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Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign — Updated Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday, bowing to the inevitability of Mitt Romney's nomination and ending his improbable, come-from-behind quest to become the party's conservative standard-bearer in the fall.
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Gretawire, FiveThirtyEight, New York Times, CNN, Washington Examiner, ThinkProgress, American Prospect, CBS Philly, The New Republic, The Reaction, Advocate, The Blotter, driftglass, The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, News Desk, No More Mister Nice Blog, Taylor Marsh, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Above the Law, americanthinker.com, BuzzFeed and ABCNEWS
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Rick Santorum ends presidential campaign after conceding to Mitt Romney in phone call


Rick Santorum drops 2012 campaign for president
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The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Mother Jones, CNN, NetRight Daily and NationalJournal.com

Santorum exits presidential race
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CNN, The Daily Caller, Politico, CBS News, Michelle Malkin, Taegan Goddard's …, Donklephant, Wake up America, protein wisdom, ABCNEWS, Pirate's Cove, neo-neocon and The Other McCain

Foster Friess, Santorum's millionaire backer, swings to Romney
Discussion:
Mother Jones and CNN

Santorum stands down — A week ago today, Rick Santorum …
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New York Magazine, RedState, Campaign 2012, ThinkProgress, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Barrometer and The Daily Dish

Rick Santorum to drop out of the presidential race
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The Caucus, Conservative Hideout 2.0, News Desk, CANNONFIRE, Gawker, New York Magazine, Truth Wins Out, ThinkProgress, Campaign 2012, GOP 12 and The Maddow Blog

Rick Santorum suspends his 2012 presidential campaign at an event in Gettysburg, Pa.
Discussion:
Booman Tribune


Announcing Our Newest Hire: A Current Fox News Channel Employee — What follows is the inaugural column of a person we are calling The Fox Mole—a long-standing, current employee of Fox News Channel who will be providing Gawker with regular dispatches from inside the organization.

Trayvon Martin: Attorneys say Zimmerman contacted prosecutor, Sean Hannity — The two men who have been George Zimmerman's most outspoken defenders, attorneys Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner, said today that they're off the case. — “On Sunday, we lost track of George, in that he would not return our calls,” attorney Uhrig said.
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Associated Press, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, No More Mister Nice Blog and Althouse
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Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman's Attorneys Quit, Say Client ‘Disappeared’ — Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy … FOLLOW: — Video, Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, George Zimmerman Lawyers, George Zimmerman Lawyers Quit, Trayvon Martin Case …
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Los Angeles Times, msnbc.com, The PJ Tatler, DISSENTING JUSTICE and Truthdig


Exclusive: Trayvon Martin Family Attorney Responds as Zimmerman Lawyers Withdraw Counsel
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Mediaite, msnbc.com, New York Times, Guardian and ThinkProgress

Martin case prosecutor to make announcement soon
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Reuters, Click Orlando l Orlando News …, clickorlando.com, The Huffington Post, TalkLeft, Politico and The Mahablog


Hansen and Schmidt of NASA GISS under fire for climate stance: Engineers, scientists, astronauts ask NASA administration to look at empirical evidence rather than climate models — Looks like another GISS miss, more than a few people are getting fed up with Jim Hansen and Gavin Schmidt and their climate shenanigans.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Samizdata.net and Tim Blair


A submission from Secretary Hillary Clinton. … - fiercefabulousflawless reblogged this from textsfromhillaryclinton — aliquis-latet-error reblogged this from textsfromhillaryclinton — insaneisanunderstatement reblogged this from textsfromhillaryclinton
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Mashable! and Feministing
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Madam Secretary Meme Goes From Gay-Bar Banter to State Department Invite — [Photo: Stacy Lambe, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Adam Smith, texting and loling, on April 10, 2012. (Photos from Texts From Hillary.)] — Two gays walk into a bar ...
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, Mediaite, Texts from Hillary, Towleroad News #gay, Gay Politics and US Politics


