Top Items:
Jon Terbush / The Week:
Obama is done even pretending to work with Republicans — If you can't beat 'em, ignore 'em — P — resident Obama is going solo. — Having seen his ambitious agenda run aground against Republican recalcitrance, Obama is pivoting to a more unilateral approach to achieve his goals.
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Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
With 2015 budget request, Obama will call for an end to era of austerity — President Obama's forthcoming budget request will seek tens of billions of dollars in fresh spending for domestic priorities while abandoning a compromise proposal to tame the national debt in part by trimming Social Security benefits.
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Wonkblog, Fox News, The Raw Story, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, New York Times and Patterico's Pontifications
Aamer Madhani / Associated Press:
Budget drops lower benefits, adds $56B in spending
The Hill:
Boehner: I'd rather kill myself than raise the minimum wage — Speaker John Boehner is so against raising the minimum wage that he once said he would rather commit suicide than vote for a “clean” increase. — The Ohio Republican and son of a barkeep has repeatedly opposed federally mandated hike increases …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Plum Line, ABC News and Booman Tribune
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
John Boehner just bought a condo in Florida. Hello, retirement?
John Boehner just bought a condo in Florida. Hello, retirement?
Discussion:
OpenSecrets.org
Art Swift / Gallup:
Hillary Clinton Maintains Positive Image in U.S. — American public's opinion of Vice President Joe Biden is mixed — WASHINGTON, D.C. — A clear majority of Americans, 59%, still view Hillary Clinton favorably a year after she left her post as secretary of state.
Discussion:
Firedoglake and Real Clear Politics
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Dana Davidsen / CNN:
McCain: If election were tomorrow, Clinton would be president
McCain: If election were tomorrow, Clinton would be president
Discussion:
Politico, Shakesville, Talking Points Memo, Taylor Marsh, Hinterland Gazette, WJHL-TV, Daily Kos, PoliticusUSA and The Raw Story
Jenna Johnson / Washington Post:
‘House of Cards’ threatens to leave if Maryland comes up short on tax credits — A few weeks before Season 2 of “House of Cards” debuted online, the show's production company sent Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley a letter with this warning: Give us millions more dollars in tax credits, or we will …
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ThinkProgress:
How Tax Credits Change Shows Like ‘House Of Cards’ And ‘Homeland’ — There's been a lot of chuckling on my Twitter feed this morning over the news that Charlie Goldstein, a senior vice president for Media Rights Capital, the studio that produces House of Cards, has written to the state …
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
The myth of ‘settled science’ — Irepeat: I'm not a global warming believer. I'm not a global warming denier. I've long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Climate Science Watch, Guardian, Betsy's Page, Althouse, Hot Air and Wall Street Journal
Washington Post:
Negotiators reach deal to end Ukraine crisis — The Post's Will Englund gives a first-person account of what it's like on the ground for protesters and citizens in Kiev. (The Washington Post) — KIEV, Ukraine — A deal designed to end Ukraine's long-running crisis was reached Friday …
Discussion:
Lawfare, ABC News, RIA Novosti and Hot Air
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Andrew Shain / The State:
SC colleges under fire about book, course choices — Some S.C. public colleges are coming under fire for the books they assign students and whether they follow a state law requiring instruction on the U.S. founding documents. — S.C. House budget writers voted Wednesday to take away nearly $70,000 …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, GovBeat and Taegan Goddard's …
Alia Beard Rau / Arizona Republic:
Measure pits freedom against discrimination — FONT: — The Arizona Legislature has passed a controversial religion bill that is again thrusting Arizona into the national spotlight in a debate over discrimination. — House Bill 2153, written by the conservative advocacy group Center …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, Joe. My. God., Towleroad News #gay, The Dish and Advocate
Megan McArdle / Bloomberg:
Go Ahead, Let Your Kids Fail — I'm on the road this week, giving talks on my new book about learning to fail better: that is, first, to give ourselves the permission to take on challenges where we might very well fail; second, to pick ourselves up as quickly as possible and move on when things don't work out.
