The stimulus is a fiscal straitjacket  —  The US debate over the fiscal stimulus is remarkable in its neglect of the medium term - that is, the budgetary challenges over a period of five to 10 years.  Neither the White House nor Congress has offered the public a scenario of how the proposed mega-deficits …

Aides Say Obama's Afghan Aims Elevate War  —  President Obama intends to adopt a tougher line toward President Hamid Karzai and focus more on waging war.

John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man, Dies at 76  —  John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit novels highlighted a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism so vast, protean and lyrical as to place him in the first rank of American authors …

Bill received $2M in foreign cash  —  Bill Clinton pulled down $5.7 million in speaking fees last year - almost entirely from foreign sources, including nearly $2.1 million after news circulated that Hillary Clinton was in line for Secretary of State.  —  Former President Clinton's globetrotting …

Backlash Against Bush Apparent in RNC  —  Many Members Seek New Chairman to Steer Party in a Different Direction  —  As they begin meeting in Washington today, many members of the Republican National Committee are focusing their ire against what they considered George W. Bush's anti-conservative policies …

James Hansen's Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic - Says Hansen ‘Embarrassed NASA’, ‘Was Never Muzzled’, & Models ‘Useless’  —  This is something I thought I'd never see.  This press release today is from the Senate EPW blog of Jame Inhofe.  The scientist making the claims …

Rove subpoena a new hurdle  —  Rep. John Conyers Jr.'s decision to subpoena Karl Rove to testify about the “politicization” of the Bush Justice Department has dumped a thorny legal question in the laps of President Barack Obama's White House lawyers before they've even had time to settle into their new jobs.

House GOP member to Rush: Back off  —  Rush Limbaugh may command a large following, but his caustic comments Monday about the GOP's congressional leadership have at least one Republican House member defending his colleagues and offering an unusually candid critique of the talk radio powerhouse and his fellow commentators.

The case for doing nothing  —  Most of Washington has reached quick consensus: Government must do something big to shock the economy, and it should cost between $800 billion and $900 billion.  —  But dissident economists and investment professionals offer a much different take: Most of Washington is dead wrong.

New York City fears return to 1970s  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - While many U.S. cities worry that their economies are deteriorating to the level of the 1930s Great Depression, New York City fears reliving a more recent decade that features strongly in city lore.

The Hysterical Style  —  If anyone wished to know what the baby-boomer generation would do when, in its full maturity, it hit its first self-created, big-time recession, I think we are seeing the hysterical results.  After two decades of unprecedented economic growth, rampant consumer spending …

President Obama leads US drive to topple Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe  —  Tim Reid in Washington and Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg  —  President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough …

Weasels vs. AIDS Relief  —  Some of the personnel stumbles of the Obama administration — including the abortive nomination of Bill Richardson as commerce secretary — resulted from incompetent vetting.  William Lynn's reception as deputy secretary of defense has been complicated by hypocrisy …

House Dems Strip Stimulus of $200 Million Provision to Refurbish National Mall  —  On Tuesday evening the House Rules Committee stripped two provisions from the stimulus package: the family planning money that President Obama personally lobbied Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to remove yesterday …

Redistricting is a hidden weapon for gloomy GOP  —  As Republicans brace for a 2010 election cycle that begins their long road back to the majority, they do have one major weapon in their arsenal — redistricting.  —  In 2000, Republicans used redistricting to solidify their majorities.

Troubled Times Bring Mini-Madoffs to Light  —  Their names lack the Dickensian flair of Bernie Madoff, and the money they apparently stole from investors was a small fraction of the $50 billion that Mr. Madoff allegedly lost of his clients' savings.  —  But the number of other people …

The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity  —  Have American teenagers gone wild?  —  Parents have worried for generations about changing moral values and risky behavior among young people, and the latest news seems particularly worrisome.  —  It came from the National Center for Health Statistics …

Stimulus Bill Near $900 Billion  —  Obama Agrees to Trim Alternative Minimum Tax; Lobbies Rush for Cut of the Pie  —  WASHINGTON — The U.S. economic stimulus package neared $900 billion in the Senate, as President Barack Obama wooed Republicans ahead of an expected House vote Wednesday.

Tammy Bruce Knocks Bush-Hating Diehards Who Just CAN'T MOVE ON (Video)  —  “It takes a liberal to suggest or to say directly that liberating 53,000,000 people is a war crime.  It takes a liberals to say that keeping this nation safe from another horrific attack by terrorists amounts to a war crime.”

What Obama's Nixing Family Planning Money Tells Us  —  President Barack Obama asked Comittee Chairman Henry Waxman to remove family planning money from the stimulus bill after Republicans objected.  This is on the heels of nixing bankruptcy reform because, well, Republicans objected.

How late is too late?  —  One big question in the stimulus discussion is how much we should be worried about lags in implementation.  Every economics textbook — mine too! — warns that stimulus based on public spending has a habit of peaking much too late, and therefore ends up being counterproductive.

Guess Who's Not Going Away?  —  Fully intent on pursuing national office in 2012, Sarah Palin has launched SarahPAC, to dole out money to Republican candidates.  Upcoming appearances include the RNC and C-PAC.  She's hired Washington power broker Robert Barnett to work a book deal …