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Obama: "I'm Ready To Win Some Money" In March Madness This Year

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President tells ESPN he's “feeling good” about his bracket.

WASHINGTON — President Obama told ESPN Tuesday that he's "feeling good" about his March Madness picks. So good that he's "ready to win some money" in the time-honored tradition of the tournament pool.

"I'm feeling good," Obama told ESPN's Andy Katz in a behind-the-scenes video posted to ESPN.com. "I'm ready to win some money here."

Obama's full bracket will be revealed on ESPN on Wednesday. National Journal crunched the numbers on Obama's previous March Madness brackets and found his predictions of a strong performance may be a bit optimistic.

Watch the ESPN video here.

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23 Kitties Of Congress

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Ready for the Feline Government?

Pal Franken (D-MN)

Pal Franken (D-MN)

Virginia Cat (R-NC)

Virginia Cat (R-NC)

Very Hairy Reid (D-NV)

Very Hairy Reid (D-NV)

Joseph Catnnedy III (D-MA)

Joseph Catnnedy III (D-MA)


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David Axelrod's First Month At MSNBC

How The World Covered The Iraq War

Same-Sex Marriage Ads Run, But Don't Lead To Victory, In South Carolina

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Ads focused on same-sex couples' marriage rights trailed only those about government spending and jobs for Tuesday's primary. Neither of the two candidates headed to the April 2 run-off mentioned the topic, though.

Via: kantarmediana.com

WASHINGTON — In what could be bad news for opponents of marriage equality, while same-sex marriage ads ranked third to those based on government spending and jobs in South Carolina's Republican primary this week, neither of the top of candidates had much to say about the topic on the airwaves.

In fact, neither former Gov. Mark Sanford or former Charleston County councilman Curtis Bostic ran a single ad on the issue of same-sex couples' marriage rights, a stark fact given the issue's dominance in the South for more than a decade.

When South Carolina voters passed an amendment banning same-sex couples' marriages in 2006, 78 percent of voters approved the measure. Only voters in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee passed amendments by a higher percentage.

Sanford and Bostic will now face one another in an April 2 run-off to determine who will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch on May 7. The analysis of the TV ads that aired in the run up to Tuesday's primary comes from CMAG, a nonpartisan research group that tracks political and advocacy advertising.

All of the Republican candidates ran ads that focused on the budget and government spending, but the only candidate who didn't lead with the issue — Teddy Turner, who ran more ads on the overall economy — came in fourth. CMAG's analysis shows that more than 78 percent of the ads that ran in the primary focused on government budget and spending issues.

Half of the candidates ran ads that focused on same-sex couples' marriage rights, but only one of those candidates, state Sen. Larry Grooms, came in the top half of the finishers Tuesday. He came in third, conceding to Bostic Wednesday morning.

Via: kantarmediana.com

Via: kantarmediana.com


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Al-Qaeda Operative Indicted In New York

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Spin Ghul tried to bomb U.S. faciliteis in Nigeria and harm personnel in Afghanistan, the FBI says.

Al-Qaeda operative Spin Ghul has been indicted in New York, the FBI's New York field office announced in a series of tweets today.

Ghul, whose full name is Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, was "associated with al-Qaeda since '01, traveled to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia for jihad, arriving before the 9/11 attacks," according to the agency's twitter.


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Raul Labrador: Pathway To Citizenship Is A "Minor Issue" In Immigration Reform Debate

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An issue of semantics, he says.

Image by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT

WASHINGTON — Conservative Republicans are still shying away from backing a "pathway to citizenship" by name — but that doesn't mean they won't support the proposal in principle as part of an immigration reform package.

"You guys emphasize the 'pathway to citizenship' — we're talking about a minor issue," said Rep. Raul Labrador, one of the leading Republican members of a House working group on immigration reform. "The real issue that we're dealing with is immigration reform."

"What I think should happen is, anybody who's here illegally can come out of the shadows, become legalized in some way, have some sort of legal status, and the status could lead to legal permanent residency and citizenship eventually, but just the same as anybody else who falls into that category," he added.

What Labrador describes — as Sen. Rand Paul did one day prior — sounds a lot like the so-called "pathway to citizenship" being proposed by the Senate and President Barack Obama.

Semantics aside, the apparent consensus is promising for the prospects of immigration reform legislation ultimately becoming law. At a panel discussion Wednesday featuring some of the most prominent conservatives in the House, the lawmakers seemed to agree with the basic tenets of reform that have been discussed thus far, including increased border security and a pathway to legalization and citizenship for the undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.

