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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, Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, NBCNews.com, First Read and The Caucus
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White House tour move backfires on Obama
Discussion:
Right Turn, Hot Air, ABCNEWS and National Review


Obama To GOP: I'm Serious About Cutting The Social Safety Net
Discussion:
The Plum Line and Post Politics


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:
National Review, Slate, Guardian, Crooked Timber, PolicyMic, NBCNews.com, The Week, The Dish, The Reaction and Two Weeks Notice
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CNN Vatican analyst: Pope Francis' name choice ‘precedent shattering’
Discussion:
Post Politics, The Week Magazine, Connecting.the.Dots, PostPartisan, Guardian, The Awl, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Piers Morgan, Mediaite, PolicyMic and This Just In

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

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

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

The New Pope: Bergoglio of Argentina
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FP Passport, PolicyMic, his vorpal sword, Truthdig, Gates of Vienna, NBCNews.com, Hot Air, Ross Douthat, The White House, Sky Dancing, The Atlantic Online, Little Green Footballs, Business Insider, Taylor Marsh, Poynter, Washington Post, Brad DeLong, Pacific Standard. Smart …, The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, Americas South and North, The Hinterland Gazette, Lawyers, Guns & Money, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Balloon Juice, The Reaction, Outside the Beltway, TalkLeft, The Gateway Pundit, FiveThirtyEight and WorldViews

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.
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Schultz to Give Up Weekday Slot on MSNBC
Discussion:
Politico, Mediaite, The Week, The Daily Caller and Jammie Wearing Fools


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 and Daily Kos
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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.


Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives — Google announced today that it'll be closing Google Reader's doors on July 1st of this year, meaning you'll need to find a new way to get your news fix. Here's how to export all your feeds and put them into a new reader.
Discussion:
Slate, Sky Dancing, Boing Boing, The Dish, TechCrunch and ProfessorBainbridge.com, more at Mediagazer »
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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, The Verge, Mashable!, Techdirt, Lawyers, Guns & Money and AllThingsD, 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, Colorlines, The Hinterland Gazette, PolicyMic, 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, The Feminist Wire, Breaking News …, NY Daily News, 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:
CNN, FP Passport, Guardian, Weasel Zippers, The Huffington Post, The Hinterland Gazette, Right Wing News and The Daily Caller


Physicists say they have found long-sought Higgs boson — GENEVA - The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe. — Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland
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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


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:
Firedoglake, Techdirt, The Verge, TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh 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.


U.S. Tax Cheats Nailed After Swiss Adviser Mails It In — Everybody knows the danger of sending things inadvertently in an e-mail. Beda Singenberger's case shows you also have to be pretty careful when you mail things the old-fashioned way. — Over an 11-year period, federal prosecutors charge …
Discussion:
Guardian


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