Via McClatchy:

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"This will be a non-violent event," the Facebook group warns, "unless the government chooses to make it violent." Already, over 200 people have said they'll attend the march. Here's the message:

On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

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Conan O'Brien made this mistake while emceeing the White House Correspondents Dinner. "You know, I was worried with the sequester that we would be forced to hold this event at less prestigious hotel than the D.C. Hilton -- then I was told that's not possible," O'Brien said in a riff mocking the aging mid-century modern hotel in Washington's Dupont Circle.

Allen was not pleased. The scribe whose odd obsession with "influence" and Washington power inspired a legendary Mark Leibovich profile cried in Playbook Monday, "Conan O’Brien hurt his buzz" by making "four baseless, elitist cracks about the Hilton, acting as if it were a Motel 5." Allen returned to the subject in today's Playbook, adding that on top of Conan's "bizarre, elitist attack on his hosts at the Washington Hilton," the comedian also eschewed the free room provided by the hotel to instead stay at the Four Seasons.

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Here's Obama's speech:

And Conan's:

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Watch:

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What’s wrong with American politics and what can be done about it is the question that election law expert Rick Hasen sets for himself in a fascinating new paper. In particular, he asks whether American politics is so broken that the only cure is to chuck the Constitution and replace it with a parliamentary system or some other radical systemic reform.

Hasen lays out the well-known case of dysfunction (perhaps best set out in Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein’s recent "It’s Even Worse Than It Looks") and considers, but mostly rejects, three possible rejoinders: that gridlock is actually what voters want; that gridlock is to some extent an illusion, and the system is more productive than frustrated partisans believe; and that dysfunction is real but could be cured by less-drastic measures such as Senate reform and electoral reform.

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“It’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about,” said Robyn Grant, public policy and advocacy director for the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care in Washington, D.C.

“We’ve got to give it the attention that child abuse and domestic abuse are given in this country.”

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On gun control, Palin was of course against it, arguing that saying that "that chunk of metal did the crime, is like saying that fork made me fat." She added: "Background checks: A dandy idea Mr. President, should have started with yours!"

"We don't have leadership coming out of Washington, we have reality television," she continued, saying that "they're being too scripted, too calculated. They're talking about rebuilding the party, how about rebuilding the middle class?"

"We're not here to re-brand a party, we're here to rebuild a country," Palin added.

On Obama, Palin said: "Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever: Barack Obama, you lie!" And no Palin speech these days is complete without a teleprompter joke: "Mr. President: We admit it. You won. Accept it. Now step away from the teleprompter and do your job."

She wrapped up the speech with: "If we the people have one message to send to Washington, it's this: Get over yourself."

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First, though, the obvious weather irony: climate change didn’t exactly come out in support of that rally. In the midst of the warmest years and some of the warmest winters on record, the demonstration, which focused on stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline -- it will bring tar-sands oil, some of the “dirtiest,” carbon-richest energy available from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast -- was the coldest I’ve ever attended. I thought I’d lose a few fingers and toes while listening to the hour-plus of speakers, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, who were theoretically warming the crowd up for its march around the (other) White House.

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A crowd of State Department officials greeted Clinton with a standing ovation as she walked in to the first senior staff meeting she has convened since early December, according to those present. Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides, noting that life in Washington is often a "contact sport, sometimes even in your own home" then presented Clinton with a gift — a regulation white Riddell football helmet emblazoned with the State Department seal, several officials said.

She was also given a blue football jersey with "Clinton" and the number 112 — the record-breaking number of countries she has visited since becoming secretary of state — printed on the back. Aides said Clinton was delighted with the gifts but did not try either of them on and the meeting turned to matters of national security and diplomacy.

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Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Clinton is resting at home but is speaking with senior staff and is, quote, "sounding terrific, upbeat and raring to go."

She says Clinton looks forward to returning to her Washington office next week, although a date hasn't been set. Doctors have advised her to avoid international travel for now.

Clinton was discharged Wednesday from a New York hospital, three days after doctors diagnosed a blood clot during a follow-up exam stemming from a concussion she suffered in December. Doctors are treating the clot with blood thinners and say they expect she will fully recover.

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" Who could say no to a million kids? Not even Congress," suggested the One Million Child March Facebook group, which has already garnered nearly 3,000 "likes" within hours of its founding.

A highly tentative date for the event has been set for Feb. 17.

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Here’s the agenda:

…tax reform that goes way beyond individuals and rates; much deeper Social Security and Medicare changes than currently envisioned; quick movement on trade agreements, including a proposed one with Europe; an energy policy that exploits the oil and gas boom; and allowing foreign-born students with science expertise to stay here and start businesses.

Do this and there could be not an economic recovery — but a boom, many argue.

Really?  I gotta say, I don’t see it.  In fact, pretty much everything on that list is a) conventional wisdom in DC and b) largely a distraction from where I think the evidence is actually pointing, as I’ll stress in a moment.  To be clear, raising more tax revenues and slowing health care costs are critical in terms of getting our long-term debt situation under control, and immigration reform that provides a path for folks here to stay is also a great idea.  A domestic energy boom is already underway and trade agreements do squat for growth (which doesn’t mean they’re not worth it—but their growth potential is hugely overhyped).

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For instance, Logan writes, the debate over Iran starts and ends with the assumption that the country must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons at all costs. It's almost impossible to find inside voices who question that underlying assumption, even though there’s plenty of evidence that it would be possible to contain a nuclear Iran at reasonable costs. Meanwhile, President Obama made few major adjustments to George W. Bush’s national security apparatus. Mitt Romney, who disagreed with Obama on just about everything, could find almost nothing substantive that he would do differently from Obama on strategic national security issues. On Israel, China, Russia or the need for a massive American military empire there is a clear, bipartisan foreign policy consensus; dissenting voices are dismissed almost out of hand as unserious, so most people who hold them stay quiet to stay on the inside.

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The latest in the long list of Republican rape apologists to speak about rape and abortion is John Koster, the Republican nominee for Washington’s 1st district. When asked about his opposition to abortion in the cases of rape and incest, Koster first noted that incest is extremely rare because forcing only a couple of 12 year olds to bare their father’s baby is no big deal and everyone should just calm down about it already.

Koster then when on to call rape a “thing” more than once:

“But the rape thing...you know I know a woman who was raped and kept her child but gave it up for adoption, she doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent…But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?”

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