memeorandum: Ilhan Omar: “To Me, the Hijab Means Power, Liberation, Beauty, and Resistance” (Alexandria Gouveia/Vogue Arabia)

2:25 AM ET, March 30, 2019

Top Items:

Lucy Flores / The Cut:

An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden — In 2014, I was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada. The landscape wasn't looking good for my party that year. There were no high-profile national races to help boost turnout, and after the top candidate bowed …

Rebecca Traister / The Cut:

Joe Biden Isn't the Answer — It's still three months before the first Democratic debate, nearly a year before Super Tuesday, and he hasn't even declared yet, but poll after presidential poll continues to show 76-year-old former vice-president Joe Biden leading an enormous, diverse, and talented Democratic field.

Discussion: Axios and Mediaite

Laura McGann / Vox:

Lucy Flores isn't alone. Joe Biden's got a long history of touching women inappropriately. — The media gave Biden a pass for years. It won't in 2020. — Democrat Lucy Flores was preparing to give one of her final stump speeches in a race for lieutenant governor in Nevada when she felt two hands on her shoulders.

Discussion: New York Times, Balloon Juice, Louder With Crowder, Big League Politics and LifeNews.com

Sebastian Murdock / HuffPost:

We Got Alex Jones' Deposition Video. It Was A Predictable Disaster For Him. — For all his dangerous talk about the Sandy Hook school shooting, Alex Jones couldn't even recall the date it happened. — Infowars host Alex Jones was questioned earlier this month for three hours by the lawyer …

Discussion: Law & Crime, Raw Story, YouTube, Talking Points Memo, HillReporter.com and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »

Elizabeth Williamson / New York Times:

How Alex Jones and Infowars Helped a Florida Man Stalk Sandy Hook Families — In the world of conspiracy theorists, Alex Jones and Wolfgang Halbig fueled each other's darkest tendencies. — Soon after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. …

Discussion: The Trace, Daily Kos and Boing Boing

Jonathan Tilove / Austin American-Statesman:

In Sandy Hook deposition, Alex Jones blames ‘a form of psychosis’ for thinking everything is staged — Alex Jones, the Austin-based provocateur embroiled in several lawsuits filed by parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, said in a deposition released Friday …

Discussion: New York Post, KTLA and Mediaite

Sally Yates / Washington Post:

William Barr should release the full Mueller report as soon as possible — The writer served as deputy attorney general from January 2015 to January 2017. — America's justice system is built upon one thing — truth. When witnesses give testimony, they are sworn to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

Discussion: The Hill

emptywheel:
Pressure Works: After Four Days, William Barr Capitulates and Gives an Estimated Page Count!!

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Common Dreams

CNN:
Justice Dept. expects to release Mueller report to Congress by ‘mid-April, if not sooner’

Discussion: twitchy.com, RedState, Test Feed Using Fields, Raw Story and Fortune

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
Mueller report will be delivered by ‘mid-April, if not sooner,’ attorney general tells Congress

Discussion: The New Civil Rights Movement, Slate and Political Wire

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:
New Barr letter: Mueller report will be sent to Congress by mid-April

Discussion: Breitbart, One America News Network, Politico and Washington Post

Carrie Johnson / NPR:
Nominee For No. 3 At Justice Department Withdraws After Backlash From GOP Senators

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Law & Crime, RedState, Fox News, Splinter and U.S. Department of Justice

New York Times:

After Trump Casts Blame for a Special Olympics Cut, Betsy DeVos Flashes Pique — WASHINGTON — After a two-day thrashing over her department's proposal to eliminate funding for the Special Olympics, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sat before senators on Thursday ready to defend it again.

Discussion: Conservative Review

Michael Warren / CNN:

WH budget office, not DeVos, pushed for proposed Special Olympics cuts, official says — DeVos ignores CNN's questions after budget testimony — Washington (CNN)The Education Department failed to include funding for the Special Olympics in its budget proposal this year after it was rebuffed …

Discussion: IJR and Raw Story

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

AP says the percentage sign now OK when used with a numeral (that's shift+5) — Brace yourselves. — The AP Stylebook says the percentage sign is now acceptable when paired with a numeral in most cases. — On Friday, Stylebook Editor Paula Froke announced the latest round of changes …

Doris Truong / Poynter:
AP Stylebook update: It's OK to call something racist when it's racist

more at Mediagazer »

Christopher Rivas / New York Times:

I Broke Up With Her Because She's White — When it comes to dating, I'd rather not think about race. But that's been hard to avoid. — O.K., let me just get to it. I think I broke up with my last girlfriend because she's white. Actually, no, I definitely broke up with her because she's white.

Discussion: Hot Air

Miriam Jordan / New York Times:

Former Trump Family Driver Has Been in ICE Custody for 8 Months — When Donald Trump's children and campaign staff arrived in South Florida during the 2016 presidential campaign, they were often greeted at the airport by Zoltan Tamas in a black Cadillac Escalade.