"What I have told conservatives is that we need to be open-minded about what we do with the 11 million so that we can get what we want on border security and guest worker programs," Labrador explained. "That really should be the tone of our negotiations."

The Real Face Of The Sequester

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This isn't cancelled White House tours, these are real people losing pay and losing their jobs. Today's sequester news, as reported by local cable news outlets.

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Obama: U.S. "Will Investigate Thoroughly" Reports Of Chemical Weapons In Syria

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“We intend to investigate thoroughly exactly what happened,” Obama says.”

Obama and Netanyahu shake hands while they hold a joint news conference in Jerusalem.

Image by Larry Downing / Reuters

President Barack Obama reiterated that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a "game changer" and "red line" for the administration on Wednesday, and said that reports that chemical weapons had already been used against the Syrian people were being investigated.

"We have been clear that the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people would be a serious and grave mistake," Obama said during a press conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We intend to investigate thoroughly exactly what happened," Obama said of reports that chemical weapons were recently deployed in Syria. Obama said that the Syrian regime has the capability to make chemical weapons, and "I am deeply skeptical of any claim that it was in fact the opposition that used chemical weapons."

" I have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game-changer," Obama said.

Is Lawrence O'Donnell The Next MSNBC Host To Go?

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Maybe he'd prefer a job that doesn't “offend [his] artistic sensibilities”?

Try to imagine a Harvard educated, former Senate Finance Committee director turned theatrical cable news host whose primetime opinion program is barely two and a half years old, gets good ratings, and allows said imaginary host to cover any subject his heart desires.

Imagine if this host sat down for an interview and said something like this:

"Every show we do offends my artistic sensibilities."

Now, imagine if this host, who has had experience working in Hollywood on an Emmy-winning TV show, admitted the following during the same interview:


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Netanyahu Says Israel Remains Committed To Two-State Solution

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Obama thinks it's “hard.”

Obama is welcomed by Israeli President Shimon Peres (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcoming ceremony at the Ben-Gurion Airport.

Image by Ahikam Seri/AA/Abaca Press/MCT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is still committed to finding a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, during a press conference with President Barack Obama on Wednesday.

"Israel remains fully committed to peace and the solution of two states for two peoples," Netanyahu said, appearing next to Obama at his residence.

His words were noteworthy after the recent Israeli elections, during which the peace process hardly came up.

Obama discussed the peace process at length after a question about "what went wrong" from MSNBC's Chuck Todd, saying repeatedly that the effort to come to a two-state solution is "hard."

"With regard to the peace process, I think you are absolutely right that in the past year, year and a half, two years, we haven't gone forward," Obama said.

Obama said the Palestinians "should feel that they are masters of their own fate," and that the Israelis should feel that "the possibility of rockets raining down on their families has diminished."

Obama said that his original commitment in his first term "was not to achieve a peace deal."

"What I said was I was not going to wait to start on the issue until my second term," Obama said.

"Ultimately this is a really hard problem," Obama said. "The parties involved have some profound interests that you can't spin or smooth over."

"Both parties have politics," Obama said.

"I will admit that frankly, sometimes it would be easier to not make the argument, to avoid the question, precisely because it's so hard," Obama said.

The two leaders took four questions total before adjourning the conference.

Could Airport Blues Change The Sequester Narrative?

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The most powerful voting bloc: annoyed airplane passengers.

Image by Alan Diaz / AP

WASHINGTON — Last weekend, around 200 international passengers missed their flights and stayed overnight in the Miami airport thanks to customs delays airport officials said were caused by the sequester. Florida TV news featured images of of angry passengers chanting in frustration as they watched their flights come and go.

The long delays at the Miami customs check so far aren't affecting departing passengers. But airport officials delays could come to domestic flights next month when sequester cuts might lead to TSA staff cuts.

For Democrats and a White House hoping the across-the-board cuts will create a public push for Republicans to abandon their opposition to revenue, the images were political gold. For Republicans trying to balance outrage over the sequester's impact at home versus the Republican opposition in Washington to cutting a deal with Obama to end the sequester with tax hikes, the news in Miami could be a bad political omen.

Before the sequester took effect, Republicans criticized the White House for overhyping the consequences of the cuts. And so far, many have felt vindicated in that skepticism.

"The president kind of led the charge to say widows and orphans are going to be out on the street, so when it didn't happen, he actually himself had to step back on Friday and say it wasn't going to happen that way," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said earlier this month. "We're going to have significant cuts in defense spending and discretionary spending for sure, but I think it was oversold."

