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.

Would You Join Santelli's “Chicago Tea Party?”  —  CNBC's Rick Santelli leads the trader mortgage revolt.  Would you want to join his “Chicago Tea Party?” … The plan is a discrace!  I pay my mortgage and bills on time.  I live on a fixed income.  I find it tough each month to make ends meet, but do.

Watch for the Palin-Santelli 2012 Signs  —  I've had a case of deja vu today.  —  I'm noticing the tone.  I'm seeing the enthusiasm.  And I'm digging out from the sheer volume of e-mails I've been getting today about that CNBC dude.  The reaction to Rick Santelli's Chicago-trading-floor incident …

Statement From Iseman's Lawyers  —  Today our client Ms. Vicki Iseman settled the defamation action that we filed on her behalf against The New York Times, and a number of its editors and reporters, resulting from an article published by the Times on February 21, 2008 (see “Note to Readers” and “Joint Statement").

The Obama Cabinet is a CEO black hole  —  In President Barack Obama's Cabinet, there is a Nobel Prize winner, a former mayor, and a veteran CIA agent.  Surrounding him in the White House West Wing are a former four-star general, one of the nation's most eminent economists …

CNBC Editor: The People Are Revolting!  —  Santelli plays Mel Brooks playing Louis XVI  —  In the annals of CNBC cluelessness, this morning's outburst by the channel's Rick Santelli is up there with the worst.  —  This is an example of what's wrong with a certain kind of financial journalism …

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 …

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.

Bill Clinton: Obama Should Sound More Hopeful  —  Says President Should Voice Economic Optimism, Paint GOP as the Party of ‘No’  —  Former President Bill Clinton gives President Barack Obama an “A” grade for his first month in office, but tells ABC News that Obama needs to put on a more positive face …

Geronimo's Heirs Sue Secret Yale Society Over His Skull  —  HOUSTON — The descendants of Geronimo have sued Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University with ties to the Bush family, charging that its members robbed his grave in 1918 and have kept his skull in a glass case ever since.

Limbaugh: Trying To Understand A Dem Like Trying To Understand A Murderer Or Rapist  —  Coming off of a tone-deaf cartoon that compared the author of the stimulus bill with a crazed, shot-dead chimpanzee, it seemed likely that, for the time being, provocative political metaphors would be put on hold.

Peres tasks Netanyahu with forming new government  —  After the failure of his last-ditch effort to muster Kadima leader Tzipi Livni's support for a unity government on Friday, President Shimon Peres formally entrusted Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu with the task of building a coalition.

Who'll Stop the Pain?  —  Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the most recent meeting of its open market committee — the group that sets interest rates.  Most press reports focused either on the Fed's downgrade of the near-term outlook or on its adoption of a long-run 2 percent inflation target.

Housing Plan: The Virtues of Moderation  —  Edward L. Glaeser is an economics professor at Harvard.  —  The housing plan that President Obama revealed on Wednesday, like the stimulus package, was presented as a single solution to a potload of problems.  The plan is being promoted …

Money for Idiots  —  Our moral and economic system is based on individual responsibility.  It's based on the idea that people have to live with the consequences of their decisions.  This makes them more careful deciders.  This means that society tends toward justice — people get what they deserve as much as possible

U.S. Tries a Trillion-Dollar Key for Locked Lending  —  Credit cards, home equity lines, student loans, car financing: none come cheaply or easily in these credit-tight times.  The banks, the refrain goes, just will not lend money.  —  But it is not simply the banks that are the problem.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized  —  Can you explain the existing economic crisis' pivotal crisis of credit simply so anyone can grasp the crisis?  The answer is YES and California graduate student Jonathan Jarvis shows us how below:  —  The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Obama's Popularity Not Enough to get European Allies to Send More Troops to Afghanistan: Many people, myself included, hoped that Barack Obama's popularity abroad would enable the administration to get increased cooperation from our allies, thereby making key US foreign policy objectives easier to achieve.

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.

Obama Reverses U.S. Position on LGBT Issues at the UN  —  In late December the United Nations General Assembly held a symbolic vote on a statement calling for the universal decriminalization of homosexuality.  France spearheaded the resolution, which was a 13 point declaration …

“Honor Killing” and Islam  —  The American Muslim community is reeling this week from news of the horrific beheading of Aasiya Hassan, allegedly by her husband Muzzammil Hassan.  They were respected members of the community and co-founded BridgesTV, a television network ironically dedicated to fighting negative stereotypes of Muslims.

Oh Schadenfreude, You Capricious Sprite!  —  There are few things more insufferable than Bill Moyers on PBS every week holding forth on how intolerant conservatives are.  This is because given his history of political activities in LBJ's administration, he has no standing to do so.