Dems propose cutting Obama budget by billions  —  CNN Congressional Producer  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hours before President Obama was to hold a prime-time news conference — in part to boost his $3.6 trillion budget plan — a key Democratic senator Tuesday unveiled a scaled-down budget proposal.

Analysis: Teleprompter telegraphs Obama caution  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference?  —  A careful one.  —  President Barack Obama took no chances in his second prime-time news conference …

Obama skips major papers  —  During President Obama's second East Room news conference, he took questions from 13 reporters over about an hour — that's the same as during his first presser on Feb. 9.  —  But in quite a departure from the first presser — and White House protocol — Obama skipped over the nation's top newspapers.

U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

Ehud Barak to Join Netanyahu Cabinet  —  Kadima Leader Tzipi Livni has spent weeks resisting Benjamin Netanyahu's pleas that she enter his cabinet, citing the fact that she has no desire to be moderate window-dressing for a hard-right administration that's overtly opposed to a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

K-Lo & Crew: Only Republicans Should be Honored at Catholic Colleges  —  Right-wing Catholics are furious that President Obama is [defiling the sanctity of] delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame.  —  K-Lo called it “disgraceful,” grunting, “They took a giant step away …

Specter delivers death blow to labor union bill  —  Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced Tuesday he will oppose card check, giving an apparent death blow to the most important congressional issue to organized labor.  —  Specter made the dramatic announcement in a floor speech.

President Obama's News Conference  —  Following is a complete of President Obama's prime-time press conference on March 24, as transcribed by Federal News Service.  —  PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, everybody.  Please have a seat.  —  Good evening.  Now, before I take questions from the correspondents …

Why God Invented C-SPAN  —  In today's installment, Michele Bachmann saves us from a sneaky Chinese and Russian plot to achieve world domination through a global currency, but reveals that she was not at school the day they studied this in sixth grade:  —  Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

Open for Questions: President Obama to Answer Your Questions on Thursday  —  Today, the President invited everyone to use a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov called “Open for Questions” to ask a question about the economy and rate other questions up or down.  Then, on Thursday morning …

Stimulus idea: How about massive forgiveness of student loans?  —  Nothing on this yet from Congress or The One, but a Facebook group dedicated to the proposal has 138,000 members and counting.  No typo.  My sense of personal responsibility says no but my debt-crushed monthly budget cries proceed:

Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures  —  President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that his budget would cut the deficit by half by the end of his term.  But as Heritage analyst Brian Riedl has pointed out, given that Obama has already helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package …

Justices Consider Campaign Finance Law  —  WASHINGTON — A quirky case about a slashing documentary attacking Hillary Rodham Clinton would not seem to be the most obvious vehicle for a fundamental re-examination of the interplay between the First Amendment and campaign finance laws.

Most electronic voting isn't secure, CIA expert says  —  WASHINGTON — The CIA, which has been monitoring foreign countries' use of electronic voting systems, has reported apparent vote-rigging schemes in Venezuela, Macedonia and Ukraine and a raft of concerns about the machines' vulnerability to tampering.

Politicians Fret as Muslim Population Swells in Europe Amid Little Integration  —  BRUSSELS, Belgium — A clash of civilizations may be taking place on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, but it's also happening a lot more quietly in European cities.  —  Old Europe's population …

Dear A.I.G., I Quit!  —  The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group's financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.  —  DEAR Mr. Liddy,  —  It is with deep regret that I submit …

Next Foreign Crisis Could Be Next Door  —  MEXICO CITY — Mexico's economy is being dragged down by the recession to the north.  American addicts have turned Mexico into a drug superhighway, and its police and soldiers are under assault from American guns.  Nafta promised 15 years ago …

Obama must choose this week between two radically different Afghanistan policies.  —  With just a week until President Barack Obama flies to Strasbourg, France, for his first NATO conference, his top advisers are still divided over what U.S. policy should be on the summit's No. 1 issue: how to fight the war in Afghanistan.

Contender for TARP Job Drops Out  —  WASHINGTON — The leading candidate to run the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout program has withdrawn his name from consideration, according to people familiar with the matter.  —  Frank Brosens, a hedge-fund manager and big Democratic donor …

Sources: Obama will lay out new plan for Afghanistan war on Friday  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will lay out a new Afghanistan strategy on Friday that calls for more U.S. troops and civilian officials and increased aid to combat militants along the ungoverned Pakistan border, officials said.

‘Global War On Terror’ Is Given New Name  —  The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase “global war on terror,” a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor.  —  In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that …