Bush said Obama and his allies did "a lot of crying wolf" in advance of the sequester cuts kicking in.

Upset air travelers have already led some Republicans in Congress to complain about the sequester's local impact, even as their party continues to dig in their heels against Obama's call for increased revenue as part of any deal to stop it, leading to gridlock and the sequester's continued implementation. Democrats have tried pushing the myriad local stories about the sequester's impact on the ground level, but so far the public outrage Democrats and their allies were sure would push the GOP to the bargaining table hasn't manifested itself.

Could airports be the battlefield where Democrats win on sequester messaging?

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned Republicans in February that airport blues might be the tipping point for those who think they can ride the sequester out.

"Your phones are going to start ringing off the hook when these people are delayed at airports, and their flights are delayed 90 minutes, or their flights are cancelled, or their air tower is closed," LaHood said he told Republicans in a briefing with reporters.

On Tuesday, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran used Senate ruled to hold a protest over the sequester cuts to rural airports. Moran is calling on Congress to restore the funding that would keep rural airport towers open and prevent other cuts at small airports. Moran's office did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed.

Republicans still say the sequester won't be as big a deal as Democrats have advertised — and there were media reports Wednesday suggesting they might be right. Reuters wrote that some economists are questioning the federal job cuts the CBO projected will be caused when the the sequester is fully implemented. Meanwhile, fights over the White House tours and other matters have led Republicans to feel comfortable letting the sequester play out. (Some conservatives are questioning sequester tales coming out of the Miami airport, as well.)

But if there are local news reports like the ones that came out of Miami's airport this week, it could put sequester pain back in the spotlight, and Republicans under the gun.

Is Hollywood America's Best Truth Teller On Iraq?

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A few impressive projects, a few bombs, and a kick-ass movie by the guys who made The Matrix in the works. Hollywood’s quest to tell the truth about the Iraq War.

A scene from from The Hurt Locker.

Image by Summit Entertainment courtesy Everett Collection

The 10th anniversary of the Iraq War has now been dutifully marked by most New York and Washington, D.C., news outlets, many of them even acknowledging their own horrible track records in misinforming the public about the conflict. Thankfully, we still have Hollywood to get the story right. The heart of the entertainment industry is currently one of the most influential spots in America when it comes to shaping our nation's historical memory, as the recent controversy over the accuracy of Zero Dark Thirty revealed. Most of us think television and film play a greater role than contemporaneous news accounts in shaping the public's view of the past.

At present, there have been approximately 102 major projects about the war — over 300 if shorter documentaries and television shows are included. Many have done an admirable job of capturing the conflict's disturbing consequences at home (Valley of Elah, Stop-Loss, Saving Grace) and the madness of the invasion (the HBO series Generation Kill, based on the book by Evan Wright); and other flicks have used Iraq as more or less a backdrop for action. The A-Team remake transplanted the original Vietnam setting to Iraq and delivered a killer performance from Bradley Cooper. The most successful Iraq movie to date, the Academy Award–winning The Hurt Locker skillfully managed to capture the soldier's genuine emotional experience of the war while giving the audience the adrenaline-rush feeling of combat. Not to mention a number of powerful documentaries that were not produced in Hollywood but found distribution within the studio system, like Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.

The catch, of course, is that conventional wisdom has declared Iraq films are "poison," says NYU professor Patrick Deer, author of the soon to be released Surge and Silence: Understanding America's Culture of War. "There's been a vicious circle in the sense that the critics have tended to reproduce the wisdom [of the studios] that feature films about the Iraq War are box-office poison. It's almost as if both the critics and the mainstream Hollywood studios have a view that somehow the Iraq War is always going to be a cinematic failure."

Explains Robert Greenwald, who has produced over 77 titles, including award-winning documentaries about the war: "The entertainment industry is focused on profitability, and therefore that is often at odds with the demands of telling certain stories. The common belief system is that hot-button subjects, people are not going to pay eight or nine, ten [dollars] to see movies about those subjects." Indeed, from a purely financial outlook, the results have been dire. But that fact makes it more impressive that Hollywood, which normally flees like the plague from subjects that fail to perform at the box office, continues down this path. Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, Hurt Locker grossed a middling to poor, by Hollywood standards, $49 million worldwide. Valley of Elah did even worse.

