Kroft to Obama: Are you punch-drunk?  —  President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, touching off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”  —  His remarks came in a “60 Minutes” …

Friendly fire: NYT hits Obama  —  The leading liberal voices of the New York Times editorial pages all criticized—and, in some cases, clobbered—President Obama on Sunday for his handling of the economy and national security.  —  It's not unusual for Barack Obama to take a little friendly fire from the Times.

Gregg: ‘This country will go bankrupt’  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Even though he was almost a member of the new Obama administration, New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg Sunday slammed President Obama's approach to handling the country's fiscal outlook.  —  “The practical implications …

Coming Soon: Declassified Bush-Era Torture Memos  —  From the magazine issue dated Mar 30, 2009  —  Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify—and publicly release—three internal memos that will lay out, for the first time, details of the …

U.S. Rounding Up Investors to Buy Bad Assets  —  WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials worked Sunday to persuade reluctant private investors to buy as much as $1 trillion in troubled mortgages and related assets from banks, with government help.  —  The talks came a day before the …

Venezuela's Chavez calls Obama “ignoramus”  —  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama was at best an “ignoramus” for saying the socialist leader exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America.

Chicago Way extension runs right through D.C.  —  President Barack Obama must not have had his Hopium before appearing on “The Tonight Show” last week, because he really screwed up.  —  No, not the screw-up in which he abandoned his trusty teleprompter to ad-lib a joke about how he's such a lousy bowler …

Sunday pops  —  Gov. Ed Rendell said the possible removal of Mitchell Rubin as chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission — for accepting a no-work state Senate job for $150,000 a year from now-convicted fraudster and former state Sen. Vince Fumo — “warrants an investigation.”

Are We Home Alone?  —  I ran into an Indian businessman friend last week and he said something to me that really struck a chord: “This is the first time I've ever visited the United States when I feel like you're acting like an immature democracy.”  —  You know what he meant …

Airstrikes in Pakistan  —  If you want something a bit under the radar to worry about, consider Greg Miller's LA Times article on the increasing use of airstrikes in Pakistan against alleged al-Qaeda targets.  —  I can't imagine that an American president ever would or should completely disavow the right to launch this sort of attack.

Orlando ‘Tea Party’ rally draws more than 4,000  —  Valerie Rike, 52, (left) with sister Christy Bishop, 59, attend the ‘Orlando Tea Party,’ a conservative rally Saturday at Lake Eola, downtown Orlando.  (Helen Eckinger, Orlando Sentinel / March 21, 2009)  —  Singer Lloyd Marcus told …

Parking meter rate hike sparks a rebellion  —  I spent last week staring at parking meters.  And wondering if I was witnessing the beginnings of a boycott.  —  Boycott is probably too strong a term.  Quiet rebellion may be more like it.  —  Whatever the word, on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m …

The ‘Global Warming Three’ are on thin ice  —  The only problem with a project to prove that Arctic ice is disappearing is the fact that it is actually getting thicker, says Christopher Booker.  —  What a wonderful parable of our time has been the expedition to the North Pole led by the explorer Pen Hadow.

A man and his dog  —  Governor Mark Sanford interprets Obama's intent in the real world. … Yes, Gov. Sanford, you're starting to get the message.  No matter how reasonable your argument, no matter how rational your reasons for not dropping to your knees in genuflection for the money Obama wants …

AP quotes “labor lawyer” who is really an anti-labor lawyer  —  Earlier, I noted that the Washington Post failed to quote a single labor representative in its Employee Free Choice article today, though it quoted three CEOs.  Turns out the AP is even worse.  This article doesn't quote any labor sources …

Brad DeLong's defense of Geithner  —  Brad gives it the old college try.  But he shies away, I think, from the central issue: the non-recourse loans financing 85 percent of the purchases.  —  Brad treats the prospect that assets purchased by public-private partnership will fall enough in value to wipe out the equity as unlikely.

The Trouble With Subsidies  —  From the magazine issue dated Mar 30, 2009  —  I'm certainly not going to defend those AIG bonuses.  But the trouble with populist outrage is that it bubbles over, sweeping from one justifiable issue across to many others.  Waves of populism are now working …

VP adviser: AIG bonus tax may go too far  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden's economic adviser warned Sunday that a congressional plan to tax American International Group Inc. executives' bonuses may go too far in using the tax code as a tool for retribution.