Exclusive: McDonald's Says It Has Dumped ALEC — Add another name to the list of corporations who've ditched the American Legislative Exchange Council: McDonald's. — The fast food giant tells Mother Jones that it recently decided to cut ties with ALEC, the corporate-backed group …
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BuzzFeed, Firedoglake, Center for Media and Democracy and The Raw Story
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“Double-Counting” Canard Quacks Again — Former Bush Administration official Charles Blahous has garnered some media attention by gussying up old, discredited arguments about the budgetary effects of health reform. But his paper adds nothing new to the debate.
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ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, Show Me Progress and National Review
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America's Debt Bomb: Worse Than Europe's — It has been said many times in recent months that we aren't Greece. Now it will start to be said that we aren't Spain. Both propositions are certainly true. (For one thing, Spain elected its socialist government in 2004, thus getting a head start on us.)
Discussion:
National Review
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America's Debt Is Greater than Entire Eurozone's (and U.K.'s) Combined Debt
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Doug Ross


Obama leads Romney by 13 in Colorado — Barack Obama's opened up a 13 point lead on Mitt Romney in Colorado at 53-40. He's gained 11 points in the state since December when he led just 47-45. — The formula for Obama's gains is the same in Colorado as it is everywhere.
Discussion:
The Colorado Independent and Ballot Box
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Romney Solidifies GOP Position but Obama Gets Boost From Women
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Daily Kos and 2012 Decoded


George W. Bush: Wish tax cuts not in my name — George W. Bush said Tuesday that he wishes the tax cuts originally approved under his watch didn't carry the burden of his family name. — “I wish they weren't called the Bush tax cuts,” the former president said as he kicked off …
Discussion:
The POH Diaries, Daily Kos, Angry Bear, Hot Air, The Other McCain and Althouse
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Newt Gingrich stiffs Utah — Five Republicans have filed the necessary papers and $500 fee to qualify for the June 26 Utah presidential primary election, but with Rick Santorum dropping out of the race Tuesday, only four will be on the ballot. — Or, make that possibly three.
Discussion:
New York Times, ThinkProgress and Jesus' General


Paul Ryan Claims Secret Democratic Support — They'd come out for his budget but fear they'd “get killed. Ryan on Romney: An “earnest ... throwback to the '50s. Ryan with Romney on April 3. — (Getty Images / Scott Olson) — House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan told reporters in New York today …
Discussion:
The Brody File, Politico, American Prospect, Hot Air, Indecision Forever, Weekly Standard, Washington Monthly, GOP 12, Daily Kos, Mother Jones and Swampland

Painter of Light, Dead at 54 — On Friday April 6, famous “painter of light” Thomas Kinkade died. Kinkade is known not only for his beautifully cheerful paintings but his strong faith and belief in Christianity. Within many of his paintings, he hid the names of his family members …
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Latest Open Salon Blog

Huckabee Show Opens With Staged Caller — Wow. — As we often say here: you just can't make it up. — Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took his first phone call of his new talk radio call-in show yesterday. From “Mike in San Francisco.” Remember: the show is being positioned …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Politico, Riehl World View and GOP 12

Poll: Half Of Democrats Want To Get Rid of Individual Mandate — A key talking point of Democrats and liberal pundits regarding the Supreme Court's ObamaCare case is that if the justices overturn the law — or even just the individual mandate portion — it will damage the “legitimacy” of the court.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Hit & Run


Catholic Cardinal: A Sin to Cooperate With Obama Mandate — A leading Catholic cardinal at the Vatican has essentially said that complying the with Obama birth control mandate would have Catholics and Catholic organizations participating in sin. — The mandate compels religious employers …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and The Gateway Pundit


‘I May Give Up Writing and Work as a Butler’: Interview with John Derbyshire — After publishing an article advising his children to avoid black people, writer John Derbyshire lost his column at uber-conservative magazine The National Review and weathered a firestorm of outrage this weekend.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Wire, rightwingwatch.org, The Spectacle Blog, First Draft, his vorpal sword, Vox Popoli and National Review

EXCLUSIVE: 43 Current Milwaukee County DA Employees Sign Walker Recall — Media Trackers is able to confirm that 43 current employees of the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker. A total of 70 names on iverifytherecall.com matched …
Discussion:
RedState, Cognitive Dissidence and FOX6Now.com


NCHS Data Brief — Number 89, April 2012 — Birth Rates for U.S. Teenagers Reach Historic Lows for All Age and Ethnic Groups — Brady E. Hamilton, Ph.D., and Stephanie J. Ventura, M.A. — Key findings — Data from the Natality Data File, National Vital Statistics System
Discussion:
thechart.blogs.cnn.com, Hit & Run, Economix and Ezra Klein