Top Items:
Nolan Finley / detroitnews.com:
Detroit native Carson could break barriers in Senate race — Dr. Ben Carson is a Black History month staple. Each February, schoolchildren hear the story of the impoverished African-American boy from Detroit, a struggling student whose mother made him read two books a week until he bloomed into a scholar.
Discussion:
National Review and americanthinker.com
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Josh Gerstein / Politico:
In Israel, Obama draws race parallel — JERUSALEM—On his stops in the Holy Land Thursday, President Barack Obama turned again and again to a subject not obviously connected to the current troubles in the mideast: the struggles of African Americans in the United States.
Discussion:
Israel Matzav and Weasel Zippers
Rick Gladstone / New York Times:
Obama Lays Out Case for Israel to Revive Peace Talks
Obama Lays Out Case for Israel to Revive Peace Talks
Discussion:
The Week, Haaretz, Post Politics, CNN, ABCNEWS, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, Reuters, Telegraph, The Reaction, Towleroad News #gay and Capital New York
Justin Sink / The Hill:
Obama awarded Israel's Presidential Medal of Distinction
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid to bring gun bill to floor with expanded background checks — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will bring gun control legislation to the floor that includes a controversial expansion of background checks for private firearm sales. — Reid said he would on Thursday evening begin …
Discussion:
Politico, Mediaite, americanthinker.com, ABCNEWS, CNN and Mother Jones
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USA Today:
Congress turns to domestic policy after budget battles — WASHINGTON — A brief reprieve in the fiscal battles between President Obama and a divided Congress will allow two contentious and politically divisive domestic issues — guns and immigration — to take center stage in the national debate this spring.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and NationalJournal.com
Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Harry Reid To Introduce Gun Control Bill With Universal Background Checks
Harry Reid To Introduce Gun Control Bill With Universal Background Checks
Discussion:
The Daily Banter, Twitchy, The Week and Weasel Zippers
Joshua Green / Businessweek:
The Secret Gingrich-Santorum ‘Unity Ticket’ That Nearly Toppled Romney — It's one of the great untold stories of the 2012 presidential campaign, a tale of ego and intrigue that nearly upended the Republican primary contest and might even have produced a different nominee …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, The Hill, Washington Monthly and msnbc.com
Ramsey Cox / The Hill:
Ryan's budget rejected in Senate on 40-59 vote — The Senate rejected House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget Thursday night. — Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) forced Senate Republicans to vote on Paul's plan through an amendment she offered, which failed on a 40-59 vote.
Discussion:
The Maddow Blog, Yahoo! News and The Hill
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Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
House Passes Plan to Avert Federal Shutdown
Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
House approves resolution to keep government running; bill heads to White House
House approves resolution to keep government running; bill heads to White House
Discussion:
Roll Call, The Impolitic, NationalJournal.com, Firedoglake, Post Politics, The Plum Line and KPLU News for Seattle …
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Treasure Island Trauma — A couple of years ago, the journalist Nicholas Shaxson published a fascinating, chilling book titled “Treasure Islands,” which explained how international tax havens — which are also, as the author pointed out, “secrecy jurisdictions” where many rules don't apply — undermine economies around the world.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather and msnbc.com
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Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:
The Man Who Could Turn Texas Blue: Rick Perry — By opposing Medicaid expansion, the governor could hurt the GOP in a must-win state. — AUSTIN, Texas—Big in all things, Texas leads the nation in failing to provide health insurance. About one in four Texans are uninsured, the highest percentage in any state.
Discussion:
First Read
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Michael Catalini / NationalJournal.com:
Rick Perry: The Presidential Candidate Ahead of His Time
Rick Perry: The Presidential Candidate Ahead of His Time
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, FishbowlDC, The Spectacle Blog and UrbanGrounds
Evan McMorris-Santoro / BuzzFeed:
Ohio's Republican Governor Endorses Civil Unions, Then Takes It Back — John Kasich's office says he was using the term “loosely” when he said he supported civil unions. — Image by Rick Osentoski / AP — Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich said he favored civil unions …
Discussion:
The Maddow Blog, ThinkProgress and CityBeat
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Brandon Blackwell / Plain Dealer:
Kasich recants his support of civil unions
Kasich recants his support of civil unions
Discussion:
Daily Kos, WEWS-TV and Post Politics
Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Simple Plan — Of all the vast literature on the current plight of the Republican Party, this fairly simple statement from Rich Lowry makes the most sense to me: … Now to be sure, Jack Kemp's reputation as an idea man is being considerably inflated by Lowry. But it's the right idea.
