Happy Thursday!

Hello everybody and welcome to the Shuster "Daily Briefing" for March 26, 2009. Our computers were down for a good part of the afternoon. So, I apologize that this is going out late and that it may be a bit shorter than usual. Our star D.C. intern Zach Gold helped me put this together under some difficult tech circumstances for both of us.

First of all, we have a new "anthem" for our show. The music at the top will stay the same. But, we will bump out to some commercials with a terrific new song written to us by a musician named Jonathan Mann. Take a look.

Jonathan writes a song every day, many of them with a political theme. We will chat with him live in our final segment!!!

Our show is going to begin tonight with a taste of today's presidential first... the first internet town hall in White House history. President Obama conducted the town hall this afternoon.

The President is pushing hard for his budget agenda. And on that issue, the Democratic party is now engaged in something of a Civil war. "Civil" is the key. It hasn't gotten outwardly nasty. But, the progressive group MoveOn.org is now running radio ads in the districts of centrist Democrats who have expressed reservations about the President's budget.

In the meantime, Republicans have started their own GOP civil war. House Republicans introduced a counter budget proposal but Senate Republicans refuse.

We will chat with Rep. Allyson Schwartz,D-.Pa. And then talk with Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyo.

In our second segment, Salon journalist Joe Conason has a terrific piece about the off-shore tax havens many companies are using to lower what they pay to Uncle Sam.

In "Hypocrisy Watch," Karl Rove is at it again. I was struck by the line in this column where he criticized President Obama as "one who seems to think that repeating a false argument will make it true."

In our back half, some of the 9-11 families who are outraged about the Ground Zero rebuilding debacle will be on the show. They want President Obama to get involved and will deliver a message for him about the problems live on our air.

And we will finish, as we said earlier, with Jonathan Mann. Talk about a talented guy... sheesh.

Our "Quote of the Day" is from former President Harry Truman:

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."

Thanks in advance for watching tonight's show. Follow us on Twitter throughout.

"1600" airs at 6 p.m. in Washington, D.C.; 5 p.m. in Little Rock; 4 p.m. in Santa Fe; and 3 p.m. in Oakland.

Shuster