Close your books, America. It's time for a pop quiz.
Do you believe Barack Obama is:
a) The best of presidents? A blogger who goes by the name Troubadour on Daily Kos, Brian Altmeyer, pretty much makes the claim in a recent post: "Barack Obama is either the best President we've ever had, or more humbly, equal to the best Presidents we've ever had (and thereby one of their number)."
The morning's major news, if all goes as planned, will be the 8:30 a.m. ET release of the March jobs and unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to Reuters, economists expect we'll hear that the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent and that private and public employers added about 200,000 jobs to their payrolls. The jobless rate's recent peak was 10 percent, in October 2009.
A Swedish man got tired of drivers speeding through his neighborhood. Henrik Ismarker sent a Twitter message to the Stockholm police asking them to step up enforcement. The next day, according to a local news organization, police were on duty. A cop pulled over a speeding car, and the driver turned out to be the very same guy who had complained.
Robert Manne, one of Australia's top public intellectuals and journalists, tells me the first thing to know about The Australian.
"It is by far the most detailed paper in regard to national politics," he says. "And it's also at a higher level of analysis, in general, than the other papers."
Second, he says, the paper is "smarter, sharper" than the others — with more resources and fewer profit demands to boot. Manne explains why:
Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about how the Republican budget by Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan compares with President Obama's proposal. The plans show differences on spending, taxes and dealing with the government.
According to The Consumerist, the video game publisher received more than 250,000 reader votes for that distinction. It was singled out for deliberately holding back video game content so it can charge for it later, and for buying up small video game companies to squash competition.
Average prices for cars are at an all-time high, reflecting increased demand and a healthier economy. The average car price has gone up nearly $2,000 since last year. Even though car prices are higher, buyers haven't shied away from picking up a new car.
Movie maker Morgan Spurlock, director and star of Supersize Me and The Greatest Story Ever Sold, has a documentary opening on the West Coast this weekend: Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope. It introduces a group of determined popular culture enthusiasts who've come to San Diego's enormous convention in the summer of 2010 to pursue their different but connected dreams.
