Top Stories

• At I.R.S., Unprepared Office Seemed Unclear About the Rules
• Virginia Governor and Attorney General Linked in Scandal
Watch this! ►  • Obama focuses on middle-class concerns in weekly address
• Obama talks jobs, says politics misplace focus
• Defcon 1 in the Senate? Harry Reid Focuses on July for the 'Nuclear Option'
• Obama Appears Unscathed By Unfolding Scandals

Below the Fold

Analysis ►  • Obama Scandals Are Desperate Measures By the GOP
• VA-Gov: Tea party hero Cuccinelli is GOP nominee
• Federal Appeals Court: Drug Sentencing Disparity Is Intentional Racial ‘Subjucation’
Analysis ►  • As Moderates Balk, Progressives Poised to Step Up in Dems' Battleground Senate Campaigns
• Obama meets with new acting IRS head
Analysis ►  • Republican efforts to skewer Obama and Holder over IRS and AP are blunted
• Question That Led to Disclosure of IRS Wrongdoing Was Planted

Endless Campaign

Analysis ►  MA-Sen: Why Isn't the GOP Backing Gabriel Gomez?
Bitter Loser Romney Hurls Criticism Over Scandals: 'I'm Not a Fan of the President'
Analysis ►  MA-Sen: Gabriel Gomez's bad week
MA-Sen: GOP hopeful Gabriel Gomez charges Rep. Ed Markey is absent from campaign, ducking DC controversies

Ads

MA-Sen: GOP Senate Candidate Freaks Out Over Gun Ad, Claims Opponent Is Blaming Him for Newtown

Polls

Analysis ►  Virginia’s Democratic Turn Is Looking Permanent
Poll: Mostly Republicans are following IRS, Benghazi scandals

Obama's Agenda

Obama takes Cabinet secretaries out to play golf
Analysis ►  Why Obama Aministration Was Infuriated By AP Story
Analysis ►  Michelle Obama and her husband are not going to stop telling kids to put away the video games and get some ambition
Analysis ►  Has Obama Ever Praised a Whistleblower?
Obama: 'Our focus cannot drift' from jobs, economy
Analysis ►  This is not the President Obama we voted for
Obama focusing on job creation in Baltimore visit

Legislative Sausage

Darrell Issa: 'You Don't Accuse the IRS Until You've Had a Nonpartisan, Deep Look'
Republicans Led By John Kline (R-MN) Voted Down Elizabeth Warren's Plan to Lower Student Interest Rates
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) warns that Obama's "lack" of foreign policy will create another HItler
Republicans keep making unreasonable demands of EPA nominee McCarthy
DeMint's Advice to GOP: Don't Legislate, Focus on Scandals
House Republicans prepare plan to raise debt ceiling
Analysis ►  Senate filibuster showdown brewing
Rewriting History: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Pretends He Voted for Expanded Background Checks
Corrupt House Agriculture Committee Slashes Food Stamps Unmercifully – with Help from Ann Kuster
Watch this! ►  Martin Bashir Reminds Viewers of Darrell Issa's Criminal Past
Sen. Warren Requests Records on Bank Settlement Tradeoffs
President Obama’s EPA nominee Gina McCarthy approved by committee; chief antagonist says he won’t filibuster
Analysis ►  G.O.P., Energized, Weighs How Far to Take Inquiries

State of the States

Colorado GOPer Accused of Storming Away from Aurora Victim’s Dad
Scott Walker Touts Job Growth That Ranks Wisconsin Seventh-To-Last in Nation
Illinois Senate Approves Medical Marijuana Use; Gov. Expected to Sign into Law

Media Monkeyshines

Obama Tweets Study of 97% Scientific Consensus on Manmade Warming, WashPost Confused on What That Means
ROFL ►  Colbert: 'How dare you cast aspersions on that man's asparagus!'
Stupid Right-Wing Tweets: Bryan Fischer Edition
Conservative Talk Host Wants to ‘Shoot [Hillary Clinton] Right in the Vagina’
Right Wing Media Invents Umbrellagate
Analysis ►  Why the Underwear-Bomber Leak Infuriated the Obama Administration
Bloomberg Appoints Samuel Palmisano, Ex-IBM CEO, as Privacy Advisor in Wake of Spying Scandal
The Benghazi Scandal That Wasn’t: Republican Source Fed ABC Doctored Benghazi Emails
Analysis ►  ABC News & the Whitewater Tactics at the Center of the Scandal Machine
Charlie Cook to GOP: Launder the Scandals Through Sycophant Journalists
Watch this! ►  Warning! NSFW ►  ROFL ►  Stewart mocks horse-race media for ‘attention span of a concussed goldfish’

FARCE Noise

Really Fox News? Benghazi Is Your Example of Stellar Fox Journalism?