Discussion:
Althouse
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
Has Anyone in America Actually Been Harmed by Obamacare? — I'm beginning to think there's not actually a single person in America who's been harmed by Obamacare. I know that seems unlikely, but take a look at the latest AFP ad pounding Obamacare. It features Julie Boonstra …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice and Liberaland
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Glenn Kessler / The Fact Checker:
A hard-hitting anti-Obamacare ad makes a claim that doesn't add up
A hard-hitting anti-Obamacare ad makes a claim that doesn't add up
Discussion:
Liberal Values, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and Power Line
Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
The First Lady Did A Sketch With Jimmy Fallon And Will Ferrell In Drag (VIDEO) — First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on “The Tonight Show” on Thursday with newly minted host Jimmy Fallon. The two eventually discussed Obamacare and the first lady's “Let's Move” campaign …
Discussion:
Mediaite and Weekly Standard
Rick Kissell / Variety:
Ratings: Is CNN's Piers Morgan Shooting Himself in the Foot? — In the end, are guns what killed CNN's “Piers Morgan Live”? — The show, hosted by anti-gun crusader Morgan, continues to struggle in the Nielsens. And this month, the start of the Michael Dunn loud-music murder trial …
Discussion:
NewsBusters and Althouse
Elizabeth Dias / TIME:
Exclusive: The Dalai Lama Talks Pot, Facebook and the Pope With TIME — The Tibetan spiritual leader also offers surprising praise for China's new leader — Ahead of a lengthy two-week tour of the U.S. west coast, the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, spoke with TIME religion …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Judge rips feds in Sherrod-Breitbart lawsuit — A federal judge delivered a severe tongue-lashing to a Justice Department lawyer Thursday, slamming the Obama Administration for its handling of demands for government records in the libel lawsuit fired Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod filed …
Discussion:
American Spectator, Althouse and The Other McCain
Wendy Holdren / Register-Herald:
VIDEO: Manchin speaks on a variety of topics; answers questions — Minimum wage, health care and budget discussed — but not expected recent water legislation — BECKLEY — Although Sen. Joe Manchin had planned to discuss the Charleston-area chemical spill and his recent piece of legislation …
Discussion:
Hot Air, National Review and The PJ Tatler
Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:
Democrats' Best Weapon for Midterms: Fear of a Red Senate — Control of the Senate depends on turnout in November. Democrats need to tap what scares their base most: fear of an unrestrained GOP. — We've known for a long time now that the Democrats have a lot of Senate seats to defend …
Discussion:
Democratic Strategist
Adam Harrington / CBS New York:
CBS 2 Exclusive: De Blasio's Caravan Caught Speeding, Violating Traffic Laws — NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Just days after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an aggressive plan to prevent traffic deaths, CBS 2 cameras caught the driver of a car carrying the mayor violating a number of traffic laws.
Discussion:
Gothamist, Metropolis, The Daily Caller and Capital New York
Luke Harding / Guardian:
Writing The Snowden Files: ‘The paragraph began to self-delete’ — Was it the NSA? GCHQ? A Russian hacker? Who was secretly reading his book on Snowden while he wrote it, wonders Luke Harding — One day last summer - a short while after Edward Snowden revealed himself as the source behind …
Discussion:
susiemadrak.com and Little Green Footballs
Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
McCain: Obama the ‘most naive president’ — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday called President Obama “the most naïve president in history” because of his foreign policy tactics. — Russian President Vladimir Putin “played us so incredibly,” McCain said on a Phoenix radio station.
David Edwards / The Raw Story:
Tenn. official ‘threatened’ blacks with skin ‘trophy’ he saved from 1896 lynching — The state of Tennessee has fired a veteran investigator because officials believed that he attempted to use violent stories about how his relatives participated in a lynching to intimidate African-Americans …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune and Balloon Juice