Daschle Knew of Tax Issues Over Car Use Last June  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's choice for health secretary, Tom Daschle, was aware as early as last June that he might have to pay back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a private equity firm, but did not inform …

Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool  —  The role of the CIA's controversial prisoner-transfer program may expand, intelligence experts say.  —  Reporting from Washington — The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered.  Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits.

Robert E. Lee, confused  —  Obama appears tonight at the Alfalfa Dinner, a gathering of Washington's elite with Confederate roots, a fact on which the president remarked, according to excerpts from his prepared remarks:

Another temporary misunderstanding  —  Brad DeLong links to Megan McArdle saying something wrong about the effects of a temporary increase in government spending.  But he fails to note that it's not just wrong, it's 180 degrees wrong: a temporary increase in government spending …

SHLAES STRIKES AGAIN.... Over the summer, the Washington Post ran a piece from conservative writer Amity Shlaes, explaining that the national economy was fine, there was no recession, and that Phil Gramm was right to call us a “nation of whiners.”  —  Undeterred, in early December …

Recession Can Change a Way of Life  —  AS job losses mount and bailout costs run into the trillions, the social costs of the economic downturn become clearer.  The primary question, to be sure, is what can be done to shorten or alleviate these bad times.  But there is also a broader set …

Playbook - Presented by STARBUCKS - Newsweek's cover calls Afghanistan 'OBAMA'S VIETNAM' - BULLETIN: Adam Putnam leaving Congress  —  President Obama, at last night's closed-press Alfalfa Dinner, on the delay in getting a dog: ‘The labradoodle we picked has some problems with back taxes.’

Obama remakes political rules  —  Three months after his election, President Barack Obama continues to remake the political landscape—and there's no clearer example than Friday's election of Michael Steele as the Republican National Committee's first black chairman.

The Nativists Are Restless  —  The relentlessly harsh Republican campaign against immigrants has always hidden a streak of racialist extremism.  Now after several high-water years, the Republican tide has gone out, leaving exposed the nativism of fringe right-wingers clinging to what they hope will be a wedge issue.

The Assassination of Protein Wisdom by the Coward Roger L Simon  —  Were there a men's cologne on the market called Schadenfreude, I'd be judiciously dabbing some on right now, savoring its woody musk.  I know—it's so wrong of me.  But sometimes feeling so wrong feels so right.  You girls know what I mean.

Obama and FEMA Leave Americans to Die in Kentucky  —  I guess what with Kentucky being a red state the heartless Barack Obama and FEMA can't be bothered helping the suffering Americans trying to cope with a massive ice storm that has left them powerless. … Can you imagine the media reaction if this were George W. Bush?