There are, however, Greenwald notes, exceptions to the financial rules. And it's those exceptional films that break through that have the most impact on how we view the past. Vietnam, obviously, had its Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Casualties of War, Hamburger Hill, and Platoon, a list of powerful films made in the 15 years following the war's end in 1975. Officially, the Iraq War ended in 2011, and unofficially, it's still going on. "What is that iconic Iraq War film going to be?" asks Meredith Lair, who teaches a course in Vietnam and film at George Mason University. "Whether that defining film about the Iraq War is going to be a celebration or a critique? [Or if it will be] a big action movie? Would it be something the Department of Defense would be involved in?" Lair notes we're "waiting for that film to come along."

Hollywood has the chance to deliver. Those iconic Vietnam films didn't show up until half a decade after the war ended, after all. IMDBPro lists six Iraq-themed big-budget projects going into production within the next three years, plus more documentaries. The most exciting include the Wachowski brothers' CN9, or Cobalt Neutral 9, about a homosexual American soldier falling in love with an Iraqi. And there are other projects approaching the themes of the war from science-fiction and fantasy angles, a tried-and-true means to make a powerful critique without ever having to mention the word "Baghdad." The science-fiction classic The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, is in production for Fox 2000. That novel was the veteran Haldeman's response to the Vietnam War, and it's fitting that its eventual adaption will seem even more relevant today. Robert Altman's MASH, after all, the most powerful statement about Vietnam that Hollywood produced while the war was in progress, was, in fact, about the forgotten Korean War, used as a stand-in for the ongoing fighting in Saigon; the original Catch-22 was set in WWII, though it gave us a vocabulary to explain every war that we've had since. Perhaps the timing on this last batch will prove opportune, even though the conflict drags on in Iraq — still approximately seven or eight attacks a day.

"Iraq is a terrible, extraordinary tragedy that we as a country haven't even begun to deal with," says Greenwald, who was one of the first documentary filmmakers to criticize the war. "The size and scope, the number of people killed, the families destroyed. It's truly mind-boggling. You need Shakespeare or something to write about. That's not something we'll see traditional commercial films take on." Of course, there are exceptions, and it's on us to go watch them.

— Additional reporting by CJ Lotz

Obama Goes Conservative With March Madness Picks While Marco Rubio Lives Dangerously

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Rivals' political leanings don't extend to tournament strategy.

Via: espn.go.com

For the fifth straight year, President Obama has filled out a special presidential version of a March Madness bracket on his own big board. Last year, Obama's pick (North Carolina) only made it to the Elite Eight, and he's apparently reacted to that letdown by going extremely conservative. Across the aisle, a potential 2016 candidate for his job, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, has also filled out a bracket. (Obama's Republican counterpart has a tougher job, politically speaking, in that his loyalties are divided in a Florida-heavy NCAA field.) Rubio's picks are more (dare we say) progressive-thinking. Here's a closer look:

Obama's infatuated with higher seeds.

Obama's infatuated with higher seeds.

Looking at Obama's Sweet Sixteen selections, he's only got one non-top-four seed making it through, that being No. 5 Wisconsin out of the West region. He's even feeling good about teams like No. 4 Saint Louis (Midwest) and No. 3 New Mexico (West) which haven't faced the same level of competition as the bigger schools.

Via: whitehouse.gov

But his swing-state mentality is still evident.

But his swing-state mentality is still evident.

The president is bullish on No. 4 Michigan knocking off No. 1 Kansas in the South region, though the Wolverines didn't exactly end the season on the best of notes. It's a pick that makes little sense, though an always-volatile Michigan unemployment rate may be to blame.

Meanwhile, he also has No. 2 Ohio State defeating No. 5 Wisconsin to make the Final Four. Backing the Buckeyes means pushing through a team from Ohio (the swingiest of swing states) and also getting to stick it to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) one more time.

Image by Jeff Haynes / Reuters


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How Washington's Immigration Momentum Could Collapse At Any Moment

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“There’s going to be a constituent backlash against this thing soon,” Rep. Steve King warns. Citizenship is only one of many landmines in the way of reform.

PHOENIX, AZ - MARCH 11: People call for immigration reform outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), office on March 11, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Image by John Moore / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Opponents and supporters alike of comprehensive immigration reform have a message for anyone who thinks this week's shift in momentum means legislation is a done deal: don't get cocky.

Advocates of reform have had a great week: on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul endorsed an eventual pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented workers in the United States. On Wednesday, Rep. Raul Labrador — who just a month ago dismissed a pathway as a poison pill — also came out in favor of it.

