memeorandum: Plagued by Debt, Six Flags Faces Its Own Wild Ride (Michael S. Rosenwald/Washington Post)

4:25 PM ET, April 13, 2009

Top Items:

An Early Military Victory for Obama — It was one of the earliest tests of the new American president — a small military operation off the coast of a Third World nation. But as President Bill Clinton found out in October 1993, even minor failures can have long-lasting consequences.

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

White House Mum On Legislation That Would Nix Bush “State Secrets Privilege” — The White House is declining to say whether the Obama administration will support legislation introduced by Senate Democrats that would roll back the use of the “state secrets privilege,” one of Bush's most controversial legal tools.

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel

Johanna Neuman / Top of the Ticket:

Michelle Obama promotes physical activity at White House Easter Egg Roll — Yoga classes. Cooking demonstrations. Musician Fergie. And of course the proverbial egg roll, with President Obama acting as coach. — Welcoming 30,000 children and families to the White House …

Discussion: Political Machine

Felix Gillette / New York Observer:

MSNBC Developing a Weekend Politics Show for NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd — Get ready for more of the “Goateed Guru.” — According to multiple network sources, MSNBC is in the process of developing a weekend political show to be moderated by Chuck Todd …

Discussion: Michael Calderone's Blog and Liberal Values

Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:

How SEALs Carried Out Their Mission — The operation to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips involved dozens of Navy SEALs, who parachuted from an aircraft into the scene near dark Saturday, landing in the ocean. The SEALs were part of a group of Special Operations forces involved in the effort, according to military officials.

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Scholars and Rogues, The Strata-Sphere, Times of London, Los Angeles Times, Pajamas Media, The Foundry, Wonk Room, Flopping Aces and Neptunus Lex

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
An emerging progressive consensus on Obama's executive power and secrecy abuses

Discussion: The Washington Independent, TalkLeft, ATTACKERMAN, New York Times and Newshoggers.com

Mark Silva / The Swamp: Obama: Fighting ‘rise of privacy’ (piracy)

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Obama, piracy and a pup: Winning week

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Post

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Tea Parties Forever — This is a column about Republicans — and I'm not sure I should even be writing it. — Today's G.O.P. is, after all, very much a minority party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no ability to make or even significantly shape policy.

Discussion: Whiskey Fire, The Reaction, DownWithTyranny!, Buck Naked Politics, Whatever Is Right, Fox News, Ta-Nehisi Coates, EconLog, AmSpecBlog, Cup O' Joe and The Impolitic

Meghan McCain / Blogs and Stories:
Memo to the GOP: Go Gay

Discussion: The Next Right blogs, Political Machine and Good As You

Jon Henke / The Next Right:
The Tea Party protests

Discussion: Houston Tea Party, The Washington Independent and News Hounds

Glenn H. Reynolds / New York Post:
TEA PARTIES: REAL GRASSROOTS

Discussion: Firedoglake, American Power, The Rhetorican, Wizbang, TaxProf Blog, GayPatriot and Power Line

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake: Corporate Lobbyists Raising Money For Tea Parties

The Daily Beast:
A Gayer GOP — Blogs and Stories — Meghan McCain …

Discussion: Riehl World View

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

White House to Announce Easing of Cuba Restrictions — WASHINGTON — The White House announced on Monday that it is abandoning longstanding restrictions on family travel, remittances and gifts to Cuba, and is also taking steps to open up telecommunications with the island …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Washington Post:
Obama to Lift Some Restrictions on Cuba

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Salon and The Washington Independent

Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
Obama easing travel restrictions, money transfer to Cuba

Discussion: Agence France Presse and Reuters

The Hill:
Obama's Cuba Policy Risks an Opportunity

Discussion: The Swamp, Wall Street Journal and And So it Goes in Shreveport

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

A Reticent Justice Opens Up to a Group of Students — Justice Clarence Thomas has not asked a question from the Supreme Court bench since Feb. 22, 2006. He speaks only to announce his majority opinions, reading summaries in a gruff monotone. Glimpses of Justice Thomas in less formal settings are rare.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Law Blog, Hullabaloo, ACSBlog and MoJo Blog Posts

Natasha Korecki / Chicago Sun Times:

The Jackson $5 million? — The Sun-Times has learned that 2 members of Chicago's Indian community sent word to Blagojevich's camp that Jesse Jackson Jr. would raise $5 million in exchange for Obama's Senate seat — Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's camp was told last year that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. …

Discussion: CBS News, Founding Bloggers and Gateway Pundit

Ari Fleischer / Wall Street Journal:

