memeorandum: The Professors' Big Stage (Thomas L. Friedman/New York Times)

3:15 AM ET, March 7, 2013

Top Items:

Ramsey Cox / The Hill:

Rand Paul launches talking filibuster against CIA nominee — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is staging a talking filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). — “I'm here to filibuster John Brennan's nomination to be director of CIA,” Paul said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, The Week, his vorpal sword, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway and Hot Air

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Senate Democrats Threaten To Reignite Filibuster Reform — The Senate's leading champion of filibuster reform called for renewing the effort to weaken the minority's obstruction power, concluding that a modest rules change enacted in January has failed to discourage Republicans from grinding the chamber to a halt.

Discussion: Post Politics, A plain blog about politics, The Maddow Blog and Mother Jones

Michael A. Memoli / Los Angeles Times:

Rand Paul vows to speak ‘as long as it takes’ to block Brennan — Rand Paul Filibusters Brennan Confirmation — WASHINGTON — In a rare, traditional filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul vowed to speak on the Senate floor “as long as it takes” to draw attention to his concerns about the Obama …

Discussion: Firedoglake and Vox Popoli

Ashley Parker / The Caucus:
Republicans, Led by Rand Paul, Finally End Filibuster

Discussion: AL.com

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Rand Paul filibustering over drones: I will not let Obama ‘shred the Constitution’

Discussion: Power Line, Weasel Zippers and NetRight Daily

Catalina Camia / Associated Press:
Longest Senate filibusters went on and on ... and on

Discussion: USA Today and Taylor Marsh

Niels Lesniewski / Roll Call:
Filibuster Overhaul Effort Should Be Revived, Durbin Says

Discussion: Daily Kos, Wonkblog, The Political Carnival, American Prospect and PostPartisan

Jon Swaine / Telegraph:
Barack Obama ‘has authority to use drone strikes to kill Americans on US soil’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Ashley Parker / The Caucus:
Rand Paul Leads Filibuster of Brennan Nomination

Discussion: Corrente, Ricochet Conversations Feed, alicublog, CNN and New York Times

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Rubio, NRSC heads join Rand Paul's filibuster — and could get political boost

Discussion: Wired, Washington Examiner, BuzzFeed, Hot Air and Politico

Josh Voorhees / Slate:
Rand Paul Has Started What Could Be an Epic Mr. Smith-Style Filibuster on the Senate Floor

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Kyle Balluck / The Hill:

Republicans emerge from dinner optimistic about deficit deal — Senate Republicans are more optimistic about the prospect of a grand bargain on the deficit after an intimate dinner with President Obama Wednesday evening in downtown Washington. — Obama and a dozen Republicans discussed …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jake Novak / CNBC:

Boehner Wants Budget Deals ‘Out in the Open’ — Supervising Producer for “The Kudlow Report” — House Speaker John Boehner told CNBC's Larry Kudlow on Wednesday that a long-term deal on entitlements is possible, and there's no good reason for the Obama team to have shut down the White House tour.

Discussion: First Read, PoliticusUSA, Politico, Daily Kos, Post Politics and The Reaction

Jesse Helfrich / The Hill:
Obama takes GOP lawmakers out on a deficit dinner date in downtown DC

Discussion: Politico

David Nather / Politico:
Paul Ryan on budget: Your move, Obama

Discussion: Townhall.com, CNN, Hot Air and Taylor Marsh

Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:

‘A Big New Power’ — Years from now, when the Supreme Court has come to its senses, justices then sitting will look back on the spring of 2013 in bewilderment. On what basis, they will wonder, did five conservative justices, professed believers in judicial restraint, reach out to grab …

Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:

RAND PAUL, IN DRONE FILIBUSTER, TELLS OBAMA TO REVISIT LOCHNER CASE — During his old-fashioned, “talking filibuster” of John Brennan's nomination as CIA Director, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for President Barack Obama “to re-think the Lochner case” en route to strengthening protections …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Volokh Conspiracy

Joleen Chaney / KFOR-TV:

