memeorandum: Kirk and Manchin don't support Schumer background check proposal (Daniel Strauss/The Hill)

8:30 PM ET, March 6, 2013

Top Items:

Ramsey Cox / The Hill:

Rand Paul launches talking filibuster against CIA nominee — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is staging a talking filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). — “I'm here to filibuster John Brennan's nomination to be director of CIA,” Paul said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Discussion: Politico, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Mental Recession, Babalú Blog and Outside the Beltway

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Rubio, NRSC heads join Rand Paul's filibuster — and could get political boost

Discussion: Politico

Josh Voorhees / Slate:
Rand Paul Has Started What Could Be an Epic Mr. Smith-Style Filibuster on the Senate Floor

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Senate Democrats Threaten To Reignite Filibuster Reform

Discussion: Wonkblog, A plain blog about politics and The Maddow Blog

Philip Ewing / Politico:
Rand Paul stops John Brennan action with filibuster

Discussion: Business Insider, New Republic and The Week

Ed O'Keefe / Post Politics:
Rand Paul launches talking filibuster against John Brennan

Discussion: The Fix, The Gateway Pundit, American Prospect, Red Alert Politics, Right Turn, Taylor Marsh, Booman Tribune and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Rand Paul filibustering over drones: I will not let Obama ‘shred the Constitution’

Discussion: Power Line, Weasel Zippers and NetRight Daily

Jake Novak / CNBC:

Boehner Wants Budget Deals ‘Out in the Open’ — Supervising Producer for “The Kudlow Report” — House Speaker John Boehner told CNBC's Larry Kudlow on Wednesday that a long-term deal on entitlements is possible, and there's no good reason for the Obama team to have shut down the White House tour.

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos, First Read, PoliticusUSA, Post Politics and The Reaction

New York Times:

Trying to Revive Talks, Obama Goes Around G.O.P. Leaders — WASHINGTON — With Republican leaders in Congress forswearing budget negotiations over new revenues, President Obama has begun reaching around them to Republican lawmakers with a history of willingness to cut bipartisan deals.

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, The Plum Line, The Caucus, The Week, The Other McCain, The Hill, The National Memo, Campaign for America's Future, Hot Air, First Read, American Prospect, Washington Post, Smartypants, Weekly Standard, NBCNews.com, susiemadrak.com and msnbc.com

Niels Lesniewski / Roll Call:
Filibuster Overhaul Effort Should Be Revived, Durbin Says

Discussion: The Political Carnival, Daily Kos and PostPartisan

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Chief White House Calligrapher Gets Paid $96,725 Per Year — With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it's worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually. — Like the “Chief Calligrapher,” …

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Shark Tank, Hot Air, Mediaite, TheBlaze.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Impolitic and The Daily Caller

James Joyner / Outside the Beltway:

Calligraphy-Gate — The Weekly Standard's Daniel Halper, who yesterday broke the story of a government leader reminding his employees to obey the law, unearths another scandal: the White House employs calligraphers. And pays them money! … Yes, it sounds a little silly that we're paying people …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Daily Caller and Weekly Standard

Agoldberg / The Smoking Gun:

Cops: Perp Had Loaded Revolver In Her Vagina — Handgun was found inside Oklahoman during strip search — An Oklahoma woman arrested Monday on drug charges had a loaded handgun hidden in her vagina, according to police. — The weapon was discovered during a search of Christie Dawn Harris …

Discussion: Gawker, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Hinterland Gazette and Balloon Juice

Joleen Chaney / KFOR-TV:

GRAPHIC: Woman packing heat, drugs in private parts — WARNING: Content could be considered graphic to some audiences. — ADA, Okla. - An unusual and graphic case in Pontotoc County leads police to a bizarre find inside a female suspect. — It began at Dairy Lou Drive Inn in Ada.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Donovan Slack / Politico:

6 Obama administration sequester claims shot down by fact checkers — Fact-checkers have had their hands full in recent weeks as the Obama administration has tried to detail the expected impacts of automatic sequester cuts. — As POLITICO's Glenn Thrush and Carrie Budoff Brown report on the home page …

Discussion: News Desk, The Fix, White House Dossier, CNN and The PJ Tatler

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Capitol janitors making ‘ends meet’ with overtime? Nope

Discussion: Fox News, Hot Air, NewsBusters, Weekly Standard, Patterico's Pontifications and Heritage Action for America

Politico:
Now Dems worry: Did Obama cry wolf?

Discussion: CNN, Wonkblog, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Salon, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Hot Air and The National Memo

William J. Dobson / Slate:

How his economically disastrous, politically effective ideology will haunt the country he ruined. — Even before Hugo Chávez died, he had become a ghost. A strange, unfamiliar quiet had fallen on Venezuela for weeks as people waited to hear the voice of the president who had been part of their daily lives for nearly 14 years.

