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March 08, 2012 | | WARNING Not content to let Republicans have all the Super Tuesday fun, Team Obama is set to unleash the irrepressible VP on the heartland. Beginning next week, Biden will deliver four major speeches in various battleground states. The Daily Beast's Michelle Cottle on the pros and cons of dispatching Joe—whose blue-collar cred is often overshadowed by his prodigious ability to generate gaffes. WATCH OUT Apple didn't get to bask in the glory of its new iPad for long. The Justice Department has warned the company—along with five of the biggest U.S. publishers—that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. The case alleges that just before the release of the first iPad, Apple worked with publishers to adopt a retail model in which the publishers set a price and Apple took a 30 percent cut of sales. The move was a reaction against Amazon, which had frightened publishers by selling e-books at $9.99. After Apple adopted the pricing model, the publishers were able to demand a similar one from Amazon. SOUTHBOUND The Gentleman From Georgia is counting on a little Southern hospitality as his campaign straggles at the end of the Republican pack after picking up only one Super Tuesday state. His campaign on Wednesday deep-sixed plans to stump in Kansas, and spokesman R.C. Hammond admitted that it's going to be a long slog from here, telling reporters, "Everything between Spartanburg all the way to Texas, those all need to go for Gingrich." Yet the campaign will soldier on, Hammond said, even as Rick Santorum's campaign and a pro-Santorum super PAC breathe down the former speaker's neck, urging him to duck out of the race post haste and not drive Republicans into Mitt Romney's arms. DEFECTION Syria's deputy oil minister says he's leaving Bashar al Assad's government and joining the opposition, the most high-profile defection since the revolt began. In a YouTube video, Abdo Hussameddin announced his resignation from the regime he's served for the last 33 years. "I am joining the revolution of the people who reject injustice and the brutal campaign of the regime," he said, adding, "I tell the regime, which claims to own the country, you have nothing but the footprint of the tank driven by your barbarism to kill innocent people." Meanwhile, United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said the Baba Amro district in Homs is "devastated" and looks entirely abandoned. DISTURBING The number of hate groups operating in the United States continues to rise, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has tracked such groups for 30 years. Fed by dislike of President Obama, changing racial demographics, and the growing gap between rich and poor, the number of hate groups and antigovernment organizations grew to 1,018 last year. Antigay groups grew especially quickly, to 27 from 17 in 2010. Antigovernment and militia groups also grew quickly. The center found 1,274 of such groups, up from 824 last year. "They represent both a kind of right-wing populist rage and a left-wing populist rage that has gotten all mixed up in anger toward the government," said the director of the center. | | 
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