John Gibson Did Not Compare Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum (UPDATED)  —  UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored.  We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson.  John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum.

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 …

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence  —  Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday, there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole.  —  In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack.

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

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 …

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.

THE JESUS ARGUMENT?.... Two weeks ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.) told his colleagues, as part of an argument against the economic stimulus package, “If you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you still wouldn't have spent $1 trillion.”

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.

A Conservative Of Doubt  —  They can rant too: … Like Megan, I don't know either.  I've supported the stimulus package because the downdraft right now seems so steep and dangerous that a little cushioning from the feds does not seem to me to be a cardinal sin, and because Obama …

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.

Brian Views Destruction in Gaza - Calls for Immediate Relief and Change in Policy  —  Washington, D.C. - Two members of Congress, Brian Baird (D-WA-03), and Keith Ellison, (D-MN-05), visited Gaza on Thursday to view firsthand the destruction from recent Israeli air and ground attacks and to meet …

Upside-Down Economics  —  In January, Suze Orman, the blonde financial adviser who's all over TV telling you to cut up your credit cards, went on “Oprah” to discuss how to cope with the recession.  Orman recommended not eating in restaurants for a month.  The appalled National Restaurant …

The Case for a Truth Commission  —  More than 30 years ago, a special Senate investigation peered into abuses that included spying on the American people by their own government.  —  The findings by Senator Frank Church's committee, drawn from testimony spanning 800 witnesses and thousands …

Obama Bans Gimmicks, and Deficit Will Rise  —  WASHINGTON — For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller.  The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget …

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.

FIRST THOUGHTS: ONE MONTH DOWN  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro  —  *** One month down: Today marks exactly one month since Obama was inaugurated.  The country, and the world frankly, is engaged on pretty much anything this president does.

Detainee Alleging Torture to Be Sent to Britain, Source Says  —  A former British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be flown home early next week, marking the first transfer of a Guantanamo detainee by the Obama administration, according to a source involved in the process …

Obama's Supine Diplomacy  —  The Biden prophecy has come to pass.  Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, predicted in October that “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.”  Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban missile crisis.

On Asia Trip, Clinton Shows How She'll Try to Repair the U.S. Image Around the World  —  On Her First Trip as Secretary of State, Clinton Shows How She'll Attempt to Repair the U.S. Image Worldwide  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new campaign and message: The United States wants to listen.

Iran Has More Enriched Uranium Than Thought  —  In their first appraisal of Iran's nuclear program since President Obama took office, atomic inspectors have found that Iran recently understated by a third how much uranium it has enriched, United Nations officials said Thursday.

Former CIA Officer Describes Retribution for Whistle Blowing  —  Ilana Sara Greenstein, a highly praised CIA operations officer for six years until quitting in disgust in 2008, says she was punished for complaining about gross mismanagement in the agency's Baghdad station, which CIA censors are still trying to suppress.

Sen. Specter Jeered For Voting For Stimulus Plan  —  PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was greeted with jeers at a press conference in Cranberry Township.  —  Conservatives are fuming after Specter cast the deciding vote that led to the passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan.

Czech president compares EU to Soviet Union  —  BRUSSELS - The European Union has turned into an undemocratic and elitist project comparable to the Communist dictatorships of eastern Europe that forbade alternative thinking, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told the European Parliament on Thursday.

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.

Jeffrey Goldberg's gasping, dying smear tactics  —  (updated below)  —  The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg — in a paragraph he entitles “Where the Left and Right Always Seem to Agree” — writes (emphasis added): … His link to “Israel-bashing” in the penultimate sentence — as in …

Saab Moves to Separate Itself From G.M.  —  Saab, the Swedish automaker owned by General Motors, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday and asked the Swedish government for help in making it an independent car company again.  —  But it was unclear whether the government would step in to help Saab …

Stanford and Firm Spent $7.2 Million on Lawmakers (Correct)  —  (Corrects to add that tax legislation introduced by Rangel in 2007 would benefit Virgin Islanders who established residency there in 2004 or before, in 10th paragraph.)  —  Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — R. Allen Stanford …