memeorandum: Now out of Senate, Snowe supports same-sex marriage (Lisa Desjardins/CNN)

3:20 PM ET, April 5, 2013

Top Items:

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

In Obama Budget, Social Programs Face a Cutback — WASHINGTON — President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects …

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

Bad News Friday — The two biggest pieces of news today are that President Obama's budget will reflect the tax and spending deal he offered House Speaker John Boehner last year — i.e. it will include the so-called Chained-CPI Social Security benefit cut — and that the March jobs numbers came in way lower than expected.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and A plain blog about politics

Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:

Lawmakers, progressives blast Obama's expected proposal to cut entitlements — Progressive groups and lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are blasting the Obama administration for cuts to Social Security and other programs expected to be unveiled in the president's budget next week.

Discussion: Reuters and Politico

Paul Krugman: Desperately Seeking “Serious” Approval

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Obama Budget: Administration Explains Why It Started With A ‘Compromise Proposal’

Discussion: New York Times and Yahoo! News

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Obama budget would cut entitlements in exchange for tax increases

Discussion: National Review, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, ThinkProgress, Post Politics, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, susiemadrak.com and Prairie Weather

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:
Jim DeMint: ‘69.5 Million Americans’ Are Dependent On Government

Discussion: The Plum Line, Shakesville and The Heritage Foundation

Associated Press:
Obama Budget Proposes Social Security Cuts

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, CANNONFIRE, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Balloon Juice and Associated Press

CEPR:
President Obama Proposes a Bigger Hit to Seniors Than to the Rich

Discussion: Firedoglake

Politico:
Boehner rejects Obama cuts-revenue proposal

Discussion: CNN, Firedoglake, First Read and CBS News

Pam Belluck / New York Times:

Judge Orders Morning-After Pill Available for All Ages — A federal judge has ruled that the Unites States government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and under.

Discussion: CNN, LifeNews.com, Outside the Beltway, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, The Other McCain, Joe. My. God., The Raw Story, americanthinker.com, Gawker, The Volokh Conspiracy, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Feministing

Sarah Kliff / Wonkblog:
Federal court rules emergency contraceptives needs to be sold over the counter

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Raw Story

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano / Fox News:

FoxNews.com's Jana Winter should be praised, not threatened with jail time — While the press in Colorado is consumed with its coverage of the capital murder prosecution of James Holmes for the slaughter he perpetrated in a movie theater in the town of Aurora on July 20, 2012 …

Discussion: CNN, Hit & Run, Fox News Insider, The Jawa Report and TVNewser

Michael Winter / USA Today:
Holmes' doctor warned police before Colo. theater attack

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

John Ingold / Denver Post:
CENTENNIAL — Soon after a gunman killed 12 people and wounded …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Outside the Beltway

Scott Wilson / Washington Post:

Obama rekindles talk about boys club after comment about California attorney general — President Obama reopened the debate Thursday over whether his administration is too influenced by men after praising the looks of Kamala Harris, California's attorney general and a possible future gubernatorial candidate.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Taylor Marsh, The Fix, BuzzFeed and Shakesville

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:
Why Obama's ‘Best-Looking Attorney General’ Comment Was a Gaffe

Discussion: Yahoo! News and PostPartisan

Irin Carmon / Salon:
How to talk about a woman's looks

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, New York Magazine, Post Politics, PostPartisan, Washington Free Beacon and Mediaite

Peter Baker / The Caucus:
Obama's Remarks About California's Attorney General Raise Eyebrows

Discussion: NewsBusters blogs, Politico and msnbc.com

Tyler Durden / Zero Hedge:

People Not In Labor Force Soar By 663,000 To 90 Million, Labor Force Participation Rate At 1979 Levels — Things just keep getting worse for the American worker, and by implication US economy, where as we have shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability …

Discussion: National Review, Power Line, TheBlaze.com and The Gateway Pundit

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Jobs report: Only 88,000 jobs added; Update: “This is a punch to the gut”

