memeorandum: Obama praises ‘tough as nails’ Pelosi at California fundraiser (Kevin Liptak/CNN)

10:40 AM ET, April 4, 2013

Top Items:

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

Obama praises ‘tough as nails’ Pelosi at California fundraiser — (CNN) - Rep. Nancy Pelosi is a “visionary” leader who “never lets ideology cloud her judgment,” President Barack Obama told a crowd of donors in San Francisco Wednesday evening. — Obama is in the Golden State …

Discussion: Politico, Taylor Marsh and Weasel Zippers

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Obama: I need Nancy Pelosi in speaker's chair — President Barack Obama said Wednesday at a DCCC fundraiser it would be difficult for him to pass a slew of second-term agenda items without Nancy Pelosi regaining her speakership. — “I would be dishonest if I didn't say that it would be a whole lot easier …

Discussion: Mediaite

Politico:
Anti-Keystone billionaire rattles Democrats

Discussion: Macleans.ca, Hullabaloo and Reuters

Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:
Obama raises California money for Democrats

Discussion: Associated Press

Ben Geman / E2-Wire: Obama on climate change: ‘The politics of this are tough’

Jeff Mason / Reuters: Obama San Francisco Fundraiser Addresses GOP Relationship: 'We Can't Have Perpetual Campaigns'

Peter Baker / New York Times: Obama in California for Congressional Fund-Raisers

Alexandra Jaffe / E2-Wire:
Greens get billionaire ally, money

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Booman Tribune, Jammie Wearing Fools and The Hill

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

A viewer's guide to Clinton Fever — Will she run or won't she? — The obsessive speculation about Hillary Clinton's plans for 2016 promises to be the longest and most intense parlor game in the history of American politics. It is a consuming fixation already, not just among the operatives …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Taylor Marsh, Public Policy Polling, TheBlaze.com, msnbc.com and The Reaction

Aaron Blake / Post Politics:

James Carville supporting pro-Hillary super PAC — Democratic strategist James Carville, a longtime confidant of the Clinton family, is supporting the super PAC devoted to luring Hillary Clinton into the 2016 presidential race. — A person familiar with Ready for Hillary PAC's outreach …

Discussion: Politico, Yahoo! News, The Moderate Voice, Roll Call and CNN

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

Hillary Clinton book coming in 2014 — (CNN) - Hillary Clinton is coming back to your bookshelves. — The former secretary of state - and potential candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination - inked a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a book “sharing key decisions …

Jonathan Easley / The Hill: Report: Hillary Clinton inks book deal on years at State Department

Alex Pareene / Salon:
One thing we don't know about Hillary

Discussion: Shakesville, Outside the Beltway, The Lead with Jake Tapper, The National Memo and Lawyers, Guns & Money

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Schools push a curriculum of propaganda — The real vocation of some people entrusted with delivering primary and secondary education is to validate this proposition: The three R's — formerly reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic — now are racism, reproduction and recycling. Especially racism.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, UrbanGrounds, Prairie Weather and American Power

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Gun poll: Most say background checks may bring confiscation — A plurality of Americans believe the federal government could use information gleaned from expanded background checks to confiscate legally-owned firearms, according to a Quinnipiac survey released Thursday.

Discussion: Politico, Weasel Zippers and Outside the Beltway

Vince Coglianese / The Daily Caller:
As Senate Democrats struggle to build support for new gun control …

Discussion: Hot Air

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Dials Back on Korean Show of Force — Administration ‘Playbook’ Outlined Publicized Exercises, but Officials Change Course Over Worries of North's Response — WASHINGTON—After a high-visibility display of military power aimed at deterring North Korean provocations …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Wire, USA Today, americanthinker.com and New York Times

Jung Ha-Won / Agence France Presse:
N. Korea approves nuclear strike on United States

Discussion: Business Insider, Shakesville, CANNONFIRE, Daily Mail, The Shark Tank, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, Weasel Zippers, CBS News, The Week, The Daily Caller and LewRockwell.com Blog

Gail Collins / New York Times:

Remembering the Affair to Remember — It's kind of nice to have Mark Sanford back. — Perhaps not if you're from South Carolina. It is my strong impression that many South Carolinians are tired of their former governor, who so famously snuck off to Argentina for some extramarital recreation …

CNN:
Sanford says fiancée surprised him at victory event

Discussion: The Lead with Jake Tapper and Ballot Box

Center for American Progress:

America Under the Gun — A 50-State Analysis of Gun Violence and Its Link to Weak State Gun Laws — Many of the states with the weakest gun laws also have the highest levels of gun violence. — Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF version of this report.

Discussion: New Orleans Times-Picayune and Business Insider

Zack Beauchamp / ThinkProgress:
STUDY: States With Loose Gun Laws Have Higher Rates Of Gun Violence

Discussion: The Hill, Right Wing News, The Reaction and American Power

Erica Goode / New York Times:
Report Links High Rates of Gun Violence to Weak State Regulations

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, msnbc.com and New Orleans Times-Picayune

Ta-Nehisi Coates / New York Times:

He Wears the Mask — The present darling of the right wing, Dr. Benjamin Carson, is a distinguished neurosurgeon who went from the depths of Detroit poverty to the heights of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. But his current status among conservatives isn't so much rooted …

Lucia Mutikani / Reuters:

Jobless claims at four-month high, cast shadow over labor market — (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits hit a four-month high last week, suggesting the labor market recovery lost some steam in March. — Initial claims for state unemployment …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, KUOW and americanthinker.com

Campbell Brown / Wall Street Journal:

The President Gives Hollywood a Pass on Violence — Movies and videogames aren't high among White House concerns. — There was something missing from President Obama's Wednesday speech in Denver about gun violence. He focused almost exclusively on passing gun-control laws …

Discussion: The Raw Story, NewsBusters blogs, Mediaite and msnbc.com

Allison Sherry / The Spot:

As lead sponsor in House on gun legislation, Rep. Diana DeGette appears to not understand how they work — Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette didn't appear to understand how guns work Tuesday at a forum on gun control. In two different Congresses, she has been the lead sponsor on legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Discussion: Denver Post, No Lawyers, Power Line, Weasel Zippers, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Post Politics, National Review and Washington Free Beacon

Greg Campbell / The Daily Caller:
Gun bill sponsor apparently doesn't understand how guns work

Discussion: americanthinker.com

icij.org:

Secret Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact — Dozens of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and thousands of names to produce ICIJ's investigation into offshore secrecy — A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Week, Guardian and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Sarah Jaffe / The Atlantic Online:

The McJobs Strike Back: Will Fast-Food Worker Ever Get a Living Wage? — Edwin Guzman already lost his job once for union-organizing. But today, he and several hundred fast food workers across New York City are on strike anyway. — A few weeks ago, an organizer with the Fast Food Forward campaign …

Discussion: Daily Kos and New York Times

Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:

Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester. — Ralph V. Boccia of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders runs a cancer clinic that is in danger of losing funding due to the sequester cuts. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Discussion: ThinkProgress and AMERICAblog

Hartford Courant:

State Legislature Approves Historic Gun Bill; Governor To Sign It Thursday At Noon — After more than 13 hours of debate that was at moments impassioned and agonized, the General Assembly early Thursday approved an historic and far-reaching gun-control bill that proponents said was their toughest …