Everyone Should Pay Income Taxes — It's bad for our democracy to exempt half the country. — If you thought Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme was bad, wait until you hear about the inverted pyramid scheme the federal government is working on. While Mr. Madoff preyed on people who trusted …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The Daily Dish, Maggie's Farm, Left in the West, Hot Air, Democratic Strategist, Clusterstock and The Agitator

Hugh Hewit / www.washingtonexaminer.com:

Trillions for pork but nothing for the Raptors? — Has the world really changed that much since 1990? — When the Air Force first announced its planned procurement of the F-22 Raptors, the intended acquisition was for 750 of the fighters. The Soviet Union was the enemy then, and soon thereafter the Soviet Union fell apart.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Obama Legacy and Israel Matzav

Washington Post:
Moving Beyond the F-22

Discussion: Danger Room, abu muqawama and The Washington Independent

Joe Klein / Swampland:

Obama and the Pirates — It's better to be lucky than good. It's even better to be lucky and good. One can easily imagine all the different ways the rescue of Captain Phillips might have been screwed up—and the political firestorm that would have resulted.

Discussion: UN Dispatch and Guardian

Josh Kraushaar / Scorecard's Blog:

The latest NY 20 tally: Murphy by 25 — According to the latest official count this morning in the special election, Democrat Scott Murphy holds a 25-vote lead over Republican Jim Tedisco in New York's 20th District. — The 10:30 a.m. tally shows Murphy with 77,907 votes and Tedisco with 77,882 votes.

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, TPMDC and Commentary

Casey Seiler / Capitol Confidential:
Judge hospitalized, but arguments proceed in 20th CD race

Discussion: the albany project

Roger Cohen / New York Times:

Realpolitik for Iran — For Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, “a combination of ignorance and arrogance” under the Bush administration squandered countless diplomatic opportunities with Iran and so allowed it to forge ahead with its nuclear program.

Discussion: Harry's Place, Wall Street Journal, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Commentary, Taylor Marsh and Patterico's Pontifications

Steve Coll / New Yorker:
NO NUKES

Discussion: UN Dispatch, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Philly.com and Swampland

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

What Would a “Bipartisan” Obama Look Like? (Hint: A Lot Like the One We're Seeing) — Over at RealClarPolitics, Jay Cost takes Obama to task for failing to live up to his promises of bipartisanship. Cost writes: … What Cost accuses Obama of is acting in bad faith — he promised “bipartisanship” and hasn't delivered.

Discussion: TalkLeft

Jeff Bliss / Bloomberg:

U.S. Military Considers Attacks on Somali Pirates' Land Bases — The U.S. military is considering attacks on pirate bases on land and aid for the Somali people to help stem ship hijackings off Africa's east coast, defense officials said. — The military also is drawing up proposals to aid …

Discussion: Fox News, FP Passport, Newshoggers.com, Reuters, UN Dispatch, The Raw Story, Times of London and Think Progress

Washington Post:
Kill the Pirates — With the rescue of American Richard Phillips …

Discussion: New York Times, Telegraph, UN Dispatch, Global Guerrillas, Outside The Beltway, Bloomberg, The Hill, neo-neocon, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, The Volokh Conspiracy and RealClearWorld

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:

Re: Congratulating Obama — Most of the email in response to my earlier post has been positive. Then there are a few like this: Dear Jonah, Below is the DNC/MSM/Hollywood/Academia 8 year, massive, coordinated, and unrelenting war room strategy against Pres Bush and the Republicans: Create doubt.

Discussion: Don Surber and Wonkette

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Americans Most Confident in Obama on Economy — Democratic leaders in Congress fare better than Republican leaders — USA - Congress - Government and Politics - Presidential Ratings - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America — PRINCETON, NJ — Over two-thirds of Americans …

Discussion: The Plum Line, The Moderate Voice and The Swamp

Andrew Cohen / CBS News:

A Pirate Looks at Trial — The bad news for the so-far unnamed teenager qua pirate-hijacker captured Sunday during a now-famous firefight is that he'll almost certainly be convicted in an American court if and when he is brought to justice here in the States.

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

WILL THE MAINE GIRLS SWING? — Last Friday, an alert reader linked Steve Benen to this The Bangor Daily News writeup of Olympia Snowe's health care listening session. This quote, in particular, caught his eye: … Snowe's position is a bit of an odd one: She holds that we may require …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias and The Plum Line

Eric Zimmermann / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

Mich. dealership slams Shelby in ad — A Michigan car dealership is using Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and southern Republicans as boogeymen in a new ad campaign. — Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac in Dearborn, owned by brothers Paul and Gary Sanford, has released commercials showing Shelby …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice