Obama to Discuss Guantanamo With Victims of Terror Attacks, Their Relatives  —  President Obama will meet today with victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the USS Cole bombing and their families as his administration reviews how to handle detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

At retreat, Obama goes on the offensive  —  WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A fired-up Barack Obama ditched his TelePrompter to rally House Democrats and rip Republican opponents of his recovery package Thursday night - at one point openly mocking the GOP for failing to follow through on promises of bipartisanship.

You'll Never Get This 21 Minutes Of Your Life Back  —  Instapundit, Malkin, and Joe the Plumber discuss politics for PJTV.  —  There is so much to love about this, I don't know where to start, but certainly Joe the Plumber bemoaning the lack of spending cuts and general program cuts in the stimulus bill was a highlight.

On the Edge  —  A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery.  Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting …

CBS Poll: Support For Stimulus Falls  —  Survey Finds Half The Country Backs Bill, But Support Is Down From January; Obama Seen As Working For Bipartisanship  —  (CBS) Slightly more than half the country approves of President Obama's $800 billion-plus stimulus package, a new CBS News poll finds.

CBO: Obama stimulus harmful over long haul  —  President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.  —  CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation …

Let's Start Brand New Banks  —  A clean slate would keep TARP money away from bad banks.  —  Everyone agrees that the United States urgently needs a few good banks.  Turning bad banks into good banks is a difficult and risky way to get them.  It's simpler and safer to start entirely new banks.

The Fierce Urgency of Pork  —  “A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe.”  —  Catastrophe, mind you.  So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared “we have chosen hope over fear.”  Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

ABC: Obama Is Hypocritical For Limiting Wall Street Pay While Having A ‘Lavish Lifestyle’  —  Yesterday, President Obama instituted a pay cap on bailed out businesses after it was revealed that Wall Street doled out an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses last year.

Wanted: Personal Economic Trainers.  Apply at Capitol.  —  As long as we're about to spend gazillions to stimulate the economy, I'd like to suggest we throw in another $53.5 million for a cause dear to all business journalists: economic literacy.  And what better place to start than right here in Washington.

Resignations at the RNC  —  A Republican source says newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has requested the resignations of the entire RNC staff and signaled a dramatic turnover at the party organization.  —  Some aides may be retained, though Republicans …

Possible Link Between Dam and China Quake  —  BEIJING — Nearly nine months after a devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, left 80,000 people dead or missing, a growing number of American and Chinese scientists are suggesting that the calamity was triggered by a four-year-old reservoir built close …

WHAT'S THE RUSH?  —  As Paul notes below, neither Barack Obama nor any other Democrat has even tried to explain why the Dems' pork-fest, which appropriates hundreds of billions of dollars years in the future, needs to be rushed through the Senate in the dead of night as an “emergency.”

'There's no reason only poor people should get malaria': The moment Bill Gates released jar of mosquitoes at packed conference … It was a show-stopping move by any standards.  —  Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft and a renowned philanthropist, let loose a swarm of mosquitoes …

My Preferred Fiscal Stimulus  —  Regular readers of this blog have a pretty good sense of my policy preferences.  But for those occasional readers who might be stopping by, let me reiterate what I would do right now if I were the fiscal king.  —  I would institute an immediate …

Lords warn against rise of CCTV  —  The steady expansion of the “surveillance society” risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.  —  The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive …

Obama taps right, left for econ advice  —  President Barack Obama plans to name conservative economist Martin Feldstein, a recent critic of his stimulus plan, to serve on a special panel advising him on economic policy.  —  Feldstein will join an array of prominent CEOs and labor leaders …

Senators Go Wild!, Approve House Flipping Subsidy, Media Don't Notice  —  The reporters covering the stimulus have been so busy editorializing against it that they haven't had time to pay attention to what Congress is doing.  Tonight Congress approved the Isakson amendment which gives $15,000 …

Japan's Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson  —  HAMADA, Japan — The Hamada Marine Bridge soars majestically over this small fishing harbor, so much larger than the squid boats anchored below that it seems out of place.  —  And it is not just the bridge.  Two decades of generous public works spending …

White House Commerce Decision Infuriates House GOP  —  House Republicans are incensed about the prospect of the Census Bureau director reporting directly to the White House.  —  A senior White House official said the Obama administration intends to circumvent Commerce Secretary nominee Judd Gregg …

Watchdog: Treasury overpaid for bank stocks  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - A government watchdog group says the federal government overpaid for stocks and other assets from financial institutions under its $700 billion rescue program.  —  The chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel …

How Village Voice Media Uses Digg to Game Their Traffic Numbers  —  This is the story about a girl that's actually a dude who's brought in 3.8 - 19.4 million visitors* to Village Voice Media websites by gaming Digg.  —  Village Voice Media appears to be running an organized reciprocal Digg …

Frigid temperatures take WNY by surprise  —  Talk about great timing.  —  Buffalo State College hosts the national teach-in on Global Warming Situations today — a day the local temperature bottomed out at minus 6 degrees.  —  No evidence of global warming here, at least not this morning …

Dallas hardware store wants George W. Bush to be its door greeter  —  Former presidents get a pretty good retirement package, but there's nothing wrong with getting out of the house and earning a little extra scratch.  If George W. Bush wants some useful occupation for those long …