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History Professor Gingrich Falsely Claims U.S. Presidents Don't ‘Smile And Greet’ Russian Leaders — Yesterday, President Obama shook hands and briefly chatted with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, explaining in a press conference afterwards that he was trying to move towards a “more constructive” …
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THE HANDSHAKE.... It's early Monday, and you know what that means: time for a new coordinated conservative tantrum. The freak-out over the Department of Homeland Security and domestic threats is so last week. The new fit is over President Obama shaking hands with the President of Venezuela at the Summit of the Americas.

Gingrich slams Obama over Chavez — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into President Barack Obama Monday for his friendly greeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the “enemies of America.” — Gingrich appeared on a number of morning talk shows comparing Obama …


Delegates walk out on Ahmadinejad at Geneva — Article's topics: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Durban 2 — As Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the eradication of Israel in his address to the United Nations anti-racism conference which — opened its week long event in Geneva on Monday …
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Walkout at UN conference after Iran president calls Israel ‘racist’ — British delegates joined a dramatic diplomatic walkout today when President Ahmadinejad of Iran told a major UN conference against racism that the state of Israel had been founded “on the pretext of Jewish suffering” during the Second World War.

Why the Harman leaks smell to high heaven — I just posted a brief picking up this CQ Politics story by Jeff Stein, re-raising allegations that U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) attempted to intervene on behalf of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two former AIPAC staffers charged …
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Sources: Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC
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The Plum Line, Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, QandO, Don Surber, Emptywheel, TalkLeft, The Atlantic Politics Channel, TPMMuckraker, Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, MyDD, Mondoweiss, Swampland, Newshoggers.com, Booman Tribune, The Washington Note, Swing State Project, D-Day, MoJo Blog Posts and Donklephant

Gibbs confirms that torture memo authors are ‘not being held accountable.’ — Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that when it came to the Bush administration's illegal torture program, “those who devised the policies...should not be prosecuted.”
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Nadler: Impeach Torture Memo Author
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Think Progress, D-Day, Calitics, The Huffington Post, The Washington Independent and PoliticalBase.com Blog

Karl Rove, Twitter Creep — Blogs and Stories — Meghan McCain says we need to take back Twitter from the creepy people—like Karl Rove, “America's Toughest Sheriff,” and the other undesirables who now follow her every Tweet. — Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That's creepy.
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Political Machine, PoliGazette, The XX Factor, Political Byline, NewsBusters.org, Wonkette and Raw Story

The Times Wins 5 Pulitzer Prizes — The New York Times won five Pulitzer Prizes in journalism on Monday, the second-most in its history, for work on subjects as varied as America's wars in Asia, the sudden downfall of a political titan, art from ancient to modern, and a history-making presidential campaign.
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Miss California: My Sister Is A Gay Rights Activist — Pageants,LGBT,Billy Bush,Celebrities — Her opinions on same-sex marriage may have cost Miss California the Miss USA crown on Sunday night - but in an interview with Billy Bush for “The Billy Bush Show” and Access Hollywood on Monday morning …
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51% View Tea Parties Favorably, Political Class Strongly Disagrees — Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans have a favorable view of the “tea parties” held nationwide last week, including 32% who say their view of the events is Very favorable. — Thirty-three percent (33%) …

Back to the future: Obama's foreign policy — Senior Political Analyst — As Barack Obama finishes up his second major foreign tour, a pattern in his approach to foreign policy seems to be emerging. On pressing matters of obvious importance, he has made responsible decisions …
Discussion:
Hot Air
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In Shift, Obama Doesn't Plan to Reopen Nafta Talks
Discussion:
MyDD


RUDY RIPS GOV'S BID FOR GAY NUPS — RUDY GIULIANI is declaring war on gay marriage — vowing to use his strong opposition of it against the Democrats if he runs for governor next year. — The former mayor, in an extended interview with The Post, also predicted that Gov. Paterson's high-profile effort …
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Has gay marriage reached a tipping point in New York? …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish


The Axelrod Inner Circle — White House senior adviser David Axelrod. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais — UPDATE, 2:40 p.m.: Two more additions to the weekly Wednesday meetings of White House adviser David Axelrod's inner circle. — • Jim Messina: Messina …
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Sources: Chrysler Financial Refused Government Loan Over Limits on Executive Pay — Top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a $750 million government loan because executives didn't want to abide by new federal limits on pay, sources familiar with the matter say.
Discussion:
Megan McArdle, Portfolio, Emptywheel, The Page, The Washington Independent and Consumerist

Where Government Spending Should be Trimmed — And Why It's Necessary to Fast-Track Universal Health Care — It's no accident that as Congress returns this week from its two-week recess and begins debate on the $3.5 trillion budget plans for the fiscal year starting in October …
Discussion:
D-Day
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based law center sues Homeland Security over ‘right-wing extremism’ issue — The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center says it has filed a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. — The non-profit law firm said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Real Clear Politics, Little Green Footballs and The Washington Independent
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Napolitano: Returning vets too stupid to avoid extremists
Discussion:
The Hill

Treasury Says ‘No Basis’ to Report on Bank Testing — A U.S. Treasury spokesman said there's no basis to a blog posting that buffeted financial stocks by saying that most of the nation's largest banks are insolvent. — Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman, dismissed the report from Hal Turner …
Discussion:
Felix Salmon


NU's Katz reminds Emanuel he's Jewish — Article's topics: Ya'acov Katz, Rahm Emanuel, King Ahashverosh — National Union chairman Ya'acov “Ketzele” Katz sent a letter to White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel last week admonishing him not to forget his Jewish and Israeli origins.


The Wail of the 1% — As the privileged class loses its privileges, a collective moan rises from the canyons of Wall Street. — Shortly after 1:30 on the afternoon of March 18, two dozen traders in AIG's financial-products division stepped away from their Bloomberg terminals …


Pundits Whitewash Torture — On the Sunday morning news programs, several pundits went out of their way to either endorse waterboarding and other techniques endorsed in the torture memos - or to dismiss the idea of holding their authors responsible. — On ABC News' “This Week With George Stephanopoulos …

A U.S. Attorney's Story — Dan Bogden, who served as the United States attorney from Nevada until he was abruptly dismissed from his job during the infamous wave of firings of U.S. attorneys in late 2006, hoped to someday learn why he was let go. By most accounts, Bogden had served …