Top Items:
Talking Points Memo:
Feinstein Snaps At Cruz: 'I'm Not A Sixth Grader' (VIDEO) — Republican Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, rankled the nerves of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday during a contentious hearing on legislation, introduced by the California Democrat, that would reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons.
Discussion:
Wonkette, Taylor Marsh, The Raw Story and Shakesville
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Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Panel approves assault weapons ban; Cruz, Feinstein get heated — The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a ban on the sale and manufacture of more than 150 types of semi-automatic weapons with military-style features Thursday in a party-line vote. — The 10-8 vote came after a heated exchange between …
Discussion:
CNN, Mediaite, Hot Air, News Desk, The PJ Tatler, Sky Dancing, Hit & Run, No More Mister Nice Blog, ABCNEWS, American Power and Prairie Weather
Noah Rothman / Mediaite:
Ted Cruz And Dianne Feinstein Battle In Explosive Debate Over Gun Control In Senate: ‘I Am Not A 6th Grader’ — On Thursday, during a committee hearing in the U.S. Senate on gun control legislation, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) engaged in a heated exchange …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and Not the Singularity
Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Explosive Exchange at Gun Hearing Between Ted Cruz and Dianne Feinstein
Explosive Exchange at Gun Hearing Between Ted Cruz and Dianne Feinstein
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
John Bresnahan / Politico:
Feinstein to Cruz: ‘I am not a sixth grader’
Feinstein to Cruz: ‘I am not a sixth grader’
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Weasel Zippers, Mother Jones and Talking Points Memo
Justin Sink / Ballot Box:
Obama to headline April DCCC fundraiser in Calif. — President Obama will headline his first Democratic fundraiser of the 2014 election cycle at an event next month in San Francisco with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). — Invitations for the April 4 event …
Discussion:
Politico
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Amie Parnes / The Hill:
White House tour move backfires on Obama
White House tour move backfires on Obama
Discussion:
CNN, BuzzFeed, “The Lid”, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, National Review and ABCNEWS
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Pelosi open to looking at Obama proposal to cut Social Security
Pelosi open to looking at Obama proposal to cut Social Security
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Politico, Daily Kos and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
The United States Department of Justice:
Former Web Producer Indicted in California for Conspiring with “Anonymous” Members to Attack Internet News Site — A former web producer for a Tribune Company-owned television station in Sacramento, Calif., was charged today in an indictment for allegedly conspiring with members of the hacker group …
Discussion:
Politico, PIX 11, BBC, Business Insider, The Jawa Report, Media Decoder, Guardian, The Verge, The Raw Story, Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon, more at Mediagazer »
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Politico:
Reuters' Matthew Keys indicted for conspiring with hacker group ‘Anonymous’ — An excerpt from the indictment. Matthew Keys used the nickname AESCracked. — Matthew Keys, a deputy social media editor at Thomson Reuters, has been charged in a federal indictment for allegedly conspiring …
Discussion:
Gawker, GigaOM, Business Insider and TechCrunch, more at Mediagazer »
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:
Religious right calls Chief Justice Roberts' adoption of 2 kids “second best” — It's already being called the religious right's “47% video.” John Eastman, the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the lead religious right organization fighting against marriage equality for gay couples …
Discussion:
News Desk, Firedoglake, Towleroad News #gay, emptywheel, Wonkette and Associated Press
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Larry Rohter / New York Times:
Man in the News | Jorge Mario Bergoglio: New Pope Theologically Conservative, but With a Common Touch
Man in the News | Jorge Mario Bergoglio: New Pope Theologically Conservative, but With a Common Touch
Discussion:
NBCNews.com, National Review, FiveThirtyEight, msnbc.com, ABCNEWS, NewsBusters blogs, In These Times, Guardian, PolicyMic, CBS News, Crooked Timber, Slate, Reuters, Two Weeks Notice, The Dish, The Week and The Reaction
Michael Sean Winters / New Republic:
Pope With a Purpose — The Catholic world got a surprise yesterday …
Pope With a Purpose — The Catholic world got a surprise yesterday …
Discussion:
The Dish
Cord Jefferson / Gawker:
New Pope, Humble Hardliner, Called Fight Against Gay Rights a ‘War of God’
New Pope, Humble Hardliner, Called Fight Against Gay Rights a ‘War of God’
Discussion:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk, RH Reality Check, Spectator, The Monkey Cage and Shots in the Dark
Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:
Paul chastises ‘stale and moss-covered’ GOP establishment — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday told conservative activists the Republican Party had grown “stale and moss covered” and said the GOP needs a more libertarian approach that makes freedom the movement's defining principle.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and Politico
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CNN:
Big CPAC surprise: Jeb Bush not on ballot — (CNN) - There are 23 names on the Conservative Political Action Conference's much watched 2016 GOP presidential nomination straw poll. — And there's one glaring omission: Jeb Bush. — Follow @politicalticker
Discussion:
NPR, Politico, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler and The Week
Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
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.
