The Wednesday line is open early on account of all the brewing tornadoes. Why not start with a sing-a-long (above)? Also:
* MARK PRYOR HEARD FROM: U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor says voted against Paul Ryan’s plan to wreck Medicare and Medicaid and cut taxes on the wealthy. Sen. John Boozman? He was with Ryan all the way. Said Pryor before the vote:
A budget reflects our priorities as a nation, and I strongly believe that caring for the elderly should remain a core value of America. The Ryan plan takes a different approach, destroying Medicare as we know it. Dismantling this safety net for our seniors is unacceptable, but providing tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans on the backs of our seniors is inexcusable. I will oppose this plan.
The Senate vote against the Ryan budget plan was 57-40. Five Republicans, not Dr. No, joined Democrats in beating it.
* BRUTALITY COMPLAINT: A federal lawsuit claims mistreatment of a female inmate in the Saline County jail. She says she was beaten by officers in an incident that began over her refusal to remove a tongue ring.
* JOBS FOR ARKANSAS: Porter Briggs, who lived in Little Rock years ago, is returning to the city and bringing with him headquarters of his A Briggs Passport and Visa Expeditors. He already had a service center in Hope, along with 17 offices around the U.S., and with the HQ will eventually employ about 40 in the state. He’ll have an open house Thursday with AEDC chief Maria Haley at 5611 Kavanaugh.
* CUTTING THE CHEESE: Teresa Oelke, who heads the Koch-funded AFP lobbying organization in Arkansas and who trotted out attack videomaker Andrew Breitbart before a small crowd of teabaggers in Little Rock today, took Breitbart to the Capital Hotel bar afterward. She Twittered that he loved the pimento cheese. A single thing we can agree on. Wonder if she talked to him about the stimulus money her family construction company has received as she bitched about how bad the stimulus program was. Some good hypocrisy video in that, Andy.
* SCHULTZ SUSPENDED: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz will get a week of unpaid suspension for calling Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.” She’s getting some mileage from it at Schultz’s deserved expense.
* TGI GENE LYONS: Don’t wait until Thursday to read Gene Lyons. Here he is in Salon, with yet another reminder about the idiocy of supply side economics\.
* NUMBERS DON’T LIE: From Talking Points Memo:
![chart.JPG](https://media1.fdncms.com/arktimes/imager/were-over-the-hump/u/original/1747294/1306360709-chart.jpg)