Lori Montgomery in the Washington Post business section this morning:

The three Republican congressmen saw it as a rare ray of sunshine in Washington’s stormy budget battle: an invitation from the White House to hear President Obama lay out his ideas for taming the national debt.

They expected a peace offering, a gesture of goodwill aimed at smoothing a path toward compromise. But soon after taking their seats at George Washington University on Wednesday, they found themselves under fire for plotting “a fundamentally different America” from the one most Americans know and love.

“What came to my mind was: Why did he invite us?” Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said in an interview Thursday. “It’s just a wasted opportunity.”

The situation was all the more perplexing because Obama has to work with these guys…

Speaking of perplexing, we hope Ms. Montgomery saved a receipt for the three bottles of hand lotion she used in researching this story.

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Wait, who’s that one critic who liked it?

Though a bit stiff in the joints and acted by an undistinguished cast amid TV-movie trappings, this low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel nevertheless contains a fire and a fury that makes it more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Kyle Smith of the New York Post.

But before you jump to Murdochian conclusions…

Don’t hold your breath for parts 2 and 3.

…Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal.

Atlas Shrugged Part I [Rotten Tomatoes, via Weigel]

Following the discovery yesterday of That can be my next tweet, a new Internet service that creates a meta-tweet from your existing messages, we thought we’d test it against the Twitter accounts of potential Republican Presidential candidates to see whether we can gain some electoral insight. We think you’ll agree that they make much more sense this way.

Candidate		Composite Tweet
	Donald Trump	I’m real scared. airs tonight on The Apprentice back to tune in on Donald Trump Fabulous World of your.
	Michele Bachmann	With safety protocols, companies must be on Fox News. This Deal is just released budget.
	Mitt Romney	Laughing with Tagg, Ann and pointing out my video opposing the world. Thank you for doing what’s?

Read more »

ABC Axes All My Children and One Life to Live [TVLine]

“People growing marijuana indoors use 1 percent of the U.S. electricity supply, and they create 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year (not counting the smoke exhaled) according to a report by Evan Mills, an energy analyst at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.” [SF Business Times]

The Arizona Senate passed the Birther Bill last night, which requires Presidential candidates to show either a “long-form” birth certificate — the one Hawaii’s holding back — or two of the following:

• baptismal or circumcision certificate
• hospital birth record
• postpartum medical record
• early census record

Like all Americans, we can get behind required Circumcision Certificates for Presidential candidates. Especially Michele Bachmann.

Arizona ‘Birther’ Bill A Step Closer To Law [KPHO]

We’ve posted 3,535 items — mostly headlines — to the Stinque Twitter account. (Not to be confused with the Stinque Daily Blurb Twitter account, just to confuse you.) Using the new Internet time waster analysis service “That can be my next tweet”, our composite Tweet DNA results in the Dada Haiku above, which we insist be inscribed on our tombstone.

That can be my next tweet

That Can Be Our Next Headline: 21 Perfect Stories by The Machines [The Awl, via flippin eck]