Aboard the Bush Plane  —  Britain's Leading Historian on the Genius of Obama's Unsoaring Inaugural  —  Full Coverage: Obama Inauguration, Bush Farewell  —  Blogs and Stories  —  In a Daily Beast exclusive, a former Bush advisor files his account—and his photos—from aboard the former president's flight back to Texas.

A major Bush rule gets scrapped by Obama  —  (CNN) — It's the same Oval Office.  The same desk.  Even the same curtains.  But President Obama has already made one major change: Go through eight years of White House photos, and you won't find one of former President Bush in the Oval Office without his jacket on.

President Barack Obama willing to negotiate with Iran ‘without preconditions’  —  The new Obama administration is willing to talk to Iran “without preconditions” and will work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons, the White House said today.  —  The Obama foreign policy agenda that appeared …

Experts say Obama should retake the oath  —  (01-21) 04:00 PST Washington - — Several constitutional lawyers said President Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts.  —  The 35-word oath is explicitly prescribed in the Constitution …

Mitchell As Envoy Could Split Center … The expected appointment of a special envoy to breathe new life into Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could split the pro-Israel center while pleasing the Jewish left and outraging the right.  The schism could be particularly deep if …

Obama Will Get His Blackberry  —  President Barack Obama is going to get his blackberry.  —  On Monday, a government agency that the Obama administration — but that is probably the National Security Agency — added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package. …

Mohammed Jawad and Obama's efforts to suspend military commissions  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  This is a very good and important step — not only because of its substance, but also because it was something Obama did almost immediately, even before his first full day in office:

Justices Reject Pornography Law  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton.

DAILY SHOW - WHAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BUSH & OBAMA?  (VIDEO)  —  Tonight Jon Stewart rightly pointed out that there really are no differences when it comes to philosophy about national security, and he demonstrates it with sequential video clips, comparing Barack's speech with past Bush speeches.

Dutch MP faces anti-Islam charges  —  A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.  —  Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Holder confirmation delayed  —  Eric Holder's confirmation vote before the Judiciary Committee will be delayed for up to a week as Republican senators continue to press him on his views about interrogation and other Bush administration intelligence methods.  —  The Judiciary Committee …

President Obama's First Day  —  President Obama reported to work at 8:35 a.m. on Wednesday, walking into the Oval Office for the first time as the nation's chief executive.  Jeff Zeleny is following Mr. Obama's first day on the job.  —  If so, perhaps the first official entry came this afternoon …

Judge Obama on Performance Alone  —  Let's not celebrate more ordinary speeches.  —  With the noon sun high over the U.S. Capitol, Barack Obama yesterday took the oath of office to become president of the United States.  On one level, it was a simple matter of political process — the symbolic transfer of power.

My “To Don't” List for the Right  —  The only thing worse than bad winners are sore losers, and we've had enough of them for the past eight years.  So with that in mind, in the wake of today's historic inauguration, here's my Handbook For The Loyal Opposition, 2009 edition - a “To Don't List,” if you will.

McCain Lends Hillary Clinton a Helping Hand  —  Patrick Yoest reports on Congress.  —  Sen. John McCain unexpectedly lent a hand to Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Senate floor today, calling for her quick confirmation as secretary of State without a lengthy roll-call vote.

“No Words That Will Be Quoted In A Hundred Years”  —  Packer on yesterday's proceedings: … Allow me: she was pretty pedestrian (but better than Aretha).  —  Mulling over the address yesterday, I felt in retrospect that the restraint and classical tropes of the speech were deliberate and wise.

Treasury Secretary Nominee Urges Changes to Current Bailout Plan  —  Timothy Geithner Apologizes for Failing to Pay $43,000 in Taxes  —  Timothy F. Geithner, President Obama's nominee to be secretary of the Treasury, said today that the economic bailout program crafted by the Bush administration …

Senate Progressive Media Summit Liveblog  —  digg it  —  Marcy and I are at the Hart Senate Office Building with Atrios, Jerome, Bowers, David Corn, Mike Rodgers, Natasha Chart, Chris Hayes, Brownsox and others listening to various Senators come in and talk about their issues.

Supreme Court revokes ban on Arab parties from national elections  —  Israel's Supreme court overruled on Wednesday a parliamentary panel which had decided to bar Israeli Arab parties from running in next month's parliamentary election.  —  The court issued its decision in response …

Worshipping Obama  —  Churlish right-wingers will likely keep complaining about the “cult of Obama.”  I won't indulge in that easy cynicism.  I will note, however, that as I stumbled home, tired and scotch-afflicted for the first time in my life, I talked to one of my best friends …

Wall Street Journal Receives Envelopes Containing White Powder  —  The Wall Street Journal received more than a dozen envelopes containing an unknown white powder, and New York City police and hazardous materials crews are investigating the matter, a spokesman said.

Schumer's $3-4 Trillion Horror Story  —  While questioning Treasury nominee Tim Geithner at his confirmation hearing this morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer said he spent some time calling around Wall Street this weekend, and what he heard was that if the government wants to clean out all the toxic assets …

Is dissent still patriotic?  —  Do all Americans truly have a yearning to fundamentally “remake” our nation?  There must be a subversive minority out there that still believes the United States — even with its imperfections and sporadic recessions — is, in context, still a wildly prosperous and free country worth preserving.

America's drinking problem  —  For obvious reasons, I'm a huge fan of Glenn Reynolds' policy suggestion for Barack Obama: … A drinking age of 21 is an embarassment to a supposedly liberty-loving nation.  If you are old enough to enlist, and old enough to vote, you are old enough to swill cheap beer in the company of your peers.

Deleted scenes: Chapter 1  —  A grand strategy grading sheet  —  On articulation, President Bush gets a “T” for “trying”—as in, too hard.  As Jacob Weisberg argues in his 2008 book, The Bush Tragedy, George W. Bush was determined to succeed where his father had failed in articulating …

Europe's Carbon Market Collapses—Should We Worry?  —  Now and again, cap-and-trade systems for carbon emissions get misunderstood—and I think this is one of those times.  Let's review: The idea is that the government sets a nationwide cap on greenhouse-gas emissions and then auctions off …

WHouse stops pending Bush regulations for review  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's new administration ordered all federal agencies and departments on Tuesday to stop any pending regulations until they can be reviewed …