Wide World of War

Suspected U.S. Drone Strike in Yemen Kills 4 Al Qaeda Militants
North Korea fires three short-range missiles into eastern waters
Analysis ►  Benghazi [Non-] Scandal: It's Still a Nothingburger
This week in austerity: Furloughing defense workers and making unemployment harsher

Culture Of Corruption

NY State Assemblyman Vito Lopez, accused of sex harassment, informed leaders on Saturday he will resign effective Monday morning
Analysis ►  How Buck McKeon's Mormonism Played Right into the Military Rape Epidemic Coverup
Ex-Police Chief Accused of Extorting Suspects
Washington, D.C. Insider Says State Senator John Sampson Covered-Up Court Corruption
Analysis ►  Troubling Questions About Darrell Issa’s Past
Analysis ►  Six ways the GOP could screw up the Obama administration's "scandals"
Hunt on for Source of Prostitution Allegations Against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Reince Priebus to GOP: 'Don't call for impeachment until you have evidence'
Analysis ►  5 Major Scandals the Media Isn’t Obsessing About

Teabaggery

Analysis ►  Tea Party Crackpots Shouldn't Be Investigated?

Budget Bungling

CBO: Obama Budget Would Cut 10-year Deficits by $1.1 Trillion

Conspiracy Nation

Peggy Noonan takes a turn in the conspiracy theory funhouse

Courts

Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas’ Stringent 12-Week Abortion Ban from Taking Effect
John Paul Stevens: Bush v. Gore Decision Rationale Was 'Unacceptable'

Foot-in-mouth Watch

Michele Bachmann: ‘Our Life And Death Very Well May Be in the Hands of the IRS’

Depression Watch

"The idea that this 25 year old richie rich believes that the American people must be punished doesn't seem like a stretch to me"

Education

Michelle Obama at Bowie State: Too many fantasize about being ‘a baller or a rapper’

Electioneering

Hunter Walker reports on what one election law expert calls “the most blatant and shameful” voter suppression effort Ohio has yet seen

Environment

Analysis ►  EPA Is Required to Regulate Carbon Pollution from Existing Power Plants

Politics Around the World

Argentina ex-military leader Jorge Rafael Videla dies

Gay/Lesbian

New York Man Killed in Alleged Anti-Gay Hate Crime
Arizona Republican Jim Kolbe Is Getting Gay-Married Today

GOP

Analysis ►  How GOP Obstruction Will Ruin the Republican Party

Guns! Guns!! Guns!!!

Colorado woman fatally shot in head with her own assault rifle

Health Disasters

GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law
OB-GYNs Are Confused By the Political Fight to Restrict Emergency Contraception

Mortgage Meltdown

Fannie & Freddie Say It Would Be Too 'Awkward' to Meet with Foreclosed Homeowners

Faulty Intelligence

Russia reveals identity of CIA Moscow chief following Ryan Fogle's expulsion

Natural Disasters

Monthlong investigation into cause of Texas fertilizer explosion leaves three possibilities

Oh, God

Humanists threaten to sue Missouri school officials over teacher-led prayer meetings

Diplomacy

Guatemala's victory for human rights highlights a major US's failure

Taxes

Analysis ►  Having your tax-exempt application scrutinized is exactly the same as being dragged from your bed by jack-booted thugs
Analysis ►  Waitaminute. Isn't the IRS Supposed to Watch Out for Tax Cheats?
Targets in IRS Scandal Make Little Sense
Watch this! ►  Analysis ►  Rangel: Citizens United 'Invitation… for Abuse' of Tax Code
Analysis ►  3 Problems with IRS Claim It Didn't Discriminate Against Tea Party
Watch this! ►  O'Donnell Reminds Congress of Real IRS Scandal Ahead of Hearings
Treasury Officials Told in June 2012 That IG Was Investigating IRS
Outgoing IRS chief deflects Republican attempts to link scandal to White House
Analysis ►  The Tea Party is Not a Social Welfare Org

Terrorism

New Step Taken in Ricin Letters Case

War Crimes

Human Rights Watch: Syrian Government Practiced Torture