"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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Palin also tweeted:

[embedtweet id="328346466567479296"]

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Here's Obama's speech:

And Conan's:

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Watch:

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Topping the biotech industry’s propaganda playlist will no doubt be this old familiar tune: that requiring retailers to verify non-GMO ingredients in order to label them will be burdensome and costly, and the additional cost will be passed on to consumers who are already struggling to feed their families.

Playing to consumers’ fears of higher food costs makes good strategic sense, especially in tough economic times. But the argument doesn’t hold water, say food manufacturers and retailers who already have systems in place for verifying non-GMO, as well as rBGH-free, trans fat-free, country of origin and fair trade. The system involves using chain-of-custody, legally binding affidavits, not expensive testing.

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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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Jeb Bush

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush made a full-fledged assault on the Sunday shows today attempting to clarify his position on immigration. Last week he said there should not be a “path to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants, a view he expressed in his new book, “Immigration Wars,” which was written before Mitt Romney got thumped in November and the Republican Party immediately decided that its hard-line immigration stance was not going to fly given current demographic trends. On "Face the Nation," Bush calibrated his stance to bring it more in line with mainstream GOP opinion or what mainstream GOP opinion could become:

I haven't changed. The book was written to try to create a blueprint for conservatives that were reluctant to embrace comprehensive reform, to give them perhaps a set of views that they could embrace. I support a path to legalization or citizenship so long as the path for people that have been waiting patiently is easier and costs less, the legal entrance to our country, than illegal entrance.

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As you know, I last attended the Gridiron dinner two years ago.  Back then, I addressed a number of topics — a dysfunctional Congress, a looming budget crisis, complaints that I don’t spend enough time with the press.  It’s funny, it seems like it was just yesterday. (Laughter.)

The transcript, when read sober, was hardly more inspiring. Parentheticals asserting laughter and applause appeared on the official White House transcript and could not be independently verified:

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The role of the teacher gets bigger,

In ways that I simply can't figger.

Teach reading and writing,

And make math exciting,

But also be quick on the trigger?

Michael Cotler
Maplewood, N.J.

Bill Maher and The Donald are feuding,

For simian parents alluding.

With ego maligned,

Trump wants Maher fined,

When it's really the apes should be suing.

Bink Olney
Spokane, Wash.

There was a was a dreaded sequestration,

That menaced the fate of our nation.

So with courage and grace,

Congress hastened the pace,

Of their mutual masturbation!

John Gately
Cambridge, MA

Send entries to limericks@salon.com along with your name and hometown. The deadline is Friday at noon eastern and we’ll publish our favorites on Sunday. Poems may be edited for clarity or scansion. Good luck!

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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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But that didn't stop dozens of people from turning out Wednesday — in flannel and suits, ponytails and hemp necklaces — to find out more about becoming Washington state's official marijuana consultant.

As officials figure out how to regulate the state's newly legal marijuana, they're hiring an adviser to fill in the gaps of the typical bureaucrat's education: how cannabis is best grown, dried, tested, labeled, packaged, regulated and cooked into brownies.

The Liquor Control Board, the agency charged with developing rules for the marijuana industry, reserved a convention center hall for a state bidding expert to take questions about the position and the hiring process.

"Since it's not unlikely with this audience, would a felony conviction preclude you from this contract?" asked Rose Habib, an analytical chemist from a marijuana testing lab in Missoula, Mont.

The answer: It depends. A pot-related conviction is probably fine, but a "heinous felony," not so much, responded John Farley, a procurement coordinator with the Liquor Control Board.

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Yet, Republicans—and too many moderators—deny that these cuts occurred.  Just yesterday, Ezra quotesPaul Ryan as saying the cuts don’t count because they came out of “the last session” of Congress, though as Ez points out, so did the tax increases.  So if they really want to start at zero…

Obviously, this is all more posturing and understandable, I guess, in a negotiating framework where you signal intransigence to your opponent.  But the cuts are real and they’re showing up in the economy, as per this AM’s WaPo re the defense contractor General Dynamics:

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