Discover GOP Opprobrium

[teapeebubbles]

Today's edition of quick hits:

* The "top kill" efforts had to be temporarily halted this afternoon, but officials intend to re-start the pumping tonight. We won't have a sense of the efficacy for a while, but there's still a fair amount of optimism about the strategy.

* Tensions continue to rise around the Korean peninsula: "North Korea said on Thursday that it was cutting off a naval hot line used to prevent clashes on its disputed sea border with South Korea, while the South conducted a large naval drill in a show of force after the sinking of one of its warships."

* The White House's first formal National Security Strategy was released today.

* Are the votes there in the House to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"? Speaker Pelosi thinks so. We may see a vote tonight.

* New unemployment filings dropped by 14,000 last week. The numbers are -- let's all say it together -- still far too high, and the modest drop was not as strong as expected.

* Germany may not fully appreciate what the regional economic crisis will do to Germany.

* First quarter GDP numbers were slightly lower than originally estimated.

* Do House Dems have the votes to pass a new, post-Citizens United, campaign finance reform bill? The leadership thinks so, and we can expect a vote on the DISCLOSE Act fairly soon.

* The Justice Department are moving forward with plans to challenge Arizona's new anti-immigrant law.

* Justice Antonin Scalia and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor don't see a problem with Elena Kagan's lack of judicial experience.

* It's just astounding that "more than 113 census takers have been the victims of assaults or attacks this month."

* Kaplan University's agreement to offer some California Community College courses isn't working out well.

* And as a rule, House Republicans are at their absolute nuttiest when they're trying to rationalize their hatred of gay people. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic.