VIDEO: Wrong red button  —  GENEVA—After promising to “push the reset button” on relations with Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to present Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a light-hearted gift at their talks here Friday night to symbolize the Obama administration's desire …

Obama is in trouble  —  Did you feel it?  The political ground shifting beneath President Barack Obama since his speech last week to Congress?  It's been downhill since and I'm not referring mainly to the Dow Jones record-setting dive.  The pivot point of the shift was the speech …

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 …

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 …

Court Puts Off Decision On Indefinite Detention  —  The Supreme Court yesterday vacated a lower court's ruling that the president has the right to indefinitely detain a legal U.S. resident as a terrorism suspect, and put off a decision on one of the most expansive legal claims of the Bush administration.

Conservatives angry over Michelle Obama's trip to homeless shelter  —  It seems Michelle Obama can't even do a good deed without inspiring some outrage on the right.  —  The first lady visited a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter on Thursday, bringing fruit collected in a White House food drive …

Will Atlas Shrug?  A Compilation of Blogosphere Commentary about “Going Galt”  —  There's a new craze hitting the conservative tubes on the Internets these days: “Going Galt!”  While it's difficult to identify an exact date of reference or to provide any unique person with credit for the general meme …

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 …

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.

CHAVEZ CALLS ON OBAMA TO FOLLOW PATH OF SOCIALISM  —  Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called upon US President Barack Obama to follow the path to socialism, which he termed as the “only” way out of the global recession.  “Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism.

Car-truck crash kills Zimbabwe prime minister's wife, injures him  —  HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN.

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 …

Now at Reason.tv: Rep. Jeff Flake on How the GOP Can Get Its Groove Back  —  At last November's gala dinner in Los Angeles celebrating 40 years of Reason, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) spoke about why the Republican party was in a shambles—and what it needs to do to stage a comeback.

Top U.S., European Banks Got $50 Billion in AIG Aid  —  The beneficiaries of the government's bailout of American International Group Inc. include at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions that have been paid roughly $50 billion since the Federal Reserve first extended aid to the insurance giant.

It's War!  Union Blasts Blue Dog Dem For Saying He'll Vote Against Employee Free Choice  —  The battle begins: We now have our first Congressional Democrat who has openly confirmed that he'll vote against the Employee Free Choice Act — and the Service Employees International Union is blasting …

Naked Obama On A Unicorn Vs. Naked Palin On A Moose (Bonus: Nude Michelle Obama)  —  It's the gift that keeps on giving: paintings of a naked Barack Obama on a unicorn.  And the paintings keep getting increasingly disturbing.  Last time around, there was a painting of a unicorn looking at Barack's back side the same...

A Final Word On Rush  —  Ruffini writes: … I take the point: I originally only meant to take a mild and passing swipe at Rush's CPAC speech, and I somewhat regret wading in deeper.  (Such are the perils of blogging ...) But it's also worth remembering that Limbaugh's critics have ended …

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.

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.

Could St. Louis lose its Catholic hospitals under new federal abortion legislation?  —  A proposed bill promising major changes in the U.S. abortion landscape has Roman Catholic bishops threatening to close Catholic hospitals if the Democratic Congress and White House make it law.