Wonkette Editor Comments on Reprehensible Birthday Greeting to Trig Palin  —  Update: Wonkette's editor responds later in the post, but also, a reader hilariously bought the domain name JackStuef.com, which now redirects to the National Down Syndrome Society donation page.  Lemons into lemonade.

VIDEO: Paul Ryan Booed At Town Hall For Defending Tax Breaks For The Wealthy  —  ThinkProgress filed this report from a town hall meeting in Milton, WI.  —  Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) embarked on a series of town halls across his southern Wisconsin congressional district.

‘Glenn Beck Threw Me Under the Bus’: Breakfast with Andrew Breitbart … Over crème brûlée oatmeal on Monday, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart talked sting videos.  Mr. Breitbart explained to the Transom that Breitbart blog protocol requires undercover video kingpin James O'Keefe …

How to Beat Trump  —  This post by Ed Kilgore about Donald Trump seems to me very astute. … Here's the thing Republican leaders and pundits need to understand.  (I said it yesterday, but let's say it again today.)  America has not had a mass conversion to ideological libertarianism.

‘Restrepo’ Director and a Photographer Are Killed in Libya  —  BENGHAZI, Libya — Tim Hetherington, a conflict photographer who was a director and producer of the Afghan war documentary “Restrepo,” was killed in the besieged city of Misurata, Libya, on Wednesday, and three photographers working beside …

Kloppenburg requests recount in state Supreme Court race  —  By Patrick Marley and Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison — Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg asked Wednesday for a statewide recount - the first in 22 years - to check the results in the April 5 state Supreme Court race …

GOP escalates demands on debt limit  —  One day after being named to a presidential task force to negotiate deficit reduction, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor fired off a stark warning to Democrats that the GOP “will not grant their request for a debt limit increase” without major spending cuts or budget process reforms.

University of Iowa Professor Tells College Republicans to “F” Off  —  A University of Iowa professor felt the need to reply to a blast email by the College Republicans on Monday morning.  Ellen Lewin, a professor of Anthropology and Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies in the Department of Gender …

Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch  —  On the eve of the November midterm elections, Koch Industries sent an urgent letter to most of its 50,000 employees advising them on whom to vote for and warning them about the dire consequences to their families, their jobs and their country should they choose to vote otherwise.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Have you noticed all the huge antiwar demonstrations in the last twelve months?  Yeah, me neither.  It turns out that a lot of the energy for the movement seems to have been provided by Democrats who are a lot less worried about wars conducted by Democratic presidents.

Federal Borrowing on Pace to Hit Debt Limit in Less Than Week  —  (CNSNews.com) - Federal borrowing is on pace to hit the legal limit on the national debt in less than a week.  —  As set in a law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on Feb. 12, 2010, the legal limit on the national debt is $14.2940 trillion.

Gay Marriage Opponents Now in Minority  —  A poll from CNN this week is the latest to show a majority of Americans in favor of same-sex marriage, with 51 percent saying that marriages between gay and lesbian couples “should be recognized by the law as valid” and 47 percent opposed.

Obama's Young Mother Abroad  —  The photograph showed the son, but my eye gravitated toward the mother.  That first glimpse was surprising — the stout, pale-skinned woman in sturdy sandals, standing squarely a half-step ahead of the lithe, darker-skinned figure to her left.

Government Cash Handouts Now Top Tax Revenues  —  U.S. households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes for the first time since the Great Depression.  —  Households received $2.3 trillion in some kind of government support in 2010.