GOP defies Obama overtures  —  House Republicans have proposed an alternative that leaders say would create 6.2 million jobs for only $478 billion.  —  “What Member can't go back his or her District and explain: Rather than voting for a bloated bill, ... I voted for an alternative …

My Bipartisan Stimulus  —  Let's cut taxes, as I want, and spend more, as Obama would like.  —  There's a serious debate in this country as to how best to end the recession.  The average recession will last five to 11 months; the average recovery will last six years.

White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code  —  WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket.  There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

Obama Seeks Accord With Military on Iraq  —  WASHINGTON — As President Obama moves to redefine the nation's mission in Iraq, he faces a difficult choice: Is he willing to abandon a campaign promise or risk a rupture with the military?  Or can he finesse the difference?

Obama Signs First Piece of Legislation Into Law  —  Lilly Ledbetter Act Makes It Easier for Workers to Sue for Pay Discrimination  —  President Obama this morning signed a law that expanded the time frame in which workers can sue for discrimination they have experienced based on gender, race, national origin or religion.

With Al Due Respect, We're Doomed  —  The lawmakers gazed in awe at the figure before them.  The Goracle had seen the future, and he had come to tell them about it.  —  What the Goracle saw in the future was not good: temperature changes that “would bring a screeching halt to human civilization …

Bad  —  As the Obama administration apparently prepares to launch Hankie Pankie II — buying troubled assets from banks at prices higher than they will fetch on the open market — it occurred to me that an updated version of an old Communist-era joke may be appropriate: under Bush …

Blagojevich delivers own closing argument  —  Senate President John Cullerton said the trial will resume at 1 p.m. with House prosecutor David Ellis giving his 30-minute rebuttal.  For the next hour or so, the Senate Democrats and Republicans will meet in separate, private closed-door meetings.

Palin, Obama to share stage  —  In what could be a preview of the 2012 presidential race, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama will share a stage together this Saturday night in Washington, D.C., Politico has learned.  —  The Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential nominee …

Obama Made a Rash Decision on Gitmo  —  The president will soon realize that governing involves hard choices.  —  During his first week as commander in chief, President Barack Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay and terminated the CIA's special authority to interrogate terrorists.

Our economic appetite  —  Nearly eighty years ago, John Maynard Keynes did the math on economic growth and concluded that within a few generations—by the time his peers' great-grandchildren came of age in, say, the 2000's—the persistent economic problem of too-scarce resources and too-few goods …

Military Judge Denies Obama Request to Suspend Hearings at Guantanamo  —  A military judge in Guantanamo Bay has denied the Obama administration's request to delay proceedings for 120 days in the case of a detainee accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship …

The Great Gay Hope  —  PORTLAND, Ore. — The politician was in his 40s, a rising star, a man with the pilot light of ambition burning bright.  The intern was just 17, sorting through emotions about his sexuality, a boy who said he needed someone to mentor him in the political world.

Bush War on Roquefort Raises a Stink in France  —  ROQUEFORT-SUR-SOULZON This seems an unlikely spot to fight a trade war.  —  A village of 600 souls in a remote part of southern France, Roquefort clings precariously to the side of Combalou Rock, a promontory overlooking a deep valley …

Obama's Open Records Pledge Tested Over Citigroup Guarantees  —  Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. government guarantees on securities totaling $419 billion for bank bailouts provide an early test of President Barack Obama's pledge to be open with taxpayers about what they have at risk in the credit crisis.

The power of Obama's hand  —  Joe Lieberman has felt it.  So has Joe the Plumber.  —  It's the Obama Touch — the squeeze on the biceps, the pat on the shoulder or the tap on the back that signals the displeasure of the commander in chief.  Let others turn on the deep freeze or lose their cool when they're annoyed.

REVEALED: PINCH'S NEW FLAME  —  CAROLINE Kennedy is innocent - she did not have an affair with New York Times publisher Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr. The rumor that their friendship was the “marriage problem” referred to by aides to Gov. Paterson couldn't be true - because the divorced Sulzberger already has a girlfriend.