Texas teacher suspended after telling Muslim 9th grader ‘I bet you’re grieving’ for bin Laden.

Sen. Ayotte (R-NH) tells TPM she was shown a copy of one of the bin Laden death photos by a fellow senator.

Palin tells Obama to stop “pussy-footing” around and release the photos.

New Quinnipiac Poll says GOP Medicare Phase-Out plan is wildly unpopular.

A trio of GOP senators over the course of the day today claimed to have seen a photo of the slain Osama bin Laden — even as the White House was announcing that it would not release any such photos. But now it appears that the senators — Scott Brown, Kelly Ayotte, and Saxby Chambliss, who is the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee — were duped by a fake bin Laden death photo.

A little dust-up happened tonight that likely tells us where the debate over Medicare Phase-Out is going. Shortly after 9 PM this evening the Washington Post emailed a breaking news alert which read “Medicare dropped from GOP budget proposal.” That kicked off a furious push back from the office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). And shortly after 10:30 PM the Post sent out a revised email with a new headline: “Republican leaders seeking compromise in deficit talks.” In the body of the email there was an editorial note: “The headline on an earlier alert incorrectly described the GOP position in deficit talks.” Read More

First Cantor, now Ways & Means Chair Dave Camp (R-MI) is saying he’s not even going to try to get the Ryan Medicare Phase-Out bill through his committee. “I’m not really interested in laying down more markers,” said Camp.

The problem of course is that all but six House Republicans already voted for the Medicare Phase-Out Plan. They’ve already cast their vote.

58% of registered voters say they would never vote for Donald Trump.

Eric Cantor’s spokesman Brad Dayspring tells TPM that Republicans are still behind the Ryan Plan to phase-out Medicare and replace it with private insurance. The issue, he says, is simply that they realize it can’t get past this president.

That sounds like a logical enough point. But I don’t think it disguises the fact they’re jettisoning phase out as a real-world policy goal, at least before 2013. As noted earlier, House Ways & Means Chair Dave Camp says he’s not going to waste time pushing it through committee — not wasting the time or exposing Republican Reps to unnecessary political danger.

But remember, all but six Republican members of the House voted for the Budget Resolution that includes the Ryan Medicare Phase-Out Plan. They’re on the record. They supported it. You can go on the record supporting it and take the votes or you can pass on that. I don’t see any getting around the fact that the House Republicans just shifted gears from option one to option two.

Now Boehner bails out on plans to end Medicare.

Late Update: In the annals of desperate tweets, Speaker Boehner just tweeted this …

Saving Medicare off the table? Absolutely not. Nothing is off the table except raising taxes. Tax hikes will hurt economy & job creation.

The weird thing is that I didn’t realize that spittle could be embedded in a tweet. But the API gets more powerful by the day.