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?

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Did our Stinquers in Texas feel the cosmic collision of pretty-boy rumored-gay politicians and their hair-dos when California Lt. Gov. Gavin “Mayor McDreamy” Newsom and his slicked ‘do met up with Texas Gov. Rick “Good Hair” Perry?

The Californians were in Austin for an international visit to make nice, though California Treasurer Bill Lockyer crowed to the LA Times that “someone just turned the lights on in the bar, and the sexiest state doesn’t look so pretty anymore” with respect to Texas’ budget crisis. Gov. Good Hair boasted of his “hunting trips” to California to woo businesses to Texas. Mayor McDreamy said he was “sick and tired” of Perry coming to California.

No word if they ever resolved the fight over whether a hair dryer diffuser or pomade leads to more memorable hair. Like the Israel-Palestine issue, I don’t think we can resolve the Newsom-Perry hair fight.  But now boyz. Can’t we work it all out on the dance floor at Oil Can Harry’s?

UPDATE: Texans also have their panties in a wad because NASA (you know, purveyors of science and target of teabaggers) is sending a space shuttle to Kahleefornya…and worse yet, Nuu Yawk City.

[SF Chronicle]

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]