White House Deputy Counsel Resigns  —  Daniel J. Meltzer, a top White House lawyer who has played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the administration legal team, is resigning next month and will return to his tenured position as a Harvard law school professor, the White House said on Friday.

Steele fires RNC finance director  —  Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has fired the RNC's finance director, Rob Bickhart, on whose watch a controversial payment was made to a bondage nightclub in West Hollywood and the committee began having problems raising money from big donors.

Poll: Half of ‘Birthers’ Call It ‘Suspicion’  —  Obama's Birthplace Has Been Subject of Controversy Since Election  —  Fourteen percent of Americans say without prompting that they think Barack Obama was born in another country, rising to one in five when those with no opinion are offered that as a possibility.

Rick Sanchez's Ron Burgundy Moment  —  CNN's Rick Sanchez apparently suffers from the same condition as Will Ferrell's character Ron Burgundy did in the movie Anchorman—he'll read anything written on a teleprompter.  When a the teleprompter told Sanchez earlier this week to ad lib a tease …

I Need Some Me Time  —  [ed. note: in a shocking turn of events, completely unforseeable even to media professionals with advanced degrees in journalism, Newsweek's brilliant strategy to reposition itself as an upscale journal of leftwing opinion has, against all odds, ended in defeat (Ace has more here).

Prominent GOP pollster: Times Square bomb scare gives Republicans an “opportunity”  —  Whit Ayres is a prominent Republican pollster who has co-founded something called “Resurgent Republic,” which bills itself as a message testing outfit for GOP lawmakers — part of an effort by Republicans …

Judge Goldstone's dark past  —  Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals man preaching human rights, who authored scathing report against Israel's operation in Gaza, sent at least 28 black defendants to gallows as South African judge under Apartheid regime  —  Tehiya Barak  —  Latest Update:

MUST HEAR: Panic And Loathing From The S&P 500 Pits  —  “Guys this is probably the craziest I have seen it down here ever.”  Here it is, memorialized for the generations and away from the now openly ridiculous disinformation propaganda of the mainstream media, just what a full market meltdown panic sounds …

Fox News Poll: Arizona Was Right to Take Action on Immigration  —  Most American voters think Arizona was right to pass its own immigration law, and think the Obama administration should wait and see how the new law works rather than try to stop it, according to a Fox News poll released Friday.

U.S. officials: No credible evidence that terrorists trained Shahzad  —  WASHINGTON — No credible evidence has been found so far that the Pakistani-American man accused in the Times Square bombing plot received any serious terrorist training from the Pakistani Taliban or another radical Islamic group, six U.S. officials said Thursday.

Palin endorses Fiorina  —  Big news: Yesterday, Sarah Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina to challenge Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate here in California.  —  Palin's endorsement is a giant, right-wing seal of approval for Fiorina's candidacy and could rally significant tea party support to her side.

This is Your War on Drugs  —  Andrew has already posted this, and I'm late to the game because I couldn't bring myself to watch it, but nonetheless, I feel compelled to remark.  Yes, folks, this is your war on drugs:  —  After he watched it, my more temperate better half was literally shaking with anger.

Video: “I never thought I'd be on national TV for wearing an American flag shirt”  —  Via Greg Hengler, this interviews distills the ridiculous nature of Live Oak High School's action to its core.  Martha MacCallum interviews two of the students disciplined for wearing clothing …

Transgender anti-discrimination bill is a tough sell for centrist Dems  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership are pushing legislation, written by Rep. Barney Frank, that would made it illegal for employers to discriminate against transgendered people.

QUOTE OF THE DAY.... This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the best monthly jobs report in four years.  A total of 290,000 jobs were created in April — easily the strongest performance since the start of the Great Recession — and job creation in American manufacturing saw its biggest jump in 12 years.

Sue Lowden now running TV ad claiming (wrongly) that chickens-for-checkups was “out of context”  —  Wow.  If it's Friday afternoon, it's time for the latest installment in chickens-for-checkups.  And this is one of the best yet.  —  Over a month after this controversy first cracked …

Push for Florida bestiality law goes ‘back to square one’  —  Lawmakers fail to address a proposed law banning bestiality, worried about being accused of wasting time on an outrageous topic.  —  TALLAHASSEE — From every angle, a ban on bestiality, long pushed by state prosecutors …

Coburn objects to black and Native American farmer settlements  —  Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) stopped a Senate hotline Friday for funds to compensate black and Native American farmers discriminated against by the Agriculture Department (USDA).  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) …

Healthcare's Impact On the Low-Skilled Worker  —  Low-skilled workers have some of the highest unemployment rates in America.  Adults without high school diplomas face an unemployment rate of 14.5%, almost three times as high as rates for college graduates, and well above the national average of 9.7%.

Deconstructing the crash  —  Bloomberg's Nina Mehta and Chris Nagi have an excellent explanation of the role of fragmented exchanges in yesterday's market crash.  The upshot is that something which was meant to make trading safer in fact made it more dangerous, just like portfolio insurance in 1987.

Addicted to oil  —  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/3-6.  Likely voters.  MoE 3%  —  Do you favor or oppose increasing offshore drilling for oil and gas in U.S. coastal areas?  —  Favor 60  —  Oppose 32  —  Not Sure 8  —  QUESTION: Does the recent Deep Horizon oil spill …

Unwashed Masses 1, Fed 0: Sanders Scores  —  The effort to audit the Fed got a big boost last night when Senator Bernie Sanders reached an agreement with Chris Dodd, the chair of the banking committee.  Under the deal, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would undertake a full audit …

Grand Old Party  —  For reasons that have always struck me as paradoxical, one place where Republicans totally excel Democrats is in their ability to survive sex scandals.  Admittedly, Bill Clinton managed to get that ball pretty far down the field for the Democrats in the 1990s.  God bless'em.