memeorandum: No, religious voters don't hold total sway over GOP presidential primaries (Paul Waldman/The Plum Line)

5:40 PM ET, April 9, 2014

Top Items:

Brandeis University withdraws planned honorary degree for Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali — Brandeis University in Massachusetts announced Tuesday that it had withdrawn the planned awarding of an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a staunch critic of Islam and its treatment of women, after protests from students and faculty.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft, Power Line, Hinterland Gazette and The PJ Tatler

Brandeis University News:

Following a discussion today between President Frederick Lawrence and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ms. Hirsi Ali's name has been withdrawn as an honorary degree recipient at this year's commencement. She is a compelling public figure and advocate for women's rights, and we respect and appreciate her work …

Discussion: Israpundit, Weekly Standard, The Gateway Pundit, Hit & Run, The Raw Story, Israel Matzav, Weasel Zippers and Algemeiner.com

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

A Note to Supporters of Brandeis — As Lori Lowenthal Marcus notes, Brandeis University has in recent years bestowed an honorary degree on Tony Kushner, who called the creation of Israel as a Jewish state “a mistake” and who attacked Israel for ethnic cleansing and for causing “terrible peril in the world.”

Discussion: The Jewish Press and Weasel Zippers

New York Times:
Brandeis Cancels Plan to Give Honorary Degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Critic of Islam

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and The Daily Caller

Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:

BREAKING: House Ways and Means Committee Votes to Refer Lois Lerner For Criminal Charges — The House Ways and Means Committee has voted to 23-14 along party lines to refer former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner to the Justice Department for prosecution.

Discussion: protein wisdom

Rachael Bade / Politico:

IRS's Lerner sought to deny Crossroads tax status, emails show — A House committee on Wednesday accused former IRS official Lois Lerner of breaking agency rules by aggressively urging the agency to deny tax-exempt status to Crossroads GPS, the giant political nonprofit founded by Karl Rove …

Discussion: CNN and Main Justice

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
IRS under fire: Vote for Obama stickers, campaign cheerleading commonplace

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler and Conservatives4Palin

waysandmeans.house.gov:
Ways and Means Committee Refers Lois Lerner to Department of Justice for Criminal Prosecution …

Discussion: Post Politics, Capitol City Project and The Gateway Pundit

CNN:

Mike Huckabee: Not ‘homophobic’ but on the ‘right side of the Bible’ — (CNN) - Mike Huckabee told an Iowa crowd on Tuesday that he's “not homophobic,” but believing marriage should be between one man and one woman is being “on the right side of the Bible.”

Discussion: Des Moines Register, Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, Equality Matters, Politico, Shakesville, The Week and Post Politics

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Holier Than Whom? — I don't often disagree with Paul Waldman …

Discussion: Bloomberg View

Paul Waldman / The Plum Line:
No, religious voters don't hold total sway over GOP presidential primaries

Discussion: American Prospect and CNN

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Jim DeMint Asserts The Federal Government Played No Role In Freeing The Slaves — Heritage Foundation head Jim DeMint appeared on Vocal Point with Jerry Newcombe of Truth In Action Ministries last week, where he insisted that “no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway, PoliticusUSA, The Raw Story and Mediaite

Rolling Stone:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Is Naked on the New Cover of Rolling Stone — RS follows the First Lady of Comedy's journey from ‘Seinfeld’ to ‘Veep’ in our new issue — Julia Louis-Dreyfus is wearing absolutely nothing but the immortal words of America's founding fathers on the cover of the next issue …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Ed Driscoll, Josh Blackman's Blog, The PJ Tatler, National Review, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and PopWatch

New York Times:

Sliver of Medicare Doctors Get Big Share of Payouts — A tiny fraction of the 880,000 doctors and other health care providers who take Medicare accounted for nearly a quarter of the roughly $77 billion paid out to them under the federal program, receiving millions of dollars each in some cases …

Discussion: Washington Post, Associated Press, Politico, The PJ Tatler and Eschaton

Peter Whoriskey / Washington Post:
Data uncover nation's top Medicare billers

Discussion: Washington Monthly, American Spectator, Wonkblog, Hit & Run, Hot Air and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:
Small Slice of Doctors Account for Big Chunk of Medicare Costs

Discussion: Mediaite and The Week

Kate Fagan / ESPN:

UMass' Derrick Gordon says he's gay — Derrick Gordon, a sophomore starter for the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team, stepped forward Wednesday as the first openly gay player in Division I men's college basketball, sharing his story with ESPN and Outsports.

Discussion: Outsports, Outside the Beltway, ThinkProgress, Gawker, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, The Week and CBS Chicago

Bob Nightengale / Associated Press:

40 years later, Hank Aaron's grace a beauty to behold — Hank Aaron has the letters tucked away in his attic, preserved these last 40 years. He's not ready to let them go. — He almost has them memorized by now, but still he carefully opens them up and reads every word, as if he wants to feel the pain.

Discussion: Liberaland, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Banter, Hinterland Gazette, Mediaite, Americans Against the … and Weasel Zippers

Tony Lee / BREITBART.COM:
HANK AARON COMPARES OBAMA OPPONENTS TO KKK: THEY WEAR ‘NECKTIES AND STARCHED SHIRTS’ INSTEAD OF HOODS

Discussion: American Spectator

Burgess Everett / Politico:

GOP not fazed by paycheck vote — Republicans working to improve their image among women aren't worried about suffering a political backlash if they follow through with plans to block the Paycheck Fairness Act. — Most Senate Republicans are expected to unite on Wednesday to block the legislation …

Discussion: Daily Kos, CNN, Capitol Report, Liberaland and The Hill

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
Women From Koch-Funded Conservative Groups Lambaste Equal Pay Measure

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Huffington Post, Acton Institute PowerBlog, The Heritage Foundation and Eclectablog

Suffolk University:

Iowa Poll Shows Hillary Clinton Strong and GOP Field Scattered in Advance of Caucuses — With the January 2016 Iowa presidential caucuses on the horizon, Hillary Clinton is the far-and-away favorite among self-described Democratic caucus-goers, according to a Suffolk University statewide Iowa poll.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Politico, Shakesville and Weekly Standard

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNet:

Heartbleed security patches coming fast and furious — Summary: Fixes for the highly dangerous OpenSSL Heartbleed security hole are arriving now. Update your servers ASAP. — Make no mistake about it. The OpenSSL Heartbleed security hole is as serious for Internet security as a stage four cancer diagnosis would be for you.

Discussion: New York Times, Tumblr Staff, JSOnline, KFOR-TV, Taylor Marsh and The Moderate Voice

Bruce Schneier / Schneier on Security:
Heartbleed is a catastrophic bug in OpenSSL:

Discussion: The Daily Caller, ABC News, PandoDaily, The Dish, New Urban Legends, Gigaom, Heartbleed Bug, Samizdata, The Verge, The Raw Story and The Week

New York Times:

Global Warming Scare Tactics — OAKLAND, Calif. — IF you were looking for ways to increase public skepticism about global warming, you could hardly do better than the forthcoming nine-part series on climate change and natural disasters, starting this Sunday on Showtime.

Discussion: Power Line, The Daily Caller, Guardian and Vox Popoli

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:

What That RNC Aide's Equal Pay Blunder on MSNBC Says About Her Party — It's not Kirsten Kukowski's fault she only had gibberish to spout about workplace gender fairness. It's the fault of her party and its culture—and the GOP will pay for it with women.

Discussion: Pew Research Center, Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit and ThinkProgress

Joel Rubin / Los Angeles Times:

LAPD officers tampered with in-car recording equipment, records show — An inspection by LAPD investigators found about half of the estimated 80 cars in one South L.A. patrol division were missing antennas. — LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and other top officials learned about officers tampering …

Discussion: Hit & Run, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, The Verge and The Week

Nikki Schwab / U.S. News:

John Boehner Cries at Taco Bell Event — On Capitol Hill, Boehner's tears, Kelly Rowland and thousands of tacos. — House Speaker John Boehner, seen here in 2010, choked back tears while praising the Boys & Girls Clubs of America at a Taco Bell-related event Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Discussion: Mediaite, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Caller

Isabel Kershner / New York Times:

Israel Says It Is ‘Deeply Disappointed’ by Kerry's Remarks on Peace Talks — JERUSALEM — In an unusually pointed rebuke of an ally, the United States, Israel said on Wednesday that it was “deeply disappointed” by Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks a day earlier that appeared …

Discussion: The Week, Israel Matzav, Booman Tribune and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

CNN:

'There's a kid with a knife' — Murrysville, Pennsylvania (CNN) — A teenage boy wielding two kitchen knives went on a stabbing rampage at his high school in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, early Wednesday, before being tackled by an assistant principal, authorities said.

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, ABC News, The Jawa Report, Gawker, NBC News, Hinterland Gazette, Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit and The Week

ThinkProgress:

Senator Threatens To Block Nominee For Top Climate Post Because She Accepts Climate Science — Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., asks a question during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about immigrant women and immigration reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2013.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Exclusive: U.S. Won't Share Invasion Intel With Ukraine — American spies have spotted all the signs of an all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why won't they tell the Ukrainians about the forces on their border? — U.S. intelligence agencies now have detailed information that Russia …

Discussion: National Review, Taylor Marsh and Washington Free Beacon

Glenn Kessler / The Fact Checker:

President Obama's persistent ‘77-cent’ claim on the wage gap gets a new Pinocchio rating — “Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns...in 2014, that's an embarrassment. It is wrong.” — In 2012, during another election season …