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Weiner mocks reporter, scolds staff as cameras roll at campaign event — “I just have a feeling I like stepped into a Monty Python bit,” Anthony Weiner said as a British journalist questioned him about his campaign to become New York City mayor. He then offered to present an impromptu weather forecast.
Discussion:
New York Post, msnbc.com and BuzzFeed
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Weiner mocks British reporter — Follow @politicalticker Follow @KilloughCNN — (CNN) - Stopping on the campaign trail for a sidewalk interview, a clearly agitated Anthony Weiner mocked a British reporter Thursday and laughed as she asked him questions. — “It's hard to take you seriously …
Discussion:
National Updates, Towleroad News #gay and The Huffington Post


Anthony Weiner slips to lowest rating ever in poll of Democratic voters — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads with 24% approval among Democrats, while an embattled Anthony Weiner falls to only 10% approval, according to New York Times/Siena College poll.
Discussion:
Capital New York

Quinn Leads Democratic Candidates for Mayor, Poll Finds
Discussion:
Guardian, Capital New York, The Week, Death and Taxes, Politicker, The Fix, Outside the Beltway, Conservatives4Palin, Washington Post, CNN and Taegan Goddard's …

Among Blacks, Spitzer and Weiner Find a More Forgiving Crowd
Discussion:
Capital New York and TheBlaze.com

To Our Customers — We designed our phone, video, and text services (Silent Phone and Silent Text) to be completely end-to-end secure with all cryptography done on the clients and our exposure to your data to be nil. The reasons are obvious — the less of your information we have, the better it is for you and for us.
Discussion:
Mashable, Guardian, The Daily Caller, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Techdirt, GigaOM, The Switch, The Verge, Firedoglake, Hit & Run and Hot Air
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Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Marginal Revolution, Althouse, Wake up America, Quartz, The Agonist, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, BBC, VentureBeat, Hillicon Valley and Techdirt

Lavabit's brave stand: email service shuts down
Discussion:
Forbes, Defense One, Boing Boing, The Technology Chronicles and Business Insider

Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down
Discussion:
Informed Comment, AL.com and The Switch


Rand Paul on Republicans' Voter Appeal and the Federal Reserve — How seriously are you thinking about the White House? — At this point we're thinking about ways to grow the Republican Party and won't make any decision about whether that involves me running or not for about a year.
Discussion:
American Prospect, National Review, The Dish, Fortune and Wonkblog
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Rand Paul Not So Good With Numbers — Let's see ... carry the five ... can I please have a calculator? — Josh Green asks Rand Paul about his rather extreme budget proposal, and Paul replies that it's necessary because the only alternative is Trillion-Dollar Deficits As Far As the Eye Can See:
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Paul Krugman and msnbc.com


How Dumb Is Immigration Debate? This Dumb. — Everything you know about immigration, particularly unauthorized immigration, is wrong. — So says Princeton University's Doug Massey, anyway. Massey is one of the nation's preeminent immigration scholars.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and AL.com


Scott Brown's Younger Brother Arrested Heavily Armed, Impersonating Police … Bruce Brown, the brother of former senator Scott Brown, is shown in this NECN.com video. — NECN.com — Bruce W. Brown, the younger brother of former Mass. Senator Scott Brown, was arrested last night heavily armed …
Discussion:
CNN, The Hill, Post Politics, Ballot Box and Boston Herald


EXCLUSIVE: Alec Baldwin Set To Host New MSNBC Primetime Show (UPDATED) — Mediaite has learned from a senior source in the cable news industry with knowledge of MSNBC's programming that actor Alec Baldwin is getting his own weekly show in MSNBC's primetime lineup.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, Hot Air, National Review, Politico, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, Deadline.com, Twitchy, TVNewser, The Week, Michelle Malkin, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Inside TV, The PJ Tatler, Ed Driscoll, Joe. My. God., New York Magazine and The Raw Story


NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls — Exclusive: Spy agency has secret backdoor permission to search databases for individual Americans' communications — The National Security Agency has a secret backdoor into its vast databases under …
Discussion:
emptywheel, Techdirt, Boing Boing and Samizdata