Discussion: The Lede, The Dish, NewsBusters, IHT Rendezvous and The Week

Greg Grandin / The Nation:
On the Legacy of Hugo Chávez

Discussion: PJ Media, Twitchy, Mediaite, Babalú Blog, Weasel Zippers, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, Belmont Club, Ed Driscoll, ThinkProgress, The Carter Center and Hollywood Reporter

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:
What I learned about Hugo Chávez's mental health when I visited Venezuela with Sean Penn.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The Week, Toronto Star, The Dish, Spectator, The Atlantic Online, TheBlaze.com, Hot Air and News Desk, more at Mediagazer »

Zev Chafets / Vanity Fair:

Exclusive Excerpt: Roger Ailes Off Camera — Roger Ailes is one of the most powerful—and controversial—characters in television media, pilloried by critics and many in the mainstream media and lionized by conservative viewers who can't get enough of his posse of charismatic hosts.

John Bachman / WSB-TV:

City looks to make gun ownership mandatory — Every homeowner in a local town could soon have to own a gun or break the law. It's a controversial new plan for the city of Nelson. — NELSON, Ga. — Every homeowner in a local town could soon have to own a gun or break the law.

Discussion: Red Alert Politics, Mediaite, The PJ Tatler, BuzzFeed and The Raw Story

Rebecca Leber / ThinkProgress:
City In Georgia Would Mandate That Everyone Own A Gun

Discussion: Shakesville

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republicans Have Won a Budget Battle, But Not the War — As sequestration begins, Republicans have been overtaken with something close to giddiness, and Democrats seized with gloom. It appeared as recently as a few months ago that the threat of across-the-board cuts, disproportionately hurting defense …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Weasel Zippers, The Reaction, Jammie Wearing Fools, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and Prairie Weather

Jon Cohen / The Fix:
Cut government spending? Sure....in theory.

Discussion: Firedoglake, CNN, Politico and Hot Air

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Report: Mitt Romney takes job at son Tagg's investment firm — Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be returning to work, joining his son Tagg's investment firm. — Romney will serve as chairman of the executive committee for Solamere Capital, where he'll work for one week …

Discussion: CNN

Sarah B. Boxer / NBCNews.com:
Romney returning to the private sector

Discussion: Politico and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Lindsey Graham: Hurricane Victims Need Assault Weapons To Shoot ‘Roaming Gangs’ — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pushed back against efforts to limit the availability of assault weapons during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday by echoing the paranoia of the National Rifle Association …

Discussion: Video Cafe blogs

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Graham on Obama invite: ‘How do you say no to the president?’

Discussion: Politico

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

Ted Cruz Goads Eric Holder Into Admitting That Killing Americans With Drones On U.S. Soil Is Unconstitutional — On Tuesday, the Department of Justice sent shockwaves through the nation when Attorney General Eric Holder informed Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in writing that the White House …

Discussion: Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, The Shark Tank, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Mother Jones

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
Killing Americans on U.S. Soil: Eric Holder's Evasive, Manipulative Letter

Discussion: The Raw Story, Hit & Run, emptywheel, msnbc.com and Washington's Blog

Samuel Tadros / Weekly Standard:

Michelle Obama and John Kerry to Honor Anti-Semite and 9/11 Fan — On Friday March 8, Michelle Obama will join John Kerry at a special ceremony at the State Department to present ten women the Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award. The award, says the press release …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Jawa Report, Ordered Liberty, U.S. Department of State, Atlas Shrugs and Washington Free Beacon

Spencer Ackerman / Wired:

Over $8B of the Money You Spent Rebuilding Iraq Was Wasted Outright — The never-completed Khan Bani Sa'ad Prison in Diyala, Iraq. Ultimately, the U.S. spent $40 million on the aborted project. Photo courtesy of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction

Discussion: The Dish

Guardian:

Revealed: Pentagon link to Iraq torture centres — Exclusive: General David Petraeus and ‘dirty wars’ veteran behind commando units implicated in detainee abuse — See the full-length documentary film of the 15-month investigation — The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the “dirty wars” …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Talking Points Memo, The Dish and susiemadrak.com

Carl Campanile / New York Post:

Mayor Bloomberg's new health crusade: too-loud earbuds — Now listen up, if you can. — Mayor Bloomberg — who has already cracked down on smoking, junk food, trans fats, salt and super-sized drinks — is embarking on a new crusade: preventing New Yorkers from going deaf.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Gothamist, NBCNews.com, The PJ Tatler, Michelle Malkin and Jammie Wearing Fools

Erik Eckholm / New York Times:

Arkansas Adopts Strictest Abortion Law in the U.S. — In the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, Arkansas adopted Wednesday what is by far the country's most restrictive ban on abortion, at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound.

Discussion: The Political Carnival, Liberal Values and Shakesville

Sam Baker / The Hill:

Cruz: Spending bill must defund Obama healthcare law — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that he will object to a government spending bill if it does not cut off funds for President Obama's signature healthcare law. — Cruz, a staunchly conservative freshman, said he will offer …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Daily Kos

Vince Cable / New Statesman:

When the facts change, should I change my mind? — The long economic stagnation of post-crisis Britain. — The British economy is still operating at levels around or below those before the 2008 financial crisis and roughly 15 per cent below an albeit unsustainable pre-crisis trend.

Discussion: BBC, Guardian and Spectator