NYT settles with lobbyist on McCain story  —  A Washington lobbyist who said the New York Times implied she had an improper relationship with Sen. John McCain will drop her defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, which today said it never intended that readers conclude the two were having an affair.

HOUSE GOP DISCOVERS THE IMPORTANCE OF WH EMAILS.... I'm sorry, the Irony-O-Meter I keep on my desk just burst into flames. … Issa, easily a #2 seed on my bracket for Most Ridiculous Member of Congress competition, also asked the White House to respond to a series of additional questions about the administration's email archiving.

Greed is Not a Defense  —  I found Ezra Klein's defense of Politico to be pretty weak stuff.  —  Ezra's main point is that coverage that's utterly trivial and that poisons public understanding of crucial issues that effect the lives of billions of people is rewarded by the market …

Steele: GOP needs ‘hip-hop’ makeover  —  NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:  —  Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

Spokesman for embattled Sen. Burris resigns  —  (CNN) — A spokesman for Illinois Sen. Roland Burris resigned Thursday in the wake of new disclosures about requests that Burris raise money for disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich while seeking a U.S. Senate appointment.

Iran holds enough uranium for bomb  —  Iran has now built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday.  —  In a development that comes as the Obama administration is drawing up its policy on negotiations with Tehran …

Two ministers leading recall effort against Cao face long odds  —  WASHINGTON — A group spearheaded by two ministers has filed papers with the Louisiana secretary of state's office to recall U.S. Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-New Orleans, who has been on the job only six weeks.

New York Post Employees Unhappy, Ashamed Of Offensive Cartoon  —  The mood inside the New York Post, it seems, is a mix of anger and bewilderment that the paper published a cartoon depicting the authors of the stimulus as a dead, crazed chimpanzee.  —  On Wednesday, an employee of the paper told …

Manufacturing Guilt?  —  Editor's Note: The following article contains graphic and disturbing photographs and video excerpts of an examination conducted on the body of a 23-month-old girl.  The images are the basis of claims that forensic experts fabricated evidence in a case that put a man on death row …

THAT CARTOON  —  Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.  —  It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” one officer says.

Democrats strike different tone on Katrina  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - The economic stimulus signed by President Barack Obama will spread billions of dollars across the country to spruce up aging roads and bridges.

THE END OF THE ENTITLEMENT SCARE.  —  There are two things going on in Jane Hamsher's post on the “fiscal summit.”  The first is a show of thundering opposition to benefit cuts in Social Security.  That's a good thing.  Progressives should draw bright lines.

Do you mind if I rant a minute?  —  Here's my position on what ended the Great Depression: I don't know.  There are a whole lot of theories out there, but with an “n” of 1, no overwhelming evidence in favor of any of them.  There are a few that I think most economists agree are not true …

Here we go again ...  Politico's Glenn Thrush, seeing a news report that Hillary Clinton said she likes the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, “decided to fact-check.”  —  What would make him decide to fact-check the unremarkable statement by a baby boomer that she likes the two most popular band …

Biden Says Bush Gave Al Qaeda Recruiting Tool  —  LANGLEY, Va. — Visiting the Central Intelligence Agency to swear in Leon E. Panetta as the agency's 19th director, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Thursday that the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies “gave Al Qaeda a powerful recruiting tool.”

Republicans urge Obama to overturn stem cell ban  —  (CNN) - A group of six moderate House Republicans have written to President Obama urging him to lift President Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.  —  “We are writing to respectfully urge that you immediately lift …

Obama Stimulus Saves Microsoft Billionaire Hundreds Of Millions  —  Billionaire Paul Allen is a Microsoft cofounder, the owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and the owner of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers.  —  And, thanks to the stimulus bill President Obama signed this week, he's also about to be as much as a billion dollars richer.

Wife of former governor subpoenaed by feds  —  CHICAGO - Patti Blagojevich has been served with a federal subpoena seeking documents, notes or e-mails related to people or entities ranging from former gubernatorial fund raisers to her real estate dealings.  —  Attorney Raymond Pijon told …

Obama Plans Indefinite Military Detention of Terrorism Suspects  —  Last month I worried about Attorney General Eric Holder's declaration at his confirmation hearing that “we are at war” with terrorists, noting that such language has often been used to justify legal shortcuts and abridgements of civil liberties.

Kill “Qwerty”!  (Guest Voice)  —  FOR GOD'S SAKE, THIS IT THE 21ST CENTURY - LET'S GET RID OF “QWERTY”!!  —  by Marc Pascal  —  Why do computers still have keyboards?  They represent a quaint vestige of their predecessor typewriters that were invented 130 years ago.

Exclusive: Group counters stimulus with Jesus in TV ad  —  After watching liberal allies of President Barack Obama flood the airwaves in support of the stimulus bill, a conservative third-party group is countering with a provocative new commercial using Jesus Christ to emphasize the scale of the $787 billion package.