CPAC audience roars with applause when speaker suggests Obama wasn't born in U.S.  —  ThinkProgress is attending the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference today.  Earlier this afternoon, Cliff Kincaid, head of a conservative group Accuracy in Media, introduced Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

Rocky Mountain News to close, publish final edition Friday  —  Executives from E.W. Scripps Co., announce their decision on the future of the Rocky Mountain News in the 150-year-old newspaper's newsroom on 2/26/09 in Denver.  In December 2008, the Rocky's parent company put the paper up for sale …

Reid: Coleman should concede  —  Senate Democratic leaders said Thursday they were prepared to seat Al Franken as soon as the beginning of April, regardless whether Republican Norm Coleman files legal appeals.  —  “We're feeling pretty confident,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) …

Jewish Leaders Blast Clinton Over Israel Criticism  —  Zuckerman, Lawmakers, Local Jews Say Secretary Of State Not The Hillary Clinton They Used To Know  —  Hillary Pressuring Israel To Speed Up Aid To Gaza  —  NEW YORK (CBS) ― In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator …

RULE OF LAW RETURNS  —  The ACLU just announced that Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only Bush-era “enemy combatant” being held in military detention on U.S. soil, will be charged as a criminal terrorist and tried for his alleged crimes by the Obama Administration.

Freeman's in  —  The Obama administration has notified Congress that Chas Freeman has been appointed chairman of the National Intelligence Council, demonstrating a willingness to rebuff pro-Israel activists and an embrace of a more realist foreign policy line.

Senate Passes Bill Giving the District a House Vote  —  The Senate today passed a bill that for the first time would give the District a full voting member of the House of Representatives.  But senators managed to attach an amendment that would scrap most of the District's local gun-control laws.

Steele offers Jindal ‘slum love’  —  In an interview with Curtis Sliwa on ABC Radio last night, the host and RNC Chairman Michael Steele jokingly linked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to the film “Slumdog Millionaire.”  Steele offered Jindal “slum love.  —  Here's the transcript:

59% Still Believe Government Is the Problem  —  In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that …

Senate tunes out Fairness Doctrine, 87-11  —  The Senate voted Thursday in favor of an amendment to the District of Columbia voting-rights bill that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which critics say would decimate conservative talk radio.

We're on the brink of disaster  —  Violent protests and riots are breaking out everywhere as economies collapse and governments fail.  War is bound to follow.  —  Editor's note: This article has also appeared on TomDispatch.com.  —  A destroyed street market burns in the aftermath of riots …

Pelosi throws cold water on assault-weapon ban  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tossed cold water on the prospect of reinstating the assault weapons ban, highlighting Democrats' reluctance to take on gun issues.  —  Attorney General Eric Holder raised the prospect Wednesday that the administration would push to bring back the ban.

Dem blasts Obama's budget  —  (CNN) - Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor blasted the budget outline President Obama submitted to Capitol Hill today, saying “I don't like it...change is not running up even bigger deficits that George Bush did.”  —  “That's what George Bush did very well.

Joe The Plumberization of the Republican Party  —  Patrick Ruffini decries the “Joe-the-Plumberization of the GOP.” … Of course, they didn't appoint Wurzelbacher as VP as they did with Sarah Palin.  The two are of a piece: A faux populism that comes at the cost of alienating the intellectuals and serious leaders of the movement.

Jindal's Katrina Story: A Tall Tale?  —  The evidence continues to grow that the story Bobby Jindal told Tuesday night — about how he backed a tough-talking sheriff's efforts to rescue Katrina victims, government red-tape be damed — was, how to put it ... made up.

OMB boots lobbyist off press call  —  Maybe President Obama really is serious about making his White House inhospitable to lobbyists.  One of them even got scolded by name for trying to spy on an administration conference call with reporters Thursday.  —  The call was set up for the press but …

Class warfare returns to Washington  —  President Barack Obama has spent months recasting Democratic goals on climate change and health care reform from liberal-leaning moral imperatives to hard-core economic necessities.  —  But when it comes to paying for them, Obama's creative juices seemed …

Conservatives Hit Dems Over “Tattoo Removal” Pork — But It's An Anti-Crime Program!  —  Uh oh — looks like we have our next marsh mouse-style talking point.  —  Conservatives are hammering the House's new $410 billion spending bill because it contains $200,000 for what they're derisively referring to as “tattoo removal.”

Milk Acceptance Speeches Censored by News Corp Subsidiary  —  Film buffs from around the world are still buzzing about this year's Oscar winners.  GLAAD was thrilled about Milk being nominated in eight categories and receiving the Oscar for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY for screenwriter Dustin Lance Black …

Obama Rolls The Dice  —  The size of the gambles that President Obama is taking every day is simply staggering.  What came through in his speech to a joint session of Congress and a national television audience Tuesday night was a dramatic reminder of the unbelievable stakes he has placed …

The Intra-Republican Fight  —  The delivery of Bobby Jindal's speech Tuesday night was so bad that my first instinct was to focus on that.  But David Brooks, as seen in this clip below from PBS, went straight to it: … I would be a bit more optimistic than Brooks about the political merits of the hard-right agenda.