The dishonest “Blame Dodd” scheme from Treasury officials  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  There is a major push underway — engineered by Obama's Treasury officials, enabled by a mindless media, and amplified by the right-wing press — to blame Chris Dodd for the AIG bonus payments.

It's not the bonuses.  It's that AIG's counterparties are getting paid back in full.  —  Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG's bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the insurance giant: Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars?

Obama's Jay Leno Tonight Show Gig Will Diminish His Presidency  —  By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog  —  When I was writing speeches for President Bush #41, we'd start working every Spring on the annual “joke” dinners—the Gridiron Club, the Alfalfa Club, and the White House Correspondents Dinner.

JournoList: Inside the echo chamber  —  For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.  —  Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?

Canadians throw shoes to protest Bush  —  OTTAWA (AFP) — Three Canadians were arrested and others threw shoes in protest against George W. Bush on Tuesday when he gave his first post-presidential speech in western Canada's oil patch.  —  The footwear was tossed at an effigy …

ACORN to Play Role in 2010 Census  —  The U.S. Census Bureau is working with several national organizations to help recruit 1.4 million workers to produce the country's 2010 census, including one with a history of voter fraud charges: ACORN.  —  FOXNews.com

“Off With Those Pants”: Bill O'Reilly Seduces You in Clips From His Dirty Audiobook  —  Your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets.  I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power.  —  Those Who Trespass audiobook

Mistrial by iPhone: Juries' Web Research Upends Trials  —  Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge's instructions and centuries of legal rules.

Limbaugh"s Favorable Rating: 19 Percent  —  Limbaugh's Favorable Rating: 19 Percent  —  Over the past few weeks, the White House has been casting right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, and based on a new CBS News poll, it appears they may be on to something.

McCain Refuses To Condemn Ingraham's Attacks On His Daughter  —  Last week, ThinkProgress reported that hate radio host Laura Ingraham responded to Meghan McCain's criticism of right-wingers like Ann Coulter by calling her “plus-sized.”  Meghan shot back, telling Ingraham, “stop talking about my body.”

Obama Budget Chief: Numbers Looking Worse  —  ABC News' Teddy Davis reports:  —  President Obama's budget chief said Tuesday that he expects a forthcoming government revenue estimate to reflect a worsening economic picture.  —  “The numbers will be more negative than anticipated,” …

Tauscher to State  —  Word is that Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on strategic forces and a staunch superdelegate for presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, is in line for a top post at the State Department …

Federal judge scolds prosecutor  —  Appeals Judge Richard Posner cites misconduct as conviction overturned  —  U.S. Appeals Judge Richard Posner is known for his provocative opinions, but his harsh criticism of a Chicago federal prosecutor surprises even close court observers.

Fox News apologizes for dishonest splicing of Biden clip.  —  Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that Fox News spliced a six-month old clip of Vice President Biden to misleadingly imply that he recently said the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.”  Today, Fox News's Martha MacCallum apologized …

North Korea launches perfect Italian pizza  —  North Korea has opened its first pizzeria after a decade of clandestine international research.  —  It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart - the nation's first “authentic” Italian pizzeria.

AOL Leaps Into Original News Content With PoliticsDaily.com  —  This story has been updated from its original version.  —  New Media is about to meet Old Media.  But not in the way you'd think.  —  AOL is about to launch a politics site, hiring well-respected political journalists …

U.S. Weighs Taliban Strike Into Pakistan  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan …

Citi Losing Economist to Treasury  —  Citigroup Inc.'s chief economist is leaving the company for a job at the Treasury Department, according to an internal Citigroup memo.  —  Lewis Alexander, who has been at Citigroup since 1999 and before that worked at the Federal Reserve …

Dems Fuming Over White House Plan To Make Vets Pay For Service Injuries  —  Democrats in Congress are organizing to squash a White House proposal that would require veterans to use private insurance to pay for treatment of their combat and service-related injuries.

Republicans Ask Obama to Withdraw Hill Nomination  —  The signatories include Senators Ensign, Brownback, Bond, Kyl, and Inhofe, though interestingly no Republican from the Foreign Relations Committee.  The complaints echo those made by Senators Graham and McCain last week, mainly that Christopher Hill …

GOP turns on itself, risks losses in midterms  —  The California Republican Party has been pummeled by some tough body blows in recent years - and results at the ballot box have been just part of the pain.  —  Now, at a time when the national GOP is trying to find its voice and cultivate new candidates …

Guns on a plane  —  Obama secretly ends program that let pilots carry guns  —  After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program.  No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control …