Geithner plan arithmetic  —  Leave on one side the question of whether the Geither plan is a good idea or not.  One thing is clearly false in the way it's being presented: administration officials keep saying that there's no subsidy involved, that investors would share in the downside.  That's just wrong.

I Was Followed, Harassed, And Ambushed By Bill O'Reilly's Producer  —  On March 1, ThinkProgress picked up on a story by News Hounds, which noted that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly — who has made controversial comments about rape victims in the past — was slated to speak at a March 19 fundraiser for the Alexa Foundation.

Reviews are in: Geithner clears the bar  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  —  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - who hasn't had many winning days in his short tenure on Pennsylvania Avenue - scored a big political victory Monday …

Bank of America's Bernstein Says Sell Bank Stocks After Rally  —  Investors should sell bank stocks after they rallied 12 percent today because the Treasury Department's plan to buy toxic assets won't stop profits from dropping, Bank of America Corp.'s Richard Bernstein said.

Michele Bachmann on D.C.: “I'm a Foreign Correspondent On Enemy Lines”  —  During a Saturday afternoon interview on WWTC 1280 AM with The Northern Alliance's John Hinderaker and Brian Ward, Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann discussed her staunch opposition to several Democratic-led efforts …

Canadian defense minister to Greg Gutfeld and Fox News: Apologize; Update: Gutfeld apologizes  —  In which a YouTube grassroots brushfire explodes into a full-blown international incident.  You make the call: Below you'll find the “Red Eye” segment that aired on March 17 followed by MacKay's demand for an apology this morning.

Tea Parties, Going Galt, Iraq, and Delicious Irony  —  I've been following the growing “Tea Party” and “Going Galt” movements with no small amount of amusement, in part because there is really just too much sweet, delicious irony surrounding both of these groups of people (who, I might add, are largely the same people).

Obama writes letter to Chirac - blogosphere goes crazy  —  Want to know how quickly rumors get spread on the Internet?  Here's a prime example.  —  The right side of the web is apoplectic this morning claiming that President Obama doesn't know who the French president is.

EPA: Global Warming Threatens Public Health, Welfare  —  The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposal to the White House on Friday finding that global warming is endangering the public's health and welfare, according to several sources, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the nation's economy and environment.

Cuomo Says Most Huge A.I.G. Bonuses Were Returned  —  Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group had given back their bonuses.  —  He also said 15 of the top 20 bonus recipients …

SECOND TIME'S A CHARM  —  As far as the market is concerned, anyway, Tim Geithner's second shot at laying out a plan to rescue the nation's banking system is being received a lot better than his first.  At this moment, the Dow is up over four percent.  —  You can read the Treasury Department's description of the plan here.

Law Professor Who Advised Obama Says House AIG Bill May Be Unconstitutional  —  I just got off the phone with Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, who advised Obama during the campaign, and he says he's leaning towards seeing the new House bill to tax back all the AIG bonuses as unconstitutional.

JPMorgan Chase To Spend Millions on New Jets and Luxury Airport Hangar  —  Outraged Critics Decry the Proposal, Call For Bank To Abandon Plans  —  Embattled bank JPMorgan Chase, the recipient of $25 billion in TARP funds, is going ahead with a $138 million plan to buy two new luxury corporate jets and build …

Dodd's Wife a Former Director of Bermuda-Based IPC Holdings, an AIG Controlled Company  —  No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG.

Breaking up the Big Banks  —  My biggest concern about the PPIP approach to the banking system is that even if it works, what it does essentially is return us to the pre-crisis status quo—banks that are so large that they're too politically powerful to regulate effective and too systemically important to be allowed to fail.

Federal judge postpones medical marijuana sentencing  —  A federal judge in Los Angeles this morning postponed the sentencing of a man who emerged as a key figure in the national debate over medical marijuana, saying he wanted additional information about a reported change in the Justice Department's policy regarding such prosecutions.

Barack Obama Industrial Average: Rising  —  The stock market is up, in terms relative to its most recent terrifying trench, and so is President Barack Obama's approval rating, which also bottomed out a while back.  —  The president would like people to think he follows neither indicator too closely …

The 50-Vote Senate  —  Could an obscure Senate rule free Barack Obama from the filibuster and enable health-care reform?  —  It's hard to imagine another town in which the most divisive thing you could do would be called “reconciliation.”  But this is Washington.

This court brought to you by...ACORN  —  An ACORN fund-raiser on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals?  —  I'm kidding, right?  —  Nope.  —  And a GOP Senator approves of this?  —  I'm kidding, right?

Fox News VP: Fox is ‘the voice of opposition’ to the Obama administration.  —  Though Fox News is widely known to be biased in favor of conservatism, the network likes to claim that is “fair and balanced” and that the objectivity of the “hard news” they do is “is not in question.”

Schumer Comes Out For Gay Marriage (Updated)  —  At a private risotto dinner last night with gay leaders and elected officials at Gramercy Tavern last night, Sen. Chuck Schumer reversed himself on the issue of same-sex marriage, saying he not only now supports it but also backs a full reversal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution  —  The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.

Obama budget's on chopping block in Congress  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's $3.6 trillion budget faces its first tests on Capitol Hill this week, where a leading lawmaker wants to cut as much as $30 billion from agency budgets …

Charles Murray's Praise of Human Misery  —  I kind of scanned Charles Murray's recent big AEI speech expecting to read something interesting, since I'd seen quite a few conservatives offer it lavish praise.  As best I could tell, though, his argument is that the problem with a social democratic model …

Sunni Militia Say Iraq Didn't Keep Jobs Promises  —  BAGHDAD — The American military marked another milestone the other day in the initiative perhaps most responsible for taming the violence in Iraq: All but 10,000 of the 94,000 Sunni militiamen — many of them former insurgents who agreed …

SPIN METER: Obama cools rhetoric on AIG bonuses  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama raced to the front of the pitchfork crowd last week, feeding public furor over bonuses paid to publicly rescued companies.

NY state senator indicted, accused of assault  —  NEW YORK - A freshman state senator sworn in to office despite allegations he slashed his girlfriend's face with broken glass in a jealous rage has been indicted on domestic assault charges, prosecutors said Monday.