GRAPHIC: Woman packing heat, drugs in private parts — WARNING: Content could be considered graphic to some audiences. — ADA, Okla. - An unusual and graphic case in Pontotoc County leads police to a bizarre find inside a female suspect. — It began at Dairy Lou Drive Inn in Ada.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Agoldberg / The Smoking Gun:
Cops: Perp Had Loaded Revolver In Her Vagina

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Gawker, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Balloon Juice

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Chief White House Calligrapher Gets Paid $96,725 Per Year — With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it's worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually. — Like the “Chief Calligrapher,” …

Discussion: Politico, Hit & Run, Mediaite, The Shark Tank, TheBlaze.com, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Impolitic and The Daily Caller

James Joyner / Outside the Beltway:
Calligraphy-Gate — The Weekly Standard's Daniel Halper …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Balloon Juice and The Daily Caller

Mark Memmott / NPR:

Alvin Lee Is Going Home: ‘Ten Years After’ Guitarist Dies … Guitarist Alvin Lee, whose incendiary performance with the British band Ten Years After was one of the highlights of the 1969 Woodstock festival, has died. … He was 68. Lee's website says he “passed away early this morning …

Discussion: BBC

Samuel Tadros / Weekly Standard:

Michelle Obama and John Kerry to Honor Anti-Semite and 9/11 Fan — On Friday March 8, Michelle Obama will join John Kerry at a special ceremony at the State Department to present ten women the Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award. The award, says the press release …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

Jeff Spross / ThinkProgress:

Big One-Year Jump In Atmospheric CO2 Brings Climate Catastrophe Closer — The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere underwent one of its biggest single-year jumps ever in 2012, according to researchers at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

Discussion: Rolling Stone, jobsanger, The Political Carnival and The Raw Story

Erik Eckholm / New York Times:

Arkansas Adopts Strictest Abortion Law in the U.S. — In the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, Arkansas adopted Wednesday what is by far the country's most restrictive ban on abortion, at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Political Carnival, Liberal Values and Shakesville

Jon Cohen / The Fix:

Cut government spending? Sure....in theory. — Americans broadly support an across-the-board cut in spending for a government often seen as wasteful, but there is wide opposition to blanket cuts to the military, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, CNN, Politico, Firedoglake, Washington Post and Hot Air

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Republicans Have Won a Budget Battle, But Not the War

Discussion: New Republic, Weasel Zippers, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Business Insider, Jammie Wearing Fools, Prairie Weather and The Reaction

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

Ted Cruz Goads Eric Holder Into Admitting That Killing Americans With Drones On U.S. Soil Is Unconstitutional — On Tuesday, the Department of Justice sent shockwaves through the nation when Attorney General Eric Holder informed Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in writing that the White House …

Discussion: Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, The Shark Tank, Sense of Events and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
Killing Americans on U.S. Soil: Eric Holder's Evasive, Manipulative Letter

Discussion: American Spectator, Business Insider, Hit & Run, emptywheel, msnbc.com and The Raw Story

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

The Professors' Big Stage — I just spent the last two days at a great conference convened by M.I.T. and Harvard on “Online Learning and the Future of Residential Education” — a k a “How can colleges charge $50,000 a year if my kid can learn it all free from massive open online courses?”

Discussion: Power Line, Inside Higher Ed and Somewhat Reasonable

Jay Solomon / Wall Street Journal:

Mideast Defies U.S. Bid to ‘Pivot’ — CAIRO—The Obama administration hopes to “pivot” away from a hyper-focus on the Middle East during its second term, but John Kerry's maiden overseas mission as secretary of state—a nine-nation odyssey across Europe and the Persian Gulf—highlighted why that goal may be elusive.

Discussion: Algemeiner.com

Sam Baker / The Hill:

Cruz: Spending bill must defund Obama healthcare law — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that he will object to a government spending bill if it does not cut off funds for President Obama's signature healthcare law. — Cruz, a staunchly conservative freshman, said he will offer …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Daily Kos

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Fox News-iest Segment in Fox News History — If you have never seen Fox News before, here is a four-minute clip that captures the essence of the network so perfectly that you need never watch anything on it again. It's all here. At the center, you have an old conservative white guy …