attacked by hackers who infected the Macintosh computers of some employees, the company said on Tuesday in an unprecedented disclosure that described the widest known cyber attacks against Apple-made computers to date.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Engadget and The Raw Story

Report: Hagel Said Israel Headed Toward Apartheid, Netanyahu a ‘Radical’ — Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel said Israel is on its way to becoming an apartheid state during an April 9, 2010, appearance at Rutgers University, according to a contemporaneous account by an attendee.


Police ID Gunman in OC Shooting Deaths — Four people are dead after a series of shootings and carjackings near freeways in Orange County that began after the slaying of a woman at a home in Ladera Ranch. — Map: Shooting Investigation Locations — The gunman was identified as Ali Syed …
Discussion:
Daily Mail, NBCNews.com and The Hinterland Gazette
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Congress Approval Holding Steady at 15% — Up one point from January, but at the low end of the historical spectrum — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' approval of Congress is at 15% in February, one percentage point higher than in January and exactly matching the 15% average for all of 2012.


Genius Alabama Rep. Says a Baby is the ‘Largest Organ in a Body’ — The Alabama House of Representatives is set to vote on abortion legislation Tuesday that would impose a variety of uneccesary restrictions on abortion clinics: providers would need to have admitting privileges at local hospitals …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Raw Story, Mediaite, Sky Dancing, Crooks and Liars, Truthdig and alan.com
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Alabama Politician Thinks A Fetus Is The Largest Organ In A Woman's Body
Discussion:
Montgomery Advertiser


Donald Trump Threatens to Sue Macy's Protester for $25 Million (Exclusive) — “Dump Trump” organizer Angelo Carusone tells THR a cease and desist letter he received shows the “Apprentice” star engages in “bullying and intimidation.” — Donald Trump — Donald Trump can't fire …
Discussion:
The Raw Story, Business Insider, Daily Kos and Wonkette


Targeted killings: OK if Obama does it? — Salon exclusive: Study finds “liberals” more likely to favor targeted killings once they know it's Obama's policy — Civil libertarians have worried that some of President Obama's comparatively hawkish national security policies are silencing …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, driftglass, ACS Blog, Pacific Standard. Smart … and Hit & Run


59 percent of Americans oppose DOMA: poll — Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon — Send via Email — Send this page to Print Friendly — New polls find growing support for marriage equality. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Towleroad News #gay and Freedom to Marry Blog


WCBS-TV newsman Rob Morrison threatened to ‘kill his wife’ after he was arrested and accused of choking her; Police report paints angry anchorman as a boozy bully with an internet porn habit — Rob Morrison has a history of domestic violence and was arrested for assault in 2009 after a confrontation …

Did Obama supporter vote 6 times in 2012? Ohio poll worker target of investigation — The Obama/Biden lawn sign remains proudly planted in front of Melowese Richardson's Cincinnati home, three months after the presidential election. — It seems that President Obama has an especially ardent supporter …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin and National Review