Behind the Curve  —  President Obama's plan to stimulate the economy was “massive,” “giant,” “enormous.”  So the American people were told, especially by TV news, during the run-up to the stimulus vote.  Watching the news, you might have thought that the only question was whether the plan was too big, too ambitious.

Obama Aims to Shield Science From Politics  —  When President Obama lifts restrictions on funding for human embryonic stem cell research today, he will also issue a presidential memorandum aimed at insulating scientific decisions across the federal government from political influence, officials said yesterday.

Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers  —  WASHINGTON — When John C. Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer, was selected by President George W. Bush in May 2004 to join a government board charged with releasing historical Nazi and Japanese war crimes records, trouble quickly followed.

NKorea's Kim wins parliamentary seat: official media  —  SEOUL (AFP) — Leader Kim Jong-Il has been unanimously elected to a seat in North Korea's parliament following a 100 percent turnout, state media said Monday.  —  Sunday's elections for the rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly featured …

George Galloway stoned in Egypt  —  A humanitarian convoy led by maverick MP George Galloway,carrying medical supplies for Gaza has come under attack in Egypt  —  The convoy, carrying aid worth £1m, was pelted with stones and vandalised after it stopped in El-Arish …

President's Political Protector Is Ever Close at Hand  —  WASHINGTON — The pepperoni and cheese pizzas had been delivered, and a meeting about how to sell President Obama's economic plan was set to begin — not at the White House, but a few blocks away in the seventh-floor apartment of David Axelrod.

Vatican defends Brazil excommunication  —  A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil after being raped.  —  Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Catholic church's Congregation for Bishops …

How Obama plays the pundits  —  When New York Times columnist David Brooks accused the White House last week of “shaking confidence with its hyperactivity,” no fewer than four senior administration officials reached out to explain — ever so politely — how he was wrong.  —  Overkill?  Maybe.

Sad moment in Sweden  —  Tennis player Andy Ram dismayed by violent anti-Israel demonstrations during tennis contest  —  In almost every respect, the events of the past week in Sweden are a sad moment for Tennis, for sports in general, and certainly for  —  Up until the last moment …

Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (From a Former Republican)  —  Dear Republican Leaders: The Republican Party has become the party dedicated to sabotaging the American future.  Check out the sermon I just delivered about the Republican Party on CNN when being interviewed by D.L. Hughley — and/or read on.

“Cool to be bisexual”  —  Horrible story in today's Dallas Morning News about an East Texas man who survived the home invasion and slaughter of his wife and children, carried out by his and his wife's teenage daughter, Erin, and three of her friends (all of whom pled guilty in the matter).  Excerpt:

Obama throws critics by sticking to his word  —  WASHINGTON: Republicans and self-styled conservatives, like Captain Renault in “Casablanca,” are shocked - shocked - that President Barack Obama is trying to govern as candidate Obama promised he would.  —  They are disturbed that Obama's …

A Rising Dollar Lifts the U.S. but Adds to the Crisis Abroad  —  As the world is seized with anxiety in the face of a spreading financial crisis, the one place having a considerably easier time attracting money is, perversely enough, the same place that started much of the trouble: the United States.

Geithner, With Few Aides, Faces Challenges  —  WASHINGTON — Rarely have so few people had so little time to prop up so many pillars of the economy as those in the Treasury Department under Timothy F. Geithner.  —  In the six weeks since Mr. Geithner took over as Treasury secretary …

G.O.P. Senators Say Some Big Banks Can Be Allowed to Fail  —  John McCain and Richard C. Shelby, two high-profile Republican senators, said on Sunday that the government should allow a number of the biggest American banks to fail.  —  “Close them down, get them out of business,” Mr. Shelby …