This is something Republicans condemned when Democrats tried to use it to pass health care reform legislation, and Ed Morrissey quite appropriately calls them on it:

In an April Fools’ Day surprise, Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of Huffington Post Media Group, announced today that her company will start paying non-staff contributors and bloggers for their content. In recent months, Arianna Huffington has faced pressure from freelance journalists who are frustrated with the Huffington Post’s unwillingness to pay for the majority of their content. In...

As you may know, The Times is now charging for unlimited access to NYTimes.com and NYTimes apps. Arianna Huffington has decided to follow suit. In an announcement just published, she starts: Today marks a significant transition for The Huffington Post Media Group, as we introduce digital subscriptions for employees of The New York Times. It’s an important step that we hope you will see as an investment...

On a day when a poll found President Barack Obama getting his lowest polling numbers ever, and as the big political story playing out is whether or not there will be a government shutdown, a new story has surfaced via an exclusive report that promises to spark a new extensive debate. And it already has — a debate sweeping like lightning through the Internet and on cable news and cable talk shows: Reuters...

Sometimes even a confirmation from a (usually) reliable source isn’t enough. Sometimes the horse’s mouth is the only way to know what really happened. …

I deeply wish that I could say this story is “unbelievable,” but it’s becoming all too clear that even the most bizarre examples of assaults on press freedom are possible in Obama’s White House.

The Washington Post reports: Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, 75, passed away Saturday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her family. The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for 12 years, according to a statement from her family. Ms. Ferraro earned a place in history as the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major...

If only Jeffrey Goldberg et al. became this exercised when major U.S. news organizations refer to the C.I.A.’s torture program as “what some call torture.”

All of the articles I’ve linked to below came to me via my Twitter feed.

UPDATE: According to the blog Israel Matzav there has been one death. Carl live-blogged, the newest updates are at the bottom of the post. ================================= MSNBC just reported that a bus blew up in Jerusalem and there are many casualties. This may signal a new reign of terror by Palestinians. A bus explosion in Jerusalem has caused dozens of casualties, police said Wednesday. Scores of ambulances...

The selective memory is John McCain’s:

UPDATE, March 28 Yokota Air Base, just outside Tokyo, has become the nerve center and logistical hub for “Operation Tomodachi,” the U.S. humanitarian assistance efforts to help earthquake/tsunami/nuclear-power-plant-disaster-ravaged Japan. In the weeks that have followed the disaster, some 1,300 military and government workers have converged on Yokota, and “[s]uddenly, this usually sleepy airlift base...

Josh Marshall has a first-rate analysis of why Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya, particularly now, is such a bad idea. Here’s what I think is the money quote:

South Carolinians rallying for a moral budget in their state.

UPDATE, March 27 The New York Times reports this morning on the Libyan rebels “first major victory since American and European airstrikes began a week ago.” The rebels’ advance was the first sign that the allied attacks, directed not only against Colonel Qaddafi’s aircraft and defenses but also against his ground troops, were changing the dynamics of the battle for control of the country. As night...

UPDATE: 16:15 ET March 19 AP has confirmed that the U.S. military has launched a missile attack against Libya’s air defenses. A senior U.S. military official says the strike was aimed at sites along the Libyan coast. The missiles were launched from U.S. Navy vessels in the Mediterranean. The official says the assault would unfold in stages and strike at air defense installations around Tripoli, the capital,...

UPDATE: 12:20 ET France has officially confirmed that its military are engaged around and over Libya. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Paris, “Our air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi against the population of Benghazi…As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town…As of now, our aircraft are prepared to intervene against tanks.” Read More Here...

As the struggle continues at Japan’s malfunctioning nuclear plants, this news item from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun looks at the challenges being faced by Japanese and international rescuers as they scramble to save as many lives as possible in the aftermath of last week’s incredible tsunami. The article from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbum says in part: In the earthquake-affected areas of northeastern...

One of the reasons I’m not inclined to give Republican leaders and lawmakers the benefit of the doubt is that they keep grabbing the doubt and hurling it over the cliff, to crash and shatter on the rocks below. If someone had told me, even as recently as the midterm elections, that Republicans in Congress would be spending their time, two years before Pres. Obama runs for a second term, in the worst economy...

UPDATE, 6:30 AM ET March 19 The New York Times Reports: Forces led by Moammar Gaddafi entered the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi Saturday after airstrikes and fierce fighting as the United States and its allies prepared to launch military attacks on Libya. A warplane was shot down over Benghazi. Government troops — some reportedly in tanks — entered Benghazi from the west, in the university...

Things have gone from really bad to much worse at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex as the radiation levels reached such high levels that all worker were withdrawn. FUKUSHIMA, Japan – Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said work on...

UPDATE, March 17 From the Stars and Stripes: U.S. military personnel have delivered 40 tons of supplies to the hardest-hit areas of Japan, as humanitarian aid continues in the face of an ever-increasing threat from the failing Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. The U.S. 7th Fleet reported that aircraft from the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group flew 15 sorties Wednesday, delivering food, water, clothing,...

Ed Morrissey thinks that “The White House acted appropriately in kicking Crowley out at State …” in response to Crowley’s public criticism of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s abusive treatment in detention. Then he defends the abuse itself (although of course he doesn’t consider it to be abuse) thusly:

I have a post up at Liberty Street.

As a scientific rationalist I get irritated when people argue without understanding all the facts, but as a student of history I get more irritated when people with the facts argue without understanding their limits. One of the things that engineers tend to do incorrectly is assess risk factors largely independent of each other: if X happens then part 1 will address it and if Y happens then part 2 will address...