memeorandum: U.S. Business Activity Improves in Sign Demand to Sustain Growth: Economy (Bloomberg)

8:25 PM ET, February 29, 2012

Top Items:

Odds of a Brokered Convention Are Increasing — We're finally close enough to Super Tuesday to get a sense of how the overall delegate count might work out in the GOP primary. The end result: Assuming that none of the four candidates drops out of the race, it looks increasingly …

Discussion: Ballot Box, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Washington Post, American Prospect, Wake up America, Salon, Firedoglake, Indecision Forever, Dean's World, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The New Republic and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Rick Santorum / CNN:

Santorum camp: Michigan's a tie — (CNN) - Armed with a new delegate count, a Rick Santorum adviser on Wednesday painted Tuesday's contests as a “disaster” for Mitt Romney. — John Brabender said the campaign's count proves Santorum and Romney are tied in delegates won …

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Other McCain, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, BuzzFeed, Donklephant, 2012 Decoded, Big Government, Liberal Values, American Spectator and Mediaite

ABCNEWS:

Romney Says He Owns Guns - But Does He? — COLUMBUS, Ohio - At a town hall here, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said, in response to a question about gun control, “I have guns myself.” — “I believe in the second amendment, I'll protect the second amendment, I have guns myself,” …

Discussion: The Hill and Taegan Goddard's …

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Santorum Loses Catholic Vote—But Did He Ever Have It?

Discussion: New York Post, NY Daily News, Washington Post, Hot Air, The Caucus, hanoverhenry's Diary, The Agonist, Outside the Beltway and The New Republic

Tom Cohen / CNN:
Romney, Santorum tie for Michigan delegates

Discussion: New York Times, Don Surber, Gawker, The Heritage Foundation, American Power and FiveThirtyEight

Ross Douthat / Campaign Stops:
What Mitt Lost While He Won

Discussion: p m carpenter's commentary, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times and Prairie Weather

Matt Vasilogambros / NationalJournal.com:
Gingrich Super PAC Rep: Santorum Could Win ‘If He Could Speak English’

Discussion: The Hill and Washington Post

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
G.O.P. Greek Tragedy

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Hinterland Gazette, The PJ Tatler, The Caucus and Connecting.the.Dots

Justin Sink / Ballot Box:
Romney's new Web ad says Obama's ‘Kill Romney’ strategy failed

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Max Abelson / Bloomberg:

Wall Street Bonus Drop Means Trading Aspen for Discount Cereal — Andrew Schiff was sitting in a traffic jam in California this month after giving a speech at an investment conference about gold. He turned off the satellite radio, got out of the car and screamed a profanity.

Discussion: Jay Bookman, Shakesville, TBogg, US Politics, Gawker, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Gothamist, Boing Boing, RADAMISTO, Sky Dancing and Eschaton, more at Mediagazer »

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

Are the Rich Completely Undeserving of Sympathy? — I saw a fair amount of chortling this morning about this Bloomberg piece on wealthy financial-industry types who are having to cut back because of plummeting bonuses. And to be sure, some of the cuts are in the “Call me a Waaaah-mbulance” category: can't go to Aspen any more?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Balloon Juice

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Romney comes out against ‘Blunt-Rubio’ — Jim Heath, a reporter for ONN-TV in Ohio, just Tweeted a remarkable piece of news: Mitt Romney told him he does not support the Blunt amendment, which would empower employers and insurers to deny health coverage they find morally objectionable.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Metro, Mother Jones, LifeNews.com, Daily Kos, The PJ Tatler and American Spectator

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Sen. Manchin will vote for Blunt amendment on contraceptive care

Discussion: The Hill, CNN and Sky Dancing

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
GOP divided on birth control?

Discussion: Firedoglake, American Prospect, New York Times, Daily Kos and ThinkProgress

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Limbaugh Calls Student Denied Spot At Contraception Hearing A ‘Slut’ — Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student whom House Republicans wouldn't let testify at a contraception hearing last week, a “slut” and a “prostitute” today, because …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Political Carnival, The Maddow Blog, The Gateway Pundit, Balloon Juice and CNSNews

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Obama's Most Dangerous GOP Opponent: Netanyahu — This is disturbing news: … What it amounts to is a formal declaration that, if the US attempts at any point to differ seriously with Israel's far right, the alliance is over. That's after the most serious sanctions ever imposed on Iran …

Discussion: Israel Matzav and Balloon Juice

Barak Ravid / Haaretz:
Netanyahu will ask Obama to threaten Iran strike

Discussion: Mother Jones, ABCNEWS, ABCNEWS and LewRockwell.com Blog

Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:

Three Percent — When you have a candidate few people really like, whose support is a mile wide and an inch deep, whose raison d'etre (a 4am fancy word) is fixing an economy that is fixing itself without him, and who only wins his actual, factual home state by three percentage points …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Jay Bookman, A Certain Enthusiasm, Balloon Juice and Washington Post

Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:

