memeorandum: Senate overcomes filibuster, clearing the way for debate on gun bill (Tom Cohen/CNN)

4:30 PM ET, April 11, 2013

Top Items:

Source: Progress Kentucky Behind Mitch McConnell Campaign Recording — A secret recording of a campaign strategy session between U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and his advisors was taped by leaders of the Progress Kentucky super PAC, says a longtime local Democratic operative.

Discussion: CNN, Ballot Box, Weekly Standard, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers, Post Politics, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway, Roll Call and Politico

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Local Dem Says He Outed Progress Kentucky To Protect The Party (VIDEO) — The Democratic official who's claiming that two members of the group Progress Kentucky were behind the recordings of a secret meeting between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and campaign aides said Thursday …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Political Carnival and Weekly Standard

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Report: Progress Ky. taped McConnell — A Democratic official in Kentucky told a local radio station Thursday that two men affiliated with the controversial Progress Kentucky super PAC told him they were responsible for the secretly recording one of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign strategy meetings.

Discussion: NewsBusters blogs, WFPL, Washington Post and CNN

David Rogers / Politico:
Where's Mitch McConnell?

Discussion: Yahoo! News, CNN, ABCNEWS and Mother Jones

Tom Cohen / CNN:

Senate overcomes filibuster, clearing the way for debate on gun bill — Washington (CNN) — The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against tougher gun laws, clearing the way for a major congressional debate on a package of proposals sought by President Barack Obama …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Booman Tribune, The Political Carnival, The Lead with Jake Tapper and Gawker

Gregory Korte / USA Today:

Senate heads off filibuster on gun bill … Vote to break a threatened filibuster on gun control doesn't end the debate — it only begins it. — WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 68 to 31 Thursday morning to move forward on a gun safety bill, breaking a threatened filibuster from conservative Republicans …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Raw Story, Business Insider and The Truth About Guns

David Weigel / Slate:

The NRA Will “Score” A Cloture Vote for Gun Control After All — Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, leaves after he delivered remarks during the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 15, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. — The day ends with the NRA issuing a “key vote” threat on Manchin-Toomey.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The National Memo, Hot Air and Mother Jones

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Senators' Vote Clears the Way for Debate on New Gun Laws

Discussion: Hawkings Here, Addicting Info and Outside the Beltway

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Baby Step — So the first Senate skirmish on gun legislation is over …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Post Politics, Mother Jones and Wonkblog

Katie Ferrell / fox4kc.com:

Man no longer allowed to visit husband at KC hospital — LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — A Lee's Summit man is fighting a restraining order that he says was issued against him after he says he was arrested for refusing to leave the bedside of his sick partner. — Roger Gorley went to visit his partner …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, ThinkProgress, Advocate, LGBTQ Nation, AMERICAblog, The Political Carnival, Towleroad News #gay and Gawker

David Edwards / The Raw Story:

Missouri man arrested at hospital for refusing to leave gay partner — A gay man was arrested at a hospital in Missouri this week when he refused to leave the bedside of his partner, and now a restraining order is preventing him from any type of visitation.

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Life+Times:

JAY Z “Open Letter” — I got an onion from Universal and didn't even weep... I got an onion from Universal and didn't even weep... I got an onion from Universal and didn't even weep... N! CE — N! CE — N! CE — Does Kevin Hart get a check for the hook?

Discussion: Washington Wire, Yahoo! News, ABCNEWS, The Moderate Voice, Business Insider, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, ArtsBeat and Gothamist

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:

Jay-Z brags about Cuba trip in rap — Rapper Jay-Z released a new track Thursday in which he boasts about his recent trip to Cuba with superstar Beyoncé and says that President Barack Obama told him he'd get him “impeached.” — “I done turned Havana into Atlanta,” Jay-Z raps in “Open Letter,” which he released Thursday.

Discussion: Gawker, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite, Babalú Blog, TMZ.com, BizPac Review, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Scared Monkeys and The Week

Katie Glueck / Politico:

Steve Cohen deletes flirty tweet to Cyndi Lauper — Rep. Steve Cohen appears to have sent and then deleted an eyebrow-raising tweet to performer Cyndi Lauper. — “@cyndilauper great night,couldn't believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness. http://t.co/zz4Orccryf …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Associated Press

Mikael Wood / Los Angeles Times:
Justin Timberlake sings for Obamas at White House soul tribute

Discussion: The Raw Story, Right Wing Watch, Red Alert Politics and EW.com

Kirsten Powers / USA Today:

Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column — We've forgotten what belongs on Page One. — Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven't heard about these sickening accusations? — It's not your fault.

