Newt comes to defense of white First Ladies everywhere. More soon …

Late Update: Newt demands apology from Obama for DeNiro’s remarks.

Robert DeNiro at Obama fundraiser last night: “Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?”

TPM’s Nick Martin has a fascinating look at how white supremacists have hitched their already-violence-prone agenda to the “cause” of border security in the American Southwest. It’s a potentially lethal cocktail of racism, vigilantism, and the usual goofballism.

Karen Santorum on her husband: “Women have nothing to fear when it comes to contraceptives.”

White House asks media to yank stories about Malia Obama spring breaking in Mexico. Media comply.

Brian Beutler walks us through the first hurdle the Supreme Court has to clear in considering the health care reform law next week: Does a separate federal law preclude federal courts from adjudicating the individual mandate until it kicks in in 2014?

Our Nick Martin dives deep into the world of anti-immigrant neo-Nazi extremism in the American Southwest, and finds an increasing number of “concerned citizens” preparing to do battle at the border.

Here’s his report.

Feds open probe of Trayvon Martin death.

Rick Santorum tells press: Stop making me talk about contraception?

You may have heard that Brian Lamb, founder and longtime CEO of C-SPAN is retiring. I sat down for an hourlong interview with him a couple months ago. And he was just the (positive) way you’d imagine him from watching him on TV: courtly, very unfull of himself, genuine but probing in his questions. I came away thinking: wow, what an amazing guy. And I had one word in my mind: facts. Facts. You can’t have a better North Star. Our David Taintor spoke to him about the changed media landscape over the 34 years C-SPAN has been on the air.