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Man in the News | Jorge Mario Bergoglio: New Pope Theologically Conservative, but With a Common Touch — Like most of those in Argentina, he is a soccer fan, his favorite team being the underdog San Lorenzo squad. Known for his outreach to the country's poor, he gave up a palace for a small apartment …
Discussion:
Slate, Guardian, PolicyMic, FiveThirtyEight, NBCNews.com, The Week, The Dish, Two Weeks Notice and The Reaction
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The New Pope: Bergoglio of Argentina
Discussion:
FP Passport, his vorpal sword, PolicyMic, Truthdig, Gates of Vienna, NBCNews.com, Hot Air, Ross Douthat, The White House, Sky Dancing, The Atlantic Online, Business Insider, Little Green Footballs, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, Pacific Standard. Smart …, Poynter, Brad DeLong, Americas South and North, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Hinterland Gazette, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Reaction, Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, TalkLeft, FiveThirtyEight and WorldViews

MEET YOUR NEW POPE — Newly elected Pope Francis I waves …
Discussion:
News Desk, WorldViews, Balloon Juice, NBC New York, Gawker and Washington Monthly

CNN Vatican analyst: Pope Francis' name choice ‘precedent shattering’
Discussion:
The Week Magazine, PostPartisan, Guardian, The Awl, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Piers Morgan, Mediaite, PolicyMic and This Just In

Biden to Vatican for installation of new pope
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin and The Daily Caller

A Jesuit Named Francis!
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, BuzzFeed, Daily Kos, CANNONFIRE, AMERICAblog and Chicago Boyz

Obama's outreach is nice, but where's the leadership? — So it was a good meeting. House Republicans welcomed the chance for a frank exchange of ideas with President Obama on Wednesday. Outreach is always positive, and more Republicans in this town need the opportunity to have an open dialogue with our president.
Discussion:
Politico, Booman Tribune, NBCNews.com and First Read
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Obama To GOP: I'm Serious About Cutting The Social Safety Net
Discussion:
The Plum Line and Post Politics

Obama and House G.O.P. Meet Over Budget, Still Far Apart
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politico, Roll Call, msnbc.com, Slate, Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice, Taegan Goddard's … and TIME

White House tour move backfires on Obama
Discussion:
Right Turn, ABCNEWS and National Review

Chris Hayes to Take Over 8 P.M. Slot on MSNBC — Chris Hayes will take over the 8 p.m. time slot on MSNBC in the next month, the channel is expected to announce on Thursday morning, the day after the current host of that hour, Ed Schultz, said he was moving from the weekdays to the weekends.
Discussion:
Politico, nbcuniversal.presscentre.com, Mediaite, NewsBusters blogs, The Raw Story, Mondoweiss and NewsBusters, more at Mediagazer »
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Schultz to Give Up Weekday Slot on MSNBC
Discussion:
Politico, The Week, The Daily Caller and Jammie Wearing Fools


Meet Scott Prouty, the 47 Percent Video Source — For months, he and I shared a big secret and repeatedly discussed whether he should go public or stay hidden. — “Scott Prouty.” — The fellow on the other end of the phone call pronounced his name with hesitation.
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Mitt Romney, ‘47 Percent’ Filmmaker Had Encounter Prior To Infamous Speech — WASHINGTON — The bartender who secretly filmed Mitt Romney's infamous “47 percent” remarks at a Boca Raton fundraiser last May had an idea of what the former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential nominee was really like.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, The Week and Daily Kos

Powering Down Google Reader — We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We're sad too. — There are two simple reasons for this …
Discussion:
The Week, Balloon Juice, ABCNEWS, GigaOM, Techdirt, Lawyers, Guns & Money and AllThingsD
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A second spring of cleaning
Discussion:
NBC New York, Mashable!, GigaOM, The Verge, The Week and MyFOX8.com, more at Mediagazer »

Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives
Discussion:
Slate, Sky Dancing, The Dish, TechCrunch, Mashable! and ProfessorBainbridge.com, more at Mediagazer »


Enraged protesters battle cops in Brooklyn streets during third night of rioting after it's revealed that 16-year-old Kimani Gray was shot in the back — As fights between cops and angry teens erupted in East Flatbush, 46 were arrested Wednesday night. Police struggled to control a furious crowd …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Politicker, americanthinker.com, Gothamist and Viewpoint
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Anger in Brooklyn at Killing of Kimani Gray, 16, by Police
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Breaking News …, NY Daily News, The Feminist Wire, Gothamist and Gawker


President Obama: I'm no Dick Cheney on drones — President Barack Obama's defense to Democratic senators complaining about how little his administration has told Congress about the legal justifications for his drone policy: Dick Cheney was worse. — That's part of what two senators …
Discussion:
FP Passport, Guardian, Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette, The Huffington Post, Right Wing News and The Daily Caller

GOP lawmakers threaten to subpoena Benghazi survivors — Exasperated GOP members say unless they get more answers from the White House, they will call on the survivors to testify before Congress, and might hold up President Obama's nomination to replace the U.S. ambassador who was killed on Sept. 11, 2012 in Libya.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller


GOP Congressman Says Supreme Court Doesn't Actually Get To Decide Whether Laws Are Constitutional — Still smarting over last year's ruling upholding Obamacare, freshman Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) dismissed the idea that the Supreme Court decides whether or not laws are constitutional.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather


Pro-Gun Measures Snuck into New Government Funding Bill — WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan Senate bill preventing a federal shutdown would make four long-standing gun protections permanent, including one preventing the Justice Department from requiring firearms dealers to conduct inventories …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Times and The Raw Story


Aaron Swartz Lawyers Accuse Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Of Misconduct — WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutor Stephen Heymann engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by withholding key evidence from the defense team of Aaron Swartz, the late Internet activist's legal team alleged in a letter to an internal Justice Department ethics unit.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Taylor Marsh, The Verge, TalkLeft and emptywheel


CPAC's absent GOP rock stars — Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie are two of the Republican Party's big success stories: popular East Coast governors who have enacted conservative policies in states that President Barack Obama won twice. Elected together in 2009, the pair formed an advance guard for the 2010 Republican revolution.
Discussion:
NBCNews.com

EXCLUSIVE - U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans' finances — (Reuters) - The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, americanthinker.com, Shakesville, Business Insider, emptywheel, Wired, The Gateway Pundit and The PJ Tatler

Arguments from the Future— A New Modality of Constitutional Argument — At a meeting of the Supreme Court Clinic this evening, we discussed the upcoming arguments in the Marriage Cases. We considered what arguments would likely weigh most heavily with the Justices.
Discussion:
Josh Blackman's Blog and Library of Law & Liberty


Did Venezuela's Chavez nudge Christ to pick South American pope? — (Reuters) - Late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's influence may have stretched into the afterlife and had a hand in Christ's decision to opt for a Latin American Pope, acting President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday.
Discussion:
TheBlaze.com, PolicyMic, Weasel Zippers and Mediaite


Michelle makes me tidy up, admits messy President Obama — First Lady Michelle Obama has played the role of Felix to her husband's Oscar during their entire 20-year partnership, President Obama revealed. — “I had this little bachelor apartment that Michelle refused to stay in because she thought …
Discussion:
Althouse and Jammie Wearing Fools