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Rich Lowry / Reuters:
Where is today's Jack Kemp?
Where is today's Jack Kemp?
Discussion:
Ricochet Conversations Feed and AEIdeas
Nicholas Blanford / Christian Science Monitor:
All signs point to no lethal chemical weapons attack in Syria — As the Syrian regime and rebels trade accusations of an alleged lethal chemical weapons attack yesterday, chemical weapons experts say there is no evidence that attack occurred. — BEIRUT — An alleged chemical weapons …
Discussion:
Guardian, Outside the Beltway and CNN
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Dan Murphy / Christian Science Monitor:
The real warning in Syrian chemical weapons claims
The real warning in Syrian chemical weapons claims
Discussion:
NO QUARTER USA NET, The Hill and Booman Tribune
Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:
Is Hillary Clinton Too Conservative To Become President? — While she was at the State Department — and out of politics for four years — Clinton's party was moving to the left, and fast. “Now that she's unshackled by the boundaries of her office, she'll step up the mic,” says Singer.
David S. Bernstein / thephoenix.com:
Mrs. Warren goes to Washington — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's credentials, support, and savvy make her almost untouchable — and she knows it. — Elizabeth Warren was the only senator on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, aside from the chair and ranking minority …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Craig Whitlock / Washington Post:
Drone base in Niger gives U.S. a strategic foothold in West Africa — Craig Whitlock/The Washington Post - The U.S. military has deployed unarmed Predator drones and more than 100 troops to Niger, where they are spying on extremist groups in the region and assisting French forces in Mali.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
Noonan: Can the Republican Party Recover From Iraq? — The war almost killed the GOP. Whether it can come back is yet to be seen. — The air has been full of 10th-anniversary Iraq war retrospectives. One that caught my eye was a smart piece by Tom Curry, national affairs writer for NBC News …
Politico:
Why Republicans still run K Street — Democrats control the White House and the Senate, but you wouldn't know it by looking down K Street. — Republicans hold more than 30 of the 50 highest-profile, in-house lobbying jobs in town, a POLITICO analysis found.
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
Adam Winkler / The Daily Beast:
Did the Assault-Weapons Ban Kill Gun Control? — The Democrats' likely failure to reinstate the assault-weapons ban is a blow to gun-control efforts, writes Adam Winkler. And that's not because the ban was effective or necessary. — Sen. Harry Reid announced Tuesday that he would not be including …
Discussion:
NewsBusters
John Stanton / BuzzFeed:
Battle Brews Over Labor Demands As Immigration Talks Enter Home Stretch — “Every time you make progress... the unions come in the next day and throw something else on the table. They keep moving the goal posts,” says a lobbyist. — WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 21: Members of the group Casa …
Discussion:
Hot Air and The Daily Caller
Alisa Wiersema / ABCNEWS:
Yoko Ono Tweets John Lennon's Bloody Glasses — Yoko Ono joined the U.S. gun debate when she tweeted a picture of the blood-stained glasses her husband, John Lennon, was wearing when he died. Lennon, one of the Beatles, died in 1980 after being shot in the back four times at the couple's New York City apartment by a crazed stalker.
Discussion:
CNN, Weasel Zippers, Yahoo! News, BuzzFeed and TheBlaze.com
Dave Benton / Associated Press:
Published Rant Causes Controversy In Lincoln County — Hamlin , Lincoln County , West Virginia — When readers opened the latest edition of the Lincoln Journal, many of them said they were shocked and disgusted to see what was printed in an opinion column.
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David Edwards / The Raw Story:
West Virginia paper's anti-LGBT column wants death for ‘n*ggers, spics, kikes and wops’
West Virginia paper's anti-LGBT column wants death for ‘n*ggers, spics, kikes and wops’
Discussion:
The Political Carnival and Towleroad News #gay