RELATED:
Dylan Byers / Politico:
MSNBC ending Ed Schultz's weekday show
MSNBC ending Ed Schultz's weekday show
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Week, NewsBusters, Hot Air, Mediaite, Media Decoder, National Review and The Daily Caller
Pema Levy / Talking Points Memo:
Dick Morris Delivers Bad News To Republicans: Give Up On Roe V. Wade — “Well, we lost,” said Republican strategist Dick Morris as he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of suburban Washington, D.C., on Thursday. And in order to win the next election …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Booman Tribune and Politico
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dems plotting to lay a tax trap for GOP — I'm told that national Democrats are planning to mount a major campaign to hammer Republican candidates — particularly ones in swing areas — over a specific aspect of the Paul Ryan budget: The possibility that it could result in middle class tax hikes.
Associated Press:
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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David Edwards / The Raw Story:
Baptist pastor: Sex with underage girl ‘is exactly what Christ desires’ — The former pastor of a Indiana megachurch who is awaiting sentencing in a sex crimes case told a 17-year-old girl that Jesus wanted her to have sexual relations with him. — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday released letters …
Discussion:
Chicago Sun Times
Paul M. Barrett / Businessweek:
Why Gun Makers Fear the NRA — In the days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre on Dec. 14, executives with a half-dozen major U.S. gun manufacturers contacted the National Rifle Association. The firearm industry representatives didn't call the NRA, which they support with millions …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Guns.com
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
In meeting with Senate GOP, president says he's not setting a trap on deficit — President Obama pledged in a private meeting with Senate Republicans on Thursday to challenge his own party on entitlement reform. — He also asked Republicans not to believe conspiracy theories that he is pushing …
Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:
Exclusive: Court Docs Reveal Blackwater's Secret CIA Past — It was the U.S. military's most notorious security contractor—but it may also have been a virtual extension of the CIA. Eli Lake reports. — Last month a three-year-long federal prosecution of Blackwater collapsed.
Discussion:
The Raw Story and LewRockwell.com Blog
Politico:
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:
BuzzFeed, Truthdig, New York Times, The Huffington Post, CNN, Firedoglake, emptywheel, Lawfare, Weasel Zippers, National Review, msnbc.com, Guardian, The Hinterland Gazette, Hullabaloo, Right Wing News, FP Passport, Not the Singularity, Washington Post, The PJ Tatler and The Daily Caller
CNN:
Sources: Benghazi suspect detained in Libya — (CNN) — A man suspected of involvement in the September attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi is being held in Libya, according to two sources who have spoken with CNN. — Both sources confirmed the man's name as Faraj al-Shibli (also spelled Chalabi).
Discussion:
The Long War Journal, Weasel Zippers and The Raw Story
Sam Baker / The Hill:
Cuts to court system ‘simply unsustainable,’ Justice Kennedy warns — The cuts to the court system from sequestration are “simply unsustainable,” Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday. — The judicial branch is subject to a 5 percent cut under sequestration.
Discussion:
Politico and ThinkProgress
Katherine Bindley / The Huffington Post:
Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious Affiliation: Report — The number of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation is the highest it has ever been since data on the subject started being collected in the 1930s, new research has found.