Pressure for a comprehensive package has gotten so intense, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid even announced he'd bring legislation to the floor after the Easter recess.

And with bipartisan groups in the House and Senate continuing to make progress, supporters are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"I think the more you hear voices from all points say we have a possibility, that's a great sign," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, one of the leaders of a bipartisan group of House lawmakers working on legislation.

But Becerra, like most lawmakers involved in the effort, is cognizant of the fact that the movement toward reform could collapse at any time. "I think all of us who really believe there's a chance of getting something would really rather not comment other than to say that we're having good conversations" until legislation is ready, Becerra said.

Opponents were even more blunt in their warning.

"Some of the people who are talking about this haven't been through an immigration debate. In fact, a lot of the people lining up behind that leadership haven't been through an immigration debate. Those of us who were here in this congress in 2006 and 7 remember what that was like," said Rep. Steve King. "We remember the tens of thousands of people pouring into the Capital grounds on both sides of the issue, remember the phones being jammed" by constituent calls, the Iowa Republican explained.

"So I think there's going to be a constituent backlash against this thing soon, as they see it moving in that direction," King warned, adding, "Whether they can pass something before the American public wakes up, I don't know."

Conservatives may be increasingly comfortable with the idea of a pathway to citizenship — or, as Paul calls it, "probation" — but they're still very skittish when it comes to the kind of language used to describe it.

"It's an inaccurate phrase. It's inaccurate. There's a pathway to a green card, and then you can decide whether to apply for citizenship," said Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the Republican leaders of the Senate bipartisan reform effort.

"Everyone misunderstands how this process works. There's no such thing as a pathway to citizenship. You can't go from being an immigrant to a citizen, even today. You have to get a green card," Rubio said.

That squeamishness is understandable: as King noted, for movement conservatives "comprehensive immigration reform is amnesty" so even mentioning the word "pathway" can set off a bitter fight.

But even once lawmakers get beyond that linguistic hurdle — which is far from certain — there are still plenty of other traps that could kill reform, most notably how that pathway will work.

Will undocumented workers be forced to pay a fine? If so, how much? Everyone seems to agree that they will need to go to "the back of the line" to apply for green cards and eventually citizenship. But what does that mean, exactly? Will they have to live in the United States legally for some period of time before they can begin those processes, or will they be able to apply immediately?

Each of these questions, along with figuring out how to secure the border and reform the legal immigration system are all landmines that negotiators are still struggling to map out. Each one could easily derail the entire process.

"Any one of these things could undo all of this," a senior House GOP leadership aide said.

And then there's the problem of passing a bill in the House. While Labrador and a number of other House conservatives are moving toward the pro-reform camp, King is one of the leaders of a hardline group of conservatives that will simply not be swayed.

"Is [Rep.] Louie Gohmert going to do something? No. Is Steve King going to do something? No," the leadership aide said.

And while activists have speculated that Speaker John Boehner could use parliamentary tricks to pass the bill, aides said it is all but impossible for him to break the so-called "Hastert Rule," which requires a majority of Republicans to vote for a bill.

"Boehner can't break the Hastert rule on something as high profile as immigration. It wouldn't even be a question of him loosing his speakership. His entire leadership team would get thrown out," the aide warned.

Still, even opponents concede that the level of momentum is getting to the point where it could be difficult to block legislation.

"It's getting harder," King said. When asked if he was surprised, the conservative Republican said, "That it seems to have this level of momentum? Yes
… [They] seem to be reading the tea leaves of one part of the Republican Party without thinking for themselves. You wouldn't have this many people moving this far, this fast, if they were thinking for themselves."


How Foreign Governments Make Sure You Don't Know They're Lobbying You

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Countries from Uzbekistan to Ukraine use a loophole to try to quietly influence the United States. A “foreign agent” by any other name.

WASHINGTON — The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, an obscure nonprofit based in Belgium, was founded by a former top official in Ukraine's governing party and appears to be a proxy for the country's pro-Russian government. In 2012, the group hired a pair of high-powered American lobbying firms to advocate on its behalf.

But what those lobbyists, who include Obama-era Democratic superlobbyist Tony Podesta, are actually doing is a mystery. Unlike the Washington firms hired directly by foreign governments, Ukraine's leadership has slipped its American agenda through an increasingly popular loophole in the federal law intended to regulate foreign activity in the United States, allowing it to follow the minimal disclosure practices required of domestic corporate lobbies, not the extensive ones demanded of registered foreign agents. It's a loophole now used by a range of post-communist governments, in particular, with money to burn and no particular love of transparency. And it offers a path to the end of a disclosure regime put in place in 1938, amid American concern over the effects of Nazi propaganda.

The erosion of those requirements began around the fall of the Soviet Union, says Bill Allison, editorial directorial of the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog group.

"One of the problems with the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 is it weakened the requirements for foreign entities and gave an awful lot of them the ability to register under the LDA when they should be filing under FARA," he said.

The Foreign Agent Registration Act established extremely detailed disclosure requirements, which have recently shed light on everything from Georgian lobbyists' hors d'ouevres to a stealth Malaysian campaign to plant propaganda articles in American media outlets.

But nobody wants to be a foreign agent. With its sinister ring, draconian enforcement requirements, and dead-serious enforcement by the Department of Justice, the law is a serious deterrent — as it was intended to be — to foreign interference in American politics. Its exposure, as in the Malaysian case, can be embarrassing both for the foreign leaders and for their agents.

And so countries including Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, as well as Ukraine, appear to have found an alternative, one through which, in some cases, they don't have to comply with any registration requirements at all.

The trick is this: Any entity controlled and funded by a foreign government is formally required to be registered as a foreign principal. But as long as the entity is formally a nongovernmental organization and isn't funded by a government — a chamber of commerce, an advocacy group, or some other entity — the law does not apply.

"For better or for worse, it's legal," said Joseph Sandler, a Democratic lawyer and expert on FARA law.

Those groups register instead under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, whose roots are in anti-corruption crusades of the 1990s, but which is far less onerous. The two laws "evolved in completely different ways," Sandler said. In particular, an LDA filing shows you very little about what the lobbyists actually did for their clients, while FARA filings require disclosures of specific duties and expenses.

The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine offers a particularly clear case study in this method. The Center is a nongovernmental organization in Brussels that, its website says, is "a unique 'Modern Ukraine' organisation based in Brussels and operating internationally as an advocate for enhancing EU-Ukraine relations."

The group has a strong tie to the Ukraine's government: It was founded by Leonid Khazara, a former senior member of parliament from Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions. The Centre is established as a nongovernmental organization in Brussels. It lists no staff on its website save for two employees on the Contact page, and a spokesperson didn't return requests for comment.

But for that skeleton staff, the ECFMU was represented by two lobbying firms, the Podesta Group and Mercury/Clark & Weinstock, during a period in which a flurry of pro-Yanukovych stories appeared in the American conservative blogosphere. The EFCMU's managing director, Ina Kirsch, tweeted out two of the stories, from Breitbart News. The bloggers declined to identify the source of the stories' pitches, and said they hadn't been compensated for writing them.

A spokeswoman for Mercury/Clark & Weinstock told The Daily Beast last year that the group was "in compliance with all European and Belgian disclosure laws," when it was in the news because Romney advisor Vin Weber was employed as one of its lobbyists. That same spokeswoman would not tell BuzzFeed what specific services Mercury/Clark & Weinstock provided for the Centre.

Another striking example of this style of spending on behalf of foreign governments comes from the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, which in the most recent State Department human rights report was cited for "significant human rights problems" including torture and abuse of prisoners.

Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan's dictator Islam Karimov, runs an organization called the Fund Forum or Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan Foundation, which, according to its website, is "a voluntary self-controlled nongovernmental association of citizens and public organizations pursuing the goal of supporting domestic science, culture, education and sports." Karimova has been accused of dealings with organized crime and illegally keeping a chokehold on Uzbekistan's mobile phone industry; her father's regime is notoriously brutal in suppressing dissent and once allegedly boiled a protester alive.

The Fund Forum is represented in New York by Ashraf Khodjaev, who is also the first secretary of the mission of Uzbekistan to the United Nations. Khodjaev didn't return a request for comment.

The Fund Forum seems to mainly exist to advance Karimova's interests — one of its recent events was an exhibit for her "Guli" fashion line — but it is also, according to a glowing Huffington Post blog post from January, "Central Asia's largest and leading cultural foundation."

"Most of the projects of the Fund Forum has a social character," wrote freelance marketer Alex Simons. "They combine all the layers of the population, to establish closer links between all participants in the social and cultural processes, and develop cooperation based on common goals and interests, and also demonstrate the potential and the dynamics of the interaction of its creative and innovative opportunities for the social sector in Uzbekistan."

Simons writes that a "friend" went to Style.uz Art Week, a fashion week organized by the Forum.