Discussion: CNBC, Forbes, Calculated Risk and The Shark Tank

Tyler Durden / Zero Hedge:
Payrolls Plunge To 88K, Biggest Miss Since December 2009, Participation Rate At New 30 Year Low

Discussion: Business Insider, Calculated Risk, Scared Monkeys, americanthinker.com, The Big Picture, Outside the Beltway, KUOW and Weekly Standard

Lisa Desjardins / CNN:

Now out of Senate, Snowe supports same-sex marriage — (CNN) - Olympia Snowe, who after serving three terms in the U.S. Senate did not seek re-election last year, said in an interview Friday that as public opinion has shifted on same-sex marriage, so have her views.

Discussion: The Fix, Post Politics, Bangor Daily News, The Raw Story and Good As You

Evan McMorris-Santoro / BuzzFeed:

Conservative Democrats Take Joint Plunge On Gay Marriage — North Dakota's Heitkamp and Indiana's Donnelly decided to support marriage equality together. — Image by Will Kincaid, File / AP — WASHINGTON — While America was talking about the latest unemployment numbers Friday …

Discussion: msnbc.com and Taylor Marsh

Facebook:
Senator Joe Donnelly · 3,458 like this

Discussion: Politico, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The National Memo, ThinkProgress, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Daily Kos, Towleroad News #gay and Tampa Bay Times

Steven Nelson / US News:

The Associated Press Revises Another Politically Charged Term — Stylebook entry for ‘Islamist’ revised two days after ‘illegal immigrant’ dropped — Following on the heels of the Tuesday decision by The Associated Press to discontinue use of the term “illegal immigrant,” …

Discussion: BizPac Review, The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers, National Review and FishbowlNY

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Urge to Purge — When the Great Depression struck, many influential people argued that the government shouldn't even try to limit the damage. According to Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon, his Treasury secretary, urged him to “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers. ...

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Prairie Weather, The Week, Vox Popoli, Hot Air and LewRockwell.com Blog

Reuters:

North Korea asks embassies to consider moving diplomats out — (Reuters) - North Korea has asked embassies to consider moving staff out and warned it cannot guarantee the safety of diplomats after April 10, Britain said, amid high tension and a war of words on the Korean peninsula.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Reuters, The Week and KUOW

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
North Korea Sets Deadline For Diplomats To Leave: Next Wednesday

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Allen Reed / The Eagle:

Texas A&M student body president to veto ‘Religious Funding Exemption Bill’ — Texas A&M student body president John Claybrook has vetoed legislation from the student senate aimed at letting students opt out of funding the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Resource Center …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Towleroad News #gay, The Raw Story and Joe. My. God.

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy — One of the great things about attending Facebook's events is that one gets to see Mark Zuckerberg mature as a chief executive and hone his presentation skills. And today, he didn't disappoint in his ability to spin the media corps.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, TechCrunch, The Verge and BBC

Brian Hughes / Washington Examiner:

Democrats have doubts about Obamacare too … President Obama is eager to build public support for his health care overhaul in the few months remaining before its implementation, but waning enthusiasm from Democrats threatens his effort right out of the gate.

Discussion: Questions and Observations and americanthinker.com

John Avlon / The Daily Beast:

Hillary Clinton Keeps Up the Good Fight for Women Worldwide — Through 20 years of tireless work, Clinton has become a symbol for something larger than herself. John Avlon reports on her address at the Women in the World Summit. — “Extremism thrives on anger and ignorance,” …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

David Skolnick / Vindicator:

Worry about government secrecy, Woodward tells Youngstown crowd — After four decades of being one of the nation's best known and widely respected journalists, you'd think Bob Woodward has seen it all. — “But I wake up every morning haunted by what we don't know,” he said Thursday …

Discussion: Politico, Weasel Zippers, Taegan Goddard's … and Mediaite

Alan B. Krueger / White House.gov Blog:

The Employment Situation in March — While more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the policies that are helping …