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.

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.

Consider The Source  —  Rod Dreher initiates a train wreck with this post that is a little bit about a ghastly home invasion and murder in a small Texas town and more about a comment made by one of the victims.  This is from the Dallas Morning News:  —  [Terry and Penny Caffey] were married eight months later.

Middle East Reality Check  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton grabbed headlines with an invitation to Iran to attend a conference on Afghanistan, but the significant Middle Eastern news last week came from Britain.  It has “reconsidered” its position on Hezbollah and will open a direct channel to the militant group in Lebanon.

Geithner, With Few Aides, Is Scrambling  —  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 …

Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds  —  When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.  —  The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation.  The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases …

PERV GROUP PUTS 10G ‘HIT’ ON ANDY  —  ALBANY - A $10,000 In ternet bounty was placed on Attorney General An drew Cuomo's head by a suspected agent of the North American Man/Boy Love Association, The Post has learned.  —  The shocking death threat by the infamous organization of pederasts …

Republicans See Their Party As Leaderless  —  Who's in charge here?  —  Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republican voters say their party has no clear leader, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.  Another 17% are undecided.  —  Just five percent (5%) …

Obama's Double Talk  —  To those who believe that Barack Obama is a different kind of politician — more honest, more courageous — please don't examine his administration's budget.  If you do, you may sadly conclude that he resembles presidents stretching back to John Kennedy in one crucial respect.

Charlie Gasparino Talks to Fallen Wall Street Titan Jimmy Cayne  —  Blogs and Stories  —  As the pundit begins a series of national debates this week, Meghan McCain says that having her as the face of the Republican Party is a recipe for disaster.  —  It is no secret that being a Republican …

‘Manchurian Candidate’ Starts War on Business: Kevin Hassett  —  Back in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson gave us the War on Poverty.  In the 1970s, Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs.  Now that we have seen President Barack Obama's first-year legislative agenda, we know what kind of a war he intends to wage.

United, Newspapers May Stand  —  Back when I was a young media reporter fueled by indignation and suspicion, I often pictured the dark overlords of the newspaper industry gathering at a secret location to collude over cigars and Cognac, deciding how to set prices and the news agenda at the same time.

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 …

Dailykos, firedoglake on blogging in the Obama era  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Liberal bloggers were the cyber cheerleaders for Barack Obama in the 2008 race for the White House.  But now that he has won, these “netroots” activists face a major challenge: criticizing the new president and his administration.

Who Pays for Cap and Trade?  —  Hint: They were promised a tax cut during the Obama campaign.  —  Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions.  With President Obama depending …

Flat Tires on the Omnibus  —  THE CONGRESSIONAL budget process — and process is an awfully polite word for the current chaos — gets uglier and uglier.  The $410 billion omnibus spending bill that is crawling to final passage and an unenthusiastic signature comes nearly halfway through the fiscal year.

Who's Filibustering Now?  —  When President George W. Bush was stocking the federal courts with conservative ideologues, Senate Republicans threatened to change the august body's rules if any Democrat dared to try to block his choices, even the least-competent, most-radical ones.

A Matrix of News Winners Buoys NBC  —  NBC's “Today” show has the longest winning streak in television history: every week for 13 years, and counting.  Now the evening newscast competition seems to be swinging NBC's way as well.  —  The NBC “Nightly News” with Brian Williams …

Wasting Away in Hooverville  —  The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression  —  Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America  —  A generation ago, the total dismissal of the New Deal remained a marginal sentiment in American politics.

Pentagon says Chinese harassed U.S. ship  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Pentagon said Monday that Chinese ships harassed a U.S. surveillance ship Sunday in the South China Sea in the latest of several instances of “increasingly aggressive conduct.”  —  During the incident, five Chinese vessels …

Saudis order 40 lashes for elderly woman for mingling  —  (CNN) — A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.

THE LESSONS OF CHAS FREEMAN.  —  Chas Freeman, Obama's choice for Director of the National Intelligence Council, has two potential problems that should not be confused.  The first is a long paper trail that makes it perfectly clear he's not particularly sympathetic to Bibi Netanyahu or the Tienanmen Square protesters.

Miniter to lead Times editorial pages  —  The Washington Times on Monday named Richard Miniter as editor of the editorial pages and vice president of opinion, the latest of a series of dramatic moves to boost the newspaper's global impact.  —  He is a veteran of the Wall Street Journal editorial page …