The Sacking of Bill Kristol  —  Why The New York Times Sacked Bill Kristol by Scott Horton  —  Blogs and Stories  —  The famous neoconservative published his final New York Times column today.  Scott Horton reports on real reasons the Gray Lady didn't renew his contract.

Woodward Suggests Future Scandal For Obama White House  —  Appearing on the Chris Matthews Show Sunday, Bob Woodward offered a rather cryptic prediction of scandal that will plague the Obama White House.  —  “This may be tantalizing but vague,” said the Washington Post scribe.

Geithner Wins Confirmation  —  WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner was sworn in as secretary of the Treasury on Monday evening, confirmed by a Senate majority that concluded that his experience in government and finance outweighed concerns about recent disclosures of some $34,000 in past tax delinquencies.

President Obama Does First Formal TV Interview as President with Al-Arabiya  —  As special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell heads off to the region to begin work on negotiating a cease fire between Israel and the Palestinians, President Obama has sat for his first formal TV interview …

Cheney's Veil Lifted on Vice President's Residence  —  Hope and change has come to Google Maps.  The official residence of the vice president, obscured until Dick Cheney's last days in office and residence, now shines in satellite sunlight.  —  A reader tipped us off that Google Maps …

Obama begins reversing Bush climate policies  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama began reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration on Monday, clearing the way for new rules to force auto makers to produce …

Prosecuting torture: ‘Hard to believe’  —  Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, made plenty of people uncomfortable when he asserted, flatly, in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that water-boarding is torture.

Politico's Thrush invents Pelosi controversy  —  Glenn Thrush gets awfully creative in promoting the Right's attacks on Nancy Pelosi over her support for public funding for contraceptives.  —  Thrush writes: … Wow, really?  “One of her biggest political threats of the 111th” Congress?

How badly did Gaza poison the well?  —  The Israeli attack on Gaza during the last weeks of the Bush administration looks more than ever like Bush's “last gift” to Israel and to the region — carried out during the transition, with no American attempt to intervene, ending immediately before Obama's inauguration.

Analysis: More power for police, more immunity for prosecutors  —  Analysis  —  In opinions so spare that the Supreme Court did not labor long to produce them, the Justices on Monday unanimously expanded the control that police can exercise at the scene of roadside traffic stops, and …

Obama Administration To Engage In “Direct Diplomacy” With Iran  —  UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama's administration will engage in “direct diplomacy” with Iran, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.  —  Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution …

More to It Than Meets the Eye  —  The hidden coherence of Obama's recovery plan.  —  It grieves me to say so, but President Obama's conservative critics just don't get it.  The new president has put forward a plan for economic recovery that is more coherent than they are willing to admit.

Fiscal Stimulus, Fiscal Inflation, or Fiscal Fallacies?  —  “Fiscal stimulus” is the proposition that by borrowing money and spending it, the government can raise the overall state of the economy, raising output and lowering unemployment.  Can it work?  Do the arguments for it make any sense?

Senate Passes Bill to Delay Transition to Digital Television  —  The Senate last night approved a four-month delay in the nation's transition to all-digital television to give consumers more time to prepare for the switch.  —  Broadcasters are scheduled to stop airing analog broadcasts Feb. 17.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  —  CBO has released a cost estimate for H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was introduced today in the House of Representatives.  A link to the full cost estimate can be found here.

House Judiciary chair subpoenas Karl Rove  —  Subpoena continues long-running battle over firing of U.S. attorneys  —  WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee chairman subpoenaed former White House adviser Karl Rove on Monday to testify about the Bush administration's firing of U.S. attorneys …

Anonymous Attack On GOP Chair Candidate Uses Fake Newspaper Cover  —  Uh oh — it looks like viral email dirty tricks (okay, parodies) are now entering into the race for Republican National Committee chair.  —  This image of a parodied USA Today cover is being anonymously blasted around among Republicans …

BEHIND THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS  —  On Thursday, President Barack Obama consigned to history the worst excesses of the Bush Administration's “war on terror.”  One of the four executive orders Obama signed effectively cancelled seven years of controversial Justice Department legal opinions authorizing methods …

JUST PLANE DESPICABLE  —  ‘RESCUED’ CITI BUYING $50M JET  —  Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed.  —  Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas …

Gov't worried about media interest in Obama's aunt  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - The Homeland Security Department still is requiring high-level approval before federal immigration agents can arrest fugitives, a rule quietly imposed by the Bush administration days before the election of Barack Obama …

NY Sen. - How to Primary Gillibrand and Win  —  Hey, you know something else about Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that screams “hypocrite” regarding her anti-immigrant crusade?  —  Her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, is a British national.  —  You can't make this stuff up.

Fox Shows Photos Of Muslim Men: ‘Would You Want A Guy Like This Living In Your Backyard?’  —  Since President Obama's announcement last week that he would shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center within one year, Fox News has done its best to frighten its viewers about the rule:

Why aren't there better surrogates coming from President Obama's administration to discuss the stimulus plan?  —  Fortunately Paul Krugman has been getting on the air to beat back nonsensical discussions and bogus claims being made about President Obama's big stimulus package from the likes of the Sam Donaldsons.