memeorandum: Union threatens retribution for House Dems opposing Keystone (Laura Barron-Lopez/The Hill)

11:40 AM ET, April 12, 2014

Top Items:

Obama, Citing New Laws, Says the G.O.P. Is Moving to Restrict Voting Rights — President Obama deplored on Friday what he called a Republican campaign to deny voting rights to millions of Americans as he ramped up efforts to rally his political base heading into a competitive midterm campaign season.

Discussion: Liberaland

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:

Obama hits GOP on voting rights — President Barack Obama struck hard at restrictive voting rights laws Friday, calling them a Republican political tactic conceived to address a made-up problem. — Pretending that there's widespread impropriety, he said, is just about keeping Democrats from winning.

Discussion: CNN

CNN: Obama on ‘birther’ controversy: ‘That was crazy’

Associated Press: Obama: Right to vote under threat in the US

Laura Barron-Lopez / The Hill:

Union threatens retribution for House Dems opposing Keystone — A top building trades union is launching a midterm-election assault on House Democrats who oppose construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. — A letter distributed Friday by the Laborers' International Union of North America …

Discussion: Power Line and Fox News

Wall Street Journal:

Advice and ObamaCare Consent — Sebelius's replacement deserves a full-scale Senate vetting. — Kathleen Sebelius has been let out a rear door of the Health and Human Services Department, and her exit is an opportunity for getting some ObamaCare accountability.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Barbara Shelly / Kansas City Star:
Give Kathleen Sebelius credit — she survived the furnace

Discussion: Daily Kos

Michael Kazin / The New Republic:

Stop the Revisionism: LBJ Was No Liberal Hero — From 1964 to 1968, close to 34,000 Americans died in South Vietnam. We will never know how many Vietnamese women, men, and children perished during those years, but the total, according to most estimates, was at least one million.

Discussion: Washington Post and Washington Monthly

Michael Riley / Bloomberg:

NSA Said to Exploit Heartbleed Bug for Intelligence for Years — The U.S. National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said.

John Paul Stevens / Washington Post:

Justice Stevens: The five extra words that can fix the Second Amendment — John Paul Stevens served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010. This essay is excerpted from his new book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution.”

Discussion: Josh Blackman's Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money and American Prospect

Ryan Broderick / BuzzFeed:

Who Watches More Porn: Republicans Or Democrats? — Let's take a look at the body politic, shall we? Turns out that porn is a highly accurate predictor of presidential politics. — BuzzFeed teamed up with Pornhub to take a look at who watches the most porn, red states or blue states.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and his vorpal sword

Scott Whitlock / NewsBusters:

BREAKING: ABC Apologizes for Story That Connected Mozilla CEO to Hateful Westboro Baptist — ABC News Vice President Jeffrey Schneider has apologized for a story on his network that connected a CEO who supports traditional marriage to the Westboro Baptist Church and their offensive “God hates fags” signs.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Daniel Strauss / Talking Points Memo:

There's A ‘Let Me Google That For You’ Bill — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) a new bill this week called the Let Me Google That For You Act of 2014 (seriously). — The bill is meant to cut down on “the collection and distribution of government information” …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Liberaland and Mediaite

BBC:

US refuses visa for Iran's UN envoy choice Hamid Aboutalebi — Mr Aboutalebi denies being part of the core group that took the US diplomats hostage in 1979 — The White House has refused to issue a US visa to Iran's nomination for UN ambassador, who was involved in seizure of the US embassy in 1979.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Christian Science Monitor and Hot Air

Jordan Chariton / TVNewser:

Michael Isikoff Out at NBC News — First on TVNewser: This is Michael Isikoff's last day at NBC News, TVNewser has learned. — Isikoff joined NBC News in 2010 as a Washington, DC-based investigative correspondent, after 16 years with Newsweek. The news comes three months …

Discussion: Washington Post