Discussion: Splinter and NY State of Politics

Rob Price / Business Insider:

Years of Mark Zuckerberg's old Facebook posts have vanished. The company says it ‘mistakenly deleted’ them. — Some old Facebook posts by CEO Mark Zuckerberg have disappeared, and the company says it “mistakenly deleted” them. — “A few years ago some of Mark's posts were mistakenly deleted due to technical errors.

Washington Post:

Guatemalan girl in U.S. custody died of bacterial infection, autopsy shows — EL PASO — A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who collapsed in Border Patrol custody in December — one of two child deaths that month — died of a bacterial infection that spread to her bloodstream and caused multiple organ failure …

Discussion: The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Kayla Melson / KTSM-TV: Autopsy report: Detained Guatemalan girl died of ‘rapidly progressive’ infection

Daily Mail:

TIMELINE OF BUSH'S DECADE-LONG AFFAIR WITH JENNIFER FITZGERALD — Early 1970s — Bush is introduced to Jennifer by a mutual friend. They have flirtatious calls that lead to a romance that carries on for at least 12 years. — 1974 — President Gerald Ford appoints Bush to Chief of the Liaison Office in China.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:

Spare us the lectures from Democratic candidates about how Democratic voters are the problem — If you thought we were past the tiresome “How can Democrats appeal to Trump-loving Trump voters in Trump Country?” conversation, I'm going to disappoint you. And I'd like to use some recent comments …

Kim Foxx / Chicago Tribune:

Commentary: Kim Foxx: I welcome an outside review of how we handled the Jussie Smollett case — Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx prepares to speak to the media on Jan. 8, 2019. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) — Let's talk about the Jussie Smollett case.

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

How the mysteries of Khashoggi's murder have rocked the U.S.-Saudi partnership — It has been nearly six months since Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, but the aftershocks continue. The U.S.-Saudi defense and intelligence partnership has been rocked.

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Pompeo meets Saudi prince who lured Jamal Khashoggi to his death

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Vanity Fair

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

Linda McMahon to leave Cabinet for Trump 2020 PAC — Linda McMahon is stepping down as head of Small Business Administration to chair the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action, according to three people familiar with the move. — Trump allies have spent weeks searching for someone …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Breitbart, Axios, New York Times, Raw Story, Townhall, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The New Civil Rights Movement and New York Post

CNN:
Linda McMahon plans to resign as SBA administrator

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart and Axios

Linda Qiu / New York Times:

Trump's Inaccurate Claims on Mueller, Health Care and the Great Lakes — At a rally in Michigan, President Trump misstated the findings of the special counsel investigation, misleadingly promised to protect patients with pre-existing conditions and falsely described funding for a restoration program for the Great Lakes.

Discussion: Mediaite

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg: GOP Sees Political Peril as Party Scrambles for Health-Care Plan

Ian Buruma / Financial Times:

Editing in an age of outrage — Until recently Jian Ghomeshi, a former CBC broadcaster and rock musician, was not much known outside Canada. I now rather wish it had stayed that way. But last September I decided, as editor of the New York Review of Books, to publish Ghomeshi's story …

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Associated Press:

Trump issues new permit for stalled Keystone XL pipeline — WASHINGTON — In an apparent bid to kick-start the long-stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Donald Trump on Friday issued a new presidential permit for the project — two years after he first approved it and more than a decade after it was first proposed.

Discussion: Public Pool, One America News Network and Axios

Washington Post:

Golan policy may invite Israel's right to annex West Bank territory. That would spell disaster. — Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute. David Makovsky is the Ziegler …

John Bowden / The Hill:

Flake: Better for a Dem to win in 2020 than Trump — Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that he would rather see a Democrat win in 2020 than have President Trump elected to a second term. — Flake made his comments at a debate in New York hosted by the nonprofit Intelligence Squared.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and IJR

Christopher Ingraham / Washington Post:

The share of Americans not having sex has reached a record high — You can blame young people for this dry spell, data show — The share of U.S. adults reporting no sex in the past year reached an all-time high in 2018, underscoring a three-decade trend line marked by an aging population and higher numbers of unattached people.

Discussion: The Hill, The Stranger, RedState, Liberty Unyielding and Althouse

Alexandria Gouveia / Vogue Arabia:

Ilhan Omar: “To Me, the Hijab Means Power, Liberation, Beauty, and Resistance” — Twenty years after becoming a US citizen, Ilhan Omar made history in her adopted country. With her hand on her grandfather's Qur'an, she was sworn into the US Congress, becoming the first hijabi member to do so.

NRA-ILA:

Breaking! Federal Court Finds California Magazine Ban Violates the Second Amendment — In one of the strongest judicial statements in favor of the Second Amendment to date, Judge Roger T. Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California determined on Friday …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and TheBlaze