Seniors Leaving The GOP And It's About Time — Why, it seems like just yesterday that the GOP could count on the seniors! — I'm sure you've heard about this, but if you haven't this is really big news. I've openly wondered for years why seniors were backing the tea party and GOP since …
Discussion:
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Washington Monthly and Hullabaloo
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Why Seniors Are Turning Against The GOP
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Week, The Reaction, Booman Tribune, Hullabaloo, Mother Jones and Prairie Weather


‘Muslims peaked in the Dark Ages. But since then?’: Richard Dawkins embroiled in Twitter row over controversial comments — The author of The God Delusion tweeted that the world's Muslims had won fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge — His comments sparked anger among …
Discussion:
Vox Popoli and Jihad Watch


The Bourne Hypocrisy: Matt Damon's Peculiar School Choice — The movie star's explanation for sending his four daughters to private school is disingenuous. — Oscar winner Matt Damon has earned millions successfully playing a super spy, tortured genius, rugby icon, and poker player.
Discussion:
PJ Lifestyle, The Daily Caller, The Reliable Source and Eduwonk
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Matt Damon on Pres. Obama: “He Broke Up With Me”
Discussion:
Mediaite, NewsBusters and Politico

Phony Fear Factor — We live in a golden age of economic debunkery; fallacious doctrines have been dropping like flies. No, monetary expansion needn't cause hyperinflation. No, budget deficits in a depressed economy don't cause soaring interest rates. No, slashing spending doesn't create jobs.
Discussion:
Angry Bear, Paul Krugman, Daily Kos and Prairie Weather


FIRST ON CNN: U.S. pulls diplomats from Lahore, Pakistan, amid terror threat — Washington (CNN) — The State Department has evacuated most of its diplomats from Lahore, Pakistan in response to a terrorist threat against the U.S. consulate, senior State Department and other senior U.S. officials told CNN.
Discussion:
Daily Mail, protein wisdom, Hot Air, The Week, Gawker, Travel.State.Gov, National Review, The Hill and The Gateway Pundit
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National Organization for Marriage Decries Gay Activist Witch Hunt in Iowa — Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004) — “This is another attempt to shut down criticism of activist judges and politicians who wish to redefine marriage.” — Brian Brown, NOM president —
Discussion:
Joe. My. God.
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Iowa ethics board will investigate National Organization for Marriage
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Towleroad News #gay and Joe. My. God.


In McAuliffe's Former Car Company, Echoes of Romney and Bain — Remember the Democrats' withering attacks on Mitt Romney for his business dealings in China and holdings in the Caribbean? The tables have turned. Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe faces attacks from Republicans …
Discussion:
ABC News, Hot Air and America Rising


A how-to book about inciting a moral panic. — Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner has uncovered a fascinating document: an 80-page “talking points” monograph titled “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging,” written by a trio of Democratic political operatives.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers


Apple's Tim Cook, tech execs meet with Barack Obama to talk surveillance — President Barack Obama hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google computer scientist Vint Cerf and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders on Thursday for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance, sources tell POLITICO.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CNN, BuzzMachine, The Verge, Fortune, TechCrunch, Business Insider, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Digits and Mashable


EXCLUSIVE: Oklahoma Congressman Comes Out As A Birther — AFTON, Oklahoma — Although Freshman Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) believes President Obama may secretly be a Kenyan who forged his birth certificate, he thinks it's too late to do anything about it. — During a town hall meeting …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress


Russia's Stimulus Plan: Open the Gulag Gates — MOSCOW — A business owner in Russia has a better chance of ending up in the penal colony system once known as the gulag than a common burglar does. — More than 110,000 people are serving time for what Russia calls “economic crimes,” …
Discussion:
Daniel W. Drezner and Booman Tribune


Christie Spends $4.7M In Sandy Relief Funds On Pseudo Campaign Ads Featuring Himself — Perhaps no man has fallen from the grace of the GOP faster than NJ Governor Chris Christie. — Tensions have been mounting between the Christie and the GOP. At this year's CPAC Convention …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars

The Nudge Debate — This has been a great era for the study of error. We know that people can be induced to buy more cans of soup if you put a “Limit: 12 per customer” sign on the display. We know that if you ask people what movie they want to see next week, they're likely to mention a classy art film.
Discussion:
The Spectacle Blog