U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms  —  Goal Is to Limit Risk to Broader Economy  —  The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers …

Go back into hiding, GOP begs Dick Cheney  —  Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.  —  Displeased with the former vice-president's recent media appearances …

Culture Shock  —  What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble.  —  Last May, Conor Friedersdorf, a twenty-eight-year-old recent graduate of NYU's Journalism School, decided he was going to save conservative journalism.

Obama's Global Op-Ed: “A Time For Global Action”  —  More than 30 papers around the world ran an op-ed today by President Obama arguing for “the urgent need for global economic cooperation.”  —  According to the White House, the op-ed ran in the following papers:  —  1. Al Watan (Gulf States)

Poll of change: Obama's job approval slipping to ‘50-50’  —  + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email + Bio  —  The honeymoon is over, a national poll will signal tomorrow as President Obama's job approval stumbles to about 50 percent over the lack of improvement with the crippled economy.

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers: Stiglitz  —  The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.

Obama seeks filter-free news  —  At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.

Will Obama Listen to Iran's Bloggers?  —  Barack Obama extended the olive branch to Iran's leaders last Friday in a videotaped message praising a “great civilization” for “accomplishments” that “have earned the respect of the United States and the world.”  The death of Iranian blogger Omid-Reza Mirsayafi …

Strip-Search of Girl Tests Limit of School Policy  —  SAFFORD, Ariz. — Savana Redding still remembers the clothes she had on — black stretch pants with butterfly patches and a pink T-shirt — the day school officials here forced her to strip six years ago.  She was 13 and in eighth grade.

Analysis: Campaign films may get OK  —  Analysis  —  Because a government lawyer pushed his argument as far as logic would carry it, the Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed poised to create a new exception to federal power to regulate what advocacy groups can say during national political campaigns.

Larry, Larry  —  From The Hill: … I'm fine with this.  Larry is a first-rate economist with a job to do, and I wish him luck in it.  He understands what I'm saying, of course, but he's doing his best to support the official line.  —  That line now goes like this: first …

China Takes Aim at Dollar  —  BEIJING — China called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world's standard, proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing nations' growing unhappiness with the U.S. role in the world economy.

Consider This: NPR Achieves Record Ratings  —  At a time when newspapers, magazines and TV news continue to lose readers and viewers, at least one part of the traditional media has continued to grow robustly: National Public Radio.  —  The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including …

Build Transit Where It's Most Needed: In the Core  —  Reps. Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran, both good transit folks from Northern Virginia, have introduced a bill to study Metro expansion.  This is a good idea and a welcome development, exactly the sort of thing I was hoