Why did Gen. David Petraeus send special ops folks out to conduct “more than 80 raids and other operations” inside a day’s time, according to Politico’s Morning Defense report Wednesday — that’s an insane number of raids for what should be relatively small working groups of individuals. Was it just because the weather was good?

There’s one area on which House Republicans can agree, and it’s the centerpiece of their health care strategy, the signature bill, maybe the only bill on this issue they’ll pass this year. It’s a bill banning federal funding of abortion.

At a Peter Peterson deficit fest last spring President Clinton said: “I wanted to cut Social Security, but they wouldn’t let me.” In 10 years, maybe President Obama will be able to say the same thing.

No matter how many times GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt gets up on a podium or in an op-ed and feigns an interest in American jobs, his actions make him the poster child for everything wrong with the U.S. economy right now.

And that’s what Obama is rolling out, as he moves into campaign mode, to convince Americans he’s going to do a damn thing about jobs.

• Why don’t we have the TBTF banks bail them out?
• You can run, Willard, but you can’t hide.
• A long road ahead.
• Barry: still the luckiest guy alive.
• Very, very serious about cutting spending.

Thank goodness Florida’s Republicans are serving as a model of responsible gun ownership…oh sorry it isn’t April 1st?

Barbara Lynn — You’ll Lose A Good Thing.

You know what kind of value you are getting when you pay your mechanic or even your administrative assistant. Ask yourself exactly what kind of return on investment we’re getting for our TARP money by helping bail out an industry which pays so much for tanking the economy.

It looks like South Sudan already has the necessary votes in hand to secede from Sudan and become the planet’s 195th country. Some regions are showing 99% of the vote for secession. What will follow after certification is a five-month process that eventually will lead to independence, no sooner than July. This is a great victory for the South Sudanese people (or whatever name they plan to come up with). But among the many outstanding issues includes the status of the troubled Abyei region.

This picture made me realize it was exactly two years ago that I stood on the mall so filled with hope. . . .