North Korea Agrees to Suspend Nuclear Work — WASHINGTON — North Korea agreed to suspend nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and to allow international inspectors to verify and monitor activities at its main reactor, the State Department and the North's official news agency announced on Wednesday …

Discussion: They gave us a republic, World Now, Algemeiner.com, Outside the Beltway and Truthdig

Victoria Nuland / US Department of State:
U.S.-DPRK Bilateral Discussions

Discussion: World Now, msnbc.com, American Spectator, The Enterprise Blog and News Desk

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

Bernanke warns lawmakers nation headed for ‘massive fiscal cliff’ — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress Wednesday it risked taking the nation over a “massive fiscal cliff” at the end of the year. — The central bank's boss warned expiring tax cuts and spending cuts set …

Discussion: Politico

Bloomberg:
U.S. Business Activity Improves in Sign Demand to Sustain Growth: Economy

Discussion: Daily Kos and US Politics

Jim O'Sullivan / Hotline On Call:

Poll Shows Brown Leading Warren by 10 — Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., leads Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren by 10 points in a private Massachusetts Senate race poll. — The poll, conducted by Opinion Dynamics for Boston-based consulting firm Mass Insight Global Partnerships …

Discussion: Library Grape

Christian Hartsock / Big Journalism:

EXCLUSIVE: O'Keefe Files Suit Against Al Gore's Current TV, Keith Olbermann, David Shuster — Conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe filed suit for defamation this morning against Al Gore's CurrentTV, as well as “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann and guest host David Shuster …

Discussion: Mediaite, Patterico's Pontifications and National Review

Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV:

One Million Homophobic Moms Target Archie Comics And Toys R Us (UPDATED) — UPDATE: John Goldwater, c0-CEO of Archie Comics has responded to the story below. He writes; … Despite a few Fox News commentators, the introduction of gay characters and gay marriage into Archie Comics had gone down rather smoothly.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily What, Dependable Renegade, Towleroad News #gay and rightwingwatch.org

Michael Levenson / The Boston Globe:

Mormons baptized slain reporter Daniel Pearl — Members of the Mormon Church last year posthumously baptized Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was captured and killed by terrorists in Pakistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to records uncovered by a researcher in Utah.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, TBogg and US Politics

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Democrats' nightmare scenario — If Republicans regain the Senate, will they seek to reform the filibuster, sweeping away an obstacle that bedeviled Dems and making it far easier for them to enact their own agenda with a simple Senate majority? — Matt Steinglass argues that the GOP …

Discussion: American Prospect, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Reid to promote David Brock's ‘Fox Effect’ — My colleague Ken Vogel sends over the following comments from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which he made at last night's Media Matters For America party, held in honor of the new anti-Fox News book by MMFA founder David Brock.

Discussion: Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller and The PJ Tatler

Stephen Galloway / Hollywood Reporter:

Whatever Happened to Ted Turner? — The “Mouth of the South” is no longer as he devotes his time (and $1 billion) to the U.N., jets between 28 homes and four girlfriends, misses Jane Fonda and opens up to THR about Rupert, Jerry and his abuse as a child. Says a friend: “He's definitely changed.”

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers and The PJ Tatler, more at Mediagazer »

Donovan Slack / Politico:

Obamas host dinner to honor troops and mark end of Iraq war — Preparations are underway at the White House for a 200-person dinner to honor troops who served in Iraq and to mark the end of the Iraq war. — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will host the formal affair in the East Room Wednesday.

Discussion: ABCNEWS

E.J. Graff / American Prospect:

Do Women Count? — Yesterday, after I made some snarky comment, a friend asked me if I was Eeyore. The truth is, I'm a mash-up of Eeyore and Tigger. Tigger bounces up and down gleefully whenever I talk about gay rights. But today I'm talking about the ladies again, so get ready for Eeyore.

Discussion: Mother Jones

Michelle Boorstein / Washington Post:

D.C. archdiocese: Denying Communion to lesbian at funeral was against ‘policy’ — Deep in grief, Barbara Johnson stood first in the line for Communion at her mother's funeral Saturday morning. But the priest in front of her immediately made it clear that she would not receive the sacramental bread and wine.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, msnbc.com, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Daily Caller, WJLA-TV and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:

House subcommittee votes to repeal healthcare reform law's ‘death panel’ — Bipartisan legislation to repeal the healthcare law's cost-control board sailed through a House panel on Wednesday, raising pressure on the Senate to take up the bill and dealing President Obama a political blow.

Discussion: Hot Air, LifeNews.com and The PJ Tatler

Adam Mann / Wired:

1 in 8 Chance of Catastrophic Solar Megastorm by 2020 — The Earth has a roughly 12 percent chance of experiencing an enormous megaflare erupting from the sun in the next decade. This event could potentially cause trillions of dollars' worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from.

Discussion: American Prospect and Gawker

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Will Olympia Snowe Join Americans Elect? — Olympia Snowe's retirement statement seemed like it dropped a huge hint, and I'm surprised it hasn't received any attention: … This sounds exactly like the kind of rhetoric emanating from Americans Elect, the third-party group that believes …