Reached by phone, Simons said he had never been paid to write the post, but that "a friend of mine had been in event PR and asked me to do a blog post." He couldn't remember his friend's client and said she was "freelance."

"I think I might actually take it down, though," Simons said. He also asked that BuzzFeed not mention the post.

Harper's writer Ken Silverstein reported in 2009 that Karimova organized a junket to Tashkent for American bloggers. The junket resulted in posts like this, about the Style.uz fashion week. Just recently, one of the bloggers who went on the previous junket visited Uzbekistan again.

"Fund Forum is tough to define," said Sarah Kendzior, a scholar on Central Asian issues who has written about the forum. "It's a philanthropic organization that allegedly does a few genuinely good things, it's allegedly a front for some of Gulnara's shady business dealings, and most of all, it's ground zero for Gulnara PR, a way that she can promote herself as a 'philanthropist' and gain a following among Uzbekistan's youth."

Karimova's Fund Forum, despite its obvious connection to the government, isn't listed in the FARA registry or anywhere in LDA filings.

If a U.S.-based group has foreign nationals on its board, those individuals must register under FARA. One example is the board of directors of Azerbaijan America Alliance, which includes two Azeri nationals, including Anar Mammadov, the son of Azerbaijan's transportation minister, who is one of the richest oligarchs in that country. (The younger Mammadov is the star of a strange, possibly apocryphal report in an Azeri website that says he ordered a restaurant in Baku to kill a bear for him and spent the night feasting on the bear, paying $1.2 million for the privilege.)

A spokesman at the Alliance didn't return a request for comment. They were represented throughout 2012 by Democratic firm Fabiani and Lehane, which earned about $40,000 through the deal. That contract is listed in LDA filings, while the two Azeri board members can be found in the foreign agent filings.

A related Azerbijani PR effort was touched by international scandal when a British blogger, Claire Rewcastle Brown, printed documents suggesting that the country deployed a firm, Fact Based Communications, that was at the center of U.K. media inquiries over covert Malaysian propaganda documentaries that aired as news on the BBC and other major international networks.

Nonprofits, of course, aren't the only foreign entities that find a way around FARA. Foreign corporations from countries without a clear line between commerce and state power fly through a similar loophole. The Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, for example, isn't listed anywhere in FARA but is spending millions on multiple lobbying contracts filed under the LDA. It's the same company that U.S. officials have accused of spying and that is mentioned in news reports about the suspicious death of Shane Todd, an American who had been working in Singapore with the Institute of Microelectronics and reportedly quit because he was worried that dealings with Huawei would harm U.S. national security.

Meanwhile, more groups are springing up all the time: Friends of Hungary, for example, is slated to be set up in the United States soon as a 501c3 nonprofit and run by a former government minister. The government of Hungary is budgeting $15 million for the group, which will be directed by the prime minister's office.

"Obviously what the law is trying to do is understand how foreign governments are trying to influence us, but U.S. companies make it so it's not a foreign entity," said the Sunlight Foundation's Allison. "A foreign country could have very different issues than us, like with human rights, but companies end up becoming proxies for someone else's foreign policy interests. It's not clear that it's the interest of the average American that they're pushing."

Obama Heckled In Israel

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President shakes it off. “I wouldn't feel comfortable if I didn't have at least one heckler.”

WASHINGTON — President Obama was heckled by a member of the audience during a speech at the Jerusalem International Convention Center Thursday.

As Obama was extolling the virtues of Israel's political system and free press, a man began yelling out. The president shook off the heckles and continued with his speech.

"No, no," Obama said as some in the crowd began to boo the heckler. "This is part of the lively debate that we talked about. This is good."

The crowd cheered.

"You know, I have to say we actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home," Obama went on. "I wouldn't feel comfortable if I didn't have at least one heckler."

A pool reporter on the scene reported the heckler was yelling in Hebrew about jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

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Obama Chides Israelis For Settlements, Calls For Palestinian State

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Settlements are “counterproductive to the cause of peace,” Obama says.

President Barack Obama speaks at the Jerusalem Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Obama called for Israel to halt its settlement activity and work harder towards an independent Palestinian state in a speech to students in Jerusalem on Thursday.

"Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable — that real borders will have to be drawn," Obama said to an enthusiastic crowd. "I've suggested principles on territory and security that I believe can be the basis for talks. But for the moment, put aside the plans and process. I ask you, instead, to think about what can be done to build trust between people."

The speech at times levied implicit criticism at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though Obama is trying to bolster his relationship with him during this visit.

"Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do," Obama told the crowd. "You must create the change that you want to see."

Obama brought up Israel's increasing isolation in the international community.

"Given the demographics west of the Jordan River, the only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine," he said. "Given the frustration in the international community, Israel must reverse an undertow of isolation. And given the march of technology, the only way to truly protect the Israeli people is through the absence of war – because no wall is high enough, and no Iron Dome is strong enough, to stop every enemy from inflicting harm."

"The Palestinian people's right to self-determination and justice must also be recognized," Obama said. "Put yourself in their shoes, look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished."

Though Obama was at one point during the speech heckled by someone who was shouting about imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, his words were more frequently met with cheers from the young crowd.

Twitter Promotes Mitt Romney's Campaign As A "Success Story"

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The social network's case study touts Romney's Twitter presence as a model for future campaigns. There's just one minor problem.

It's been a rocky few months for former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Since losing the election, he's been spotted pumping his own gas, visiting fast food establishments and, more recently, wearing small party hats at his new job.

But it's not all bad news for Mitt! In fact, in Twitter's eyes, Romney's near-billion-dollar candidacy was a #SuccessStory worth sharing (listed right between campaigns from MTV and Microsoft's "Safer Online" initiative).

While it's a a savvy move for Twitter to play up the Romney campaign's reliance on Twitter (in August it was reported the Governor was spending $120,000 a day on promoted tweets), the #success stories lose a bit of their oomph when you put them into context. A few examples from the "Results" section of the analysis:

The @MittRomney campaign used Twitter to monitor sentiment, gain insights into key election issues and create real-time responses that were timely and relevant.


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Biden, Bloomberg Present United Front On Assault Weapons Ban

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Reid has dropped it from the Senate bill, but Bloomberg calls for an amendment vote. “I'm not going to rest, and neither is the president, until we do all of these things,” Biden says.

Image by Ruby Cramer/Buzzfeed

In a rare joint-appearance at New York's City Hall Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to reassure gun control advocates fearful that an assault weapons ban has become a political impossibility now that it's been dropped from the bill that will go to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

"For all those who say we can't ban assault weapons, for all those who say the politics is too hard, how can they say that when you look at those 20 beautiful babies and what happened to them?" said Biden, citing the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., that provoked the president to propose an ambitious gun control package that includes a limit on high-capacity magazines, universal background checks on gun sales, and a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Wednesday he was dropping the ban from the bill, which he said didn't even have 40 votes behind it; even with the measure left out, said Reid, it can still be considered and voted on as an amendment.

Bloomberg, a staunch gun control advocate who spent over $2 million of his own money in a special Congressional election in Illinois last month to defeat a pro-gun candidate, made clear he intended to push for a vote on the ban regardless of in what form.

"Even though restrictions on military-style weapons will not be part of a bill that goes to the floor of the U.S. Senate, we will get a vote by the full Senate on an amendment to the bill," said Bloomberg.

"Everyone's gonna have to stand up and say, 'yea' or 'nay,' and then the rest of us have to decide just how we feel about people and their stances," he said.

Biden and Bloomberg were joined in City Hall's Blue Room by six loved ones of a substitute teacher, and three parents whose children were lost, in the mass shooting late last year at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In his remarks, Biden echoed comments he made earlier this week in an interview with National Public Radio, when he insisted that he and the president were still "pushing that it pass" despite Reid dropping the measure from the Senate bill up slated for next month.

Asked if he felt he had sufficient support from Democrats in the upper chamber, Biden shrugged the question off, citing his fight nearly 20 years ago as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass a crime bill that included the ban.

"The same thing was told to me when the first assault weapons ban in '94 was attached to the Biden crime bill — that it couldn't possibly pass," Biden told NPR.

Gun control groups, too, say Reid's dismissal of the ban has actually "fired up gun violence prevention advocates even more, even though his legislative strategy is designed to ensure that all four Senate Judiciary bills actually get up or down votes," Ladd Everitt, communications director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told BuzzFeed.

"That's okay, though," said Everitt. "Passion never hurts and we need a big push right now from people who are sick and tired of 'Government By the NRA.'"

At the end the City Hall press conference, Biden listed the gun control measures originally proposed in the president's legislative package — banning assault weapons, limiting high-capacity magazines, enacting universal background checks, and strengthening gun trafficking, mental health systems, and school satefy — and voted to implement every measure in some form.

"I'm absolutely confident that I'm not going to rest, and neither is the president, until we do all of these things," Biden said.

Additional reporting by Evan McMorris-Santoro.

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