The Rorschach plan (wonkish, or at least hard to read)  —  An old joke from my younger days: What do you get when you cross a Godfather with a deconstructionist?  Someone who makes you an offer you can't understand.  —  I found myself remembering that joke when trying to make sense of the Geithner financial rescue plan.

Administration Officials Met With Laughter At Bailout Briefing  —  Administration officials were greeted with sarcasm and laughter Monday night when they briefed lawmakers and congressional staff on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new financial-sector bailout project, according to people who were in the room.

Exit polls: Livni's Kadima leads in 2009 elections  —  Exit polls by Israel's three main television stations on Tuesday night showed Kadima as the leader in the 2009 general elections, with Likud coming a narrow second.  —  Channel 1, Channel 2 and Channel 10 polling of voters as they left …

Fox passes off GOP press release as its own research — typo and all … During the February 10 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott claimed that “the Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan — its version of it, anyway.  We thought we'd take a look back at the bill …

Eight arrested in Michael Phelps case  —  Updated:  —  COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - New details have emerged about a party where Olympic champion Michael Phelps was spotted.  —  On Feb. 2, a British tabloid published a picture of the 14-time Olympic gold medalist using a water pipe to smoke marijuana.

The Stimulus Bills: House vs. Senate  —  If all goes as expected today, the Senate will pass an $838 billion economic stimulus plan that follows a compromise reached over the weekend.  But before the package can go to President Obama's desk, the Senate will have to resolve differences with the House and its $819 billion version.

Nationalization After All  —  If I'm reading this correctly, Timothy Geithner's financial rescue plan actually might lead to bank nationalizations after all.  The key thing is provision 1b of fact sheet: … There's clearly a desire here to avoid nationalization.  A strong desire.

Iranian mob attacks moderate ex-president Mohammed Khatami on anniversary  —  Iran's former president was set upon by an angry stick-wielding mob today amid celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on the streets of Tehran.  —  The attack on Mohammed Khatami came …

How The World Almost Came To An End At 2PM On September 18  —  LiveLeak has caught a scary moment of previously undisclosed insight by Paul Kanjorski where he reveals some facts that have not been captured by the media previously.  At 2 minutes and 20 seconds in the video below …

Mr. Franken Comes to Washington  —  Entertainer Al Franken (D-Minn.) will spend the next two days in Washington readying himself to serve in the Senate, a move that comes even as the contested Minnesota Senate election plods on.  —  Franken arrives in town tonight and will be here through Thursday …

What happened to Clive Crook?  —  Clive used to be a reasonable guy; in his mind he probably still is a reasonable guy.  But he has misunderstood what it means to be reasonable.  He now apparently believes that it means declaring, in all circumstances, that Democrats and Republicans are equally …

Obama: ‘There Is No Easy Out’ for Wall Street  —  In Exclusive Interview, President Warns of ‘a Perfect Storm of Financial Problems’  —  On the same day his treasury secretary detailed a $2 trillion plan to stabilize the U.S. banking systems and the Senate narrowly passed …

Huckabee: Stimulus is ‘anti-religious’  —  Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned supporters Tuesday that the $828 billion stimulus package is “anti-religious.”  —  In an e-mail that was also posted on his blog ahead of the Senate's passage, Huckabee wrote: “The dust is settling …

Rahm Emanuel  —  WHAT a strange surname!  It appears Spanish, easy to pronounce, but it's not.  Never in my life have I heard or read about any student or compatriot with that name, among tens of thousands.  —  Where does it come from?  I wondered.  Over and over, the name came to mind …

BLAGO, LIBBY PROSECUTOR TO STAY ON  —  From NBC's Pete Williams  —  Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago who brought criminal fraud charges against Rod Blagojevich, will be staying in his job in the Obama administration, even though he was appointed to the position by President George W. Bush.

Busy Sarah Palin Backs Out of CPAC; Rush Limbaugh Is Still Speaking  —  The opening-day headliner for the annual CPAC conservative convention February 26-28, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has pulled out, citing state business in Juneau.  “We're obviously disappointed,” said a CPAC official.

Connecticut's Rell Is Queen Of The Hill At Midterm, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Dodd Has Worst Approval Ever  —  Halfway through her first elected term as Connecticut Governor and one week after a grim budget message, Jodi Rell has a 75 - 19 percent approval rating and tops …

GOP won't derail Solis on hubby  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  Republicans aren't going to derail Labor Secretary-nominee Hilda Solis' nomination over her husband's tax problems, but they still have serious reservations about her ties to labor unions.

You Might as Well Face It: You're Addicted to Success  —  Forced to take a buyout from the Kansas City Star last summer, Paul Wenske lost his sense of identity.  “I'd been an investigative reporter all my life, and then boom,” says Mr. Wenske, an award-winning journalist of 30 years.

Why Obama Wants Control of the Census  —  Counting citizens is a powerful political tool.  —  President Obama said in his inaugural address that he planned to “restore science to its rightful place” in government.  That's a worthy goal.  But statisticians at the Commerce Department …

What do we do if the “two-state” solution collapses?  —  Lots of smart people have been focusing on the Israeli elections and trying to make sense of their immediate implications for the peace process.  I can't improve on the analyses provided by Glenn Greenwald, Yossi Alpher, Bernard Avishai …