Michelle Obama serves food to D.C. poor and homeless, but...  First Lady Michelle Obama showed up Thursday as a surprise and welcome volunteer at Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen for homeless poor people not far from the White House.  —  She brought with her some food donated by White House staff.

Clinton gift gaffe: ‘Overcharge’  —  GENEVA — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her first meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by giving him a present meant to symbolize the Obama administration's vow to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.

Obama to Lift Ban on Funding for Embryonic Stem Cell Research  —  President Obama is planning to sign an executive order on Monday rolling back restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, according to sources close to the issue.  —  Although the exact wording …

Judge assails cases doubting Obama's citizenship  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit questioning President Barack Obama's citizenship, lambasting the case as a waste of the court's time and suggesting the plaintiff's attorney may have to compensate the president's lawyer.

‘Obama Bear Market’ Punishes Investors as Dow Slumps  —  President Barack Obama now has the distinction of presiding over his own bear market.  —  The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 20 percent since Inauguration Day, the fastest drop under a newly elected president in at least 90 years …

A fight I didn't intend to get into: Chas Freeman  —  I have never met Chas Freeman, the man whose reported selection as head of the National Intelligence Council has drawn such criticism, including from my colleague Jeffrey Goldberg.  Not having had a chance to assess him first hand …

Tongue-tied Clinton gets warm EU welcome  —  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.  —  Clinton has set herself a grueling pace …

Should Geithner go?  —  Henry Blodget thinks it is time for Timothy Geithner to go.  So far, Geithner's performance has been shockingly unimpressive.  It's not as if he's walking into the crisis anew; he's been the head of the New York Fed for years, and dealing with these issues from the very beginning.

Limbaugh: My Ratings are Way, Way Up  —  One side effect of the Democratic campaign against Rush Limbaugh has been to increase — dramatically increase — the talk show host's ratings.  This morning I asked Rush if he had any numbers he could share on just what effect the increased visibility has had on his business.

Card: Health Care Is A ‘Want,’ Not A ‘Need’ — 'Don't Have The Government Fund It'  —  During the White House's health care summit yesterday, President Obama said that “there are those who say we should defer health care reform once again” because they claim “that at a time of economic crisis …

Drug Legalization Isn't the Answer  —  Countries that have experimented with a permissive approach have always turned back.  —  Since 2001 the number of young people using illegal drugs has dropped by 900,000 to about 2.7 million.  This drop is an important development for all the obvious reasons, plus one.

Is Obama responsible for Wall Street's meltdown?  —  “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer.  —  Is Obama responsible for the meltdown of the Dow?  The consistently wrongheaded Wall Street Journal's editorial page says so, as does Republican Fox News, CNN's reliably demagogic Lou Dobbs, and now CNBC …

State high court denies Franken bid for election certificate  —  The Democrat had sought to be seated in the U.S. Senate provisionally while Republican Norm Coleman's lawsuit plays out.  Meanwhile, Franken also is pressing to have that suit dismissed.  —  The Minnesota Supreme Court today ruled …

The Fiscal Impact of Winding Down a War  —  The President is committed to responsibly winding the war.  I don't do foreign policy, but I can tell you this: ending wars saves money - and so the Administration's budget includes savings from ramping down overseas military operations over time.

A Heated Exchange: Al Gore Confronts His Critic(s)  —  The Goreacle has spoken-again.  —  Former Vice President Al Gore repeated his message that climate change is a planetary emergency at the WSJ's Eco:nomics conference in California.  The Nobel-prize winner declined to take any questions from reporters …

Lawyers indicate Madoff plea could occur next week  —  NEW YORK - Bernard Madoff has taken steps that suggest he could plead guilty as early as next week to charges that he carried out one of the biggest financial frauds in history, lawyers said Friday.  —  Madoff, 70, is waiving his right …

President Barack Obama dislikes Britain, but he's keen to meet the Queen  —  President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain this week.  His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling.  First Brown wasn't granted a press conference with flags …

Congress Approves Stopgap Budget Resolution  —  WASHINGTON — With 12 hours or so to spare, Congress approved a stopgap resolution on Friday to avoid a shutdown of the federal government for another five days.  —  The House approved the measure by 328 to 50, and the Senate rushed it through …

Democrats blast Limbaugh for comment on Kennedy  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - A Democratic official rebuked conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Friday for suggesting a health care proposal will be named in memory of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer.

Battling Obama by ‘Going Galt’  —  A protester at the Chicago Tea Party on February 27 references Ayn Rand's novel.  (Flickr: swyngarden)  —  “Do you ever wonder,” wrote Dr. Helen Smith, “after dealing with all that is going on with the economy and the upcoming election, if it's getting to be time to ‘go John Galt?’”

Obama's Radicalism Is Killing the Dow  —  A financial crisis is the worst time to change the foundations of American capitalism.  —  It's hard not to see the continued sell-off on Wall Street and the growing fear on Main Street as a product, at least in part, of the realization …

Taiwan Says It Is Not Ready for Peace Talks With China  —  Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou on Thursday ruled out any near-term prospect of peace talks with China, saying relations are too tenuous to consider discussing political or military issues.  —  “At this stage we will only talk …

Roubini Says Recession May Continue Until End of 2010  —  The global recession may continue until the end of 2010 as the response by governments to rectify it is “too little, too late,” said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the financial crisis.

Court Upholds Most Charges Against Ex-Governor  —  A federal appeals court panel in Atlanta upheld the bribery conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on Friday, giving new weight to a prosecution that Democrats have contended was an example of the political use of the courts during the Bush administration.

Al-Marri detention case ended  —  The Supreme Court on Friday wiped out a lower court ruling that gave the President the authority to detain indefinitely as terrorism suspects individuals who are living legally in the United States.  The order also approved transfer of Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri …

Nominee for Solicitor General Revises Her Opinion on Opinions  —  Perhaps every nominee committed a dark, regrettable act in the past that he or she hopes will never see the light, but unfortunately for Elena Kagan, hers was discovered pretty quickly after she was nominated to be solicitor general:

Fed's Hoenig: ‘Too Big has Failed’  —  This seems like a break in the ranks ...  From Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig: Too Big has Failed … Update: More excerpts (ht Josh): … That is a call for temporary nationalization.  —  How would nationalization work? … And Hoenig concludes:

Cube-steak Americans vs. the Wagyu-beef White House  —  My syndicated column today spotlights the return of thrift in individual American households — a phenomenon that stands in stark contrast to the unmitigated profligacy embraced by Barack Obama's White House.

Pawlenty: GOP has ‘bottomed out’  —  I didn't get to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty in time to quote him in my story on how bad things are for the Republican Party, but spoke to him on the subject today.  —  “It's kind of like asking whether the stock market has bottomed out,” …

Fox News' Glenn Beck strikes ratings gold by challenging Barack Obama  —  His success comes as Fox News embraces the role of voice of opposition to the new administration.  —  Reporting from New York — Before Glenn Beck started his new show on Fox News in January, he sat down with Roger Ailes …