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin, LifeNews.com, Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Lawyers, Guns & Money, neo-neocon, Ed Driscoll, BuzzFeed and NewsBusters

Mark Zuckerberg / Washington Post:

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Immigration and the knowledge economy — Mark Zuckerberg is founder and chief executive of Facebook and co-founder of Fwd.us. — Earlier this year I started teaching a class on entrepreneurship at an after-school program in my community.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, Right Turn, The Hill, Mashable, Guardian, Taylor Marsh, VentureBeat, ImmigrationProf Blog and AllThingsD

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Carney: Walden CPI criticism ‘flagrantly ridiculous and cynical’ — White House press secretary Jay Carney blasted Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) on Thursday after the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman accused the president of a “shocking attack on seniors” with the inclusion of chained CPI in his budget proposal.

Discussion: CNN, Politico and The Week

Talking Points Memo:
Club For Growth Questions GOP Rep. For Attacking Obama On Social Security Cuts

Discussion: RealClearPolitics Video Log, Washington Monthly, Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos and The Dish

Associated Press:

Gun Shop Where Lanza's Mother Bought Bushmaster Shut Down For Selling To A Felon, Background Check Violations — EAST WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — Federal authorities say a Connecticut gun shop that legally sold weapons used in the Newtown school shootings lost its federal firearms license …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Len Besthoff / WFSB-TV:
Documents detail why gun shop lost license

Discussion: The Raw Story

Paul Waldman / American Prospect:

Closing the Gun Show Loophole: Better Than Nothing? — Ah, bipartisan compromise, just what the country is yearning for. We saw some yesterday, as NRA favorite Pat Toomey and NRA favorite Joe Manchin got together to see if they could come up with a plan for universal background checks …

Discussion: The Week, Daily Kos and Hit & Run

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Veterans poll: 91 percent back gun checks

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

David Weigel / Slate:

Delaware: The Next Blue State to Move on Marriage Equality — A same-sex marriage supporter has her forehead painted with a rainbow as she joins a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court on March 27, 2013 in Washington, DC. — Last year, as more states legalized gay marriage legislatively …

Discussion: Advocate and Outside the Beltway

Joseph Ryan / Chicago Tribune:

Daughter of former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright indicted … The daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — the controversial former pastor to President Barack Obama — was indicted today in an expanding federal probe of a state grant tied to a former suburban police chief.

Discussion: National Review, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, The Hinterland Gazette, americanthinker.com and Sweetness & Light

Campus Reform the #1 Source for College News:

‘Stupid and Racist’: Video captures professor ranting against Republican Party — A professor at the University of Southern California (USC) appears to have used a fall semester 2012 political science class to deliver sustained and angered attacks on Republicans, who he characterized as old, white, racist, and “losers.”

Discussion: Mediaite, Fox News, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Althouse and The Gateway Pundit

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

Federal Appeals Court Explains Why Rubber Fetuses And High Schools Don't Mix — An anti-abortion student group in Roswell, New Mexico thought it would be a good idea to pass out hundreds of small rubber replicas of fetuses to students at two high schools. As it turns out, this was not such a good idea:

Discussion: The Raw Story

Kyle Olson / EAGnews.org:

Message from public school crossword puzzle: Conservatism ‘restricts personal freedoms’ — UNION GROVE, Wis. - Eighth-graders in Wisconsin's Union Grove school district were assigned to fill out a “Liberalism vs. Conservatism” crossword puzzle, and they learned some new and very questionable “facts.”

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, Moonbattery and Ed Driscoll

Aron Heller / Associated Press:

Israel Detains Five Women For Wearing Prayer Shawls At Western Wall — JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police on Thursday detained five women at a Jerusalem holy site for performing religious rituals there that ultra-Orthodox Jews say are reserved for men. — The detentions come …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Politico:

Senators who split with their party on guns — Sixteen Republicans split with their party leaders and voted Thursday to end the GOP filibuster of gun control legislation and begin what will be a contentious Senate debate on the issue. — The final vote was 68-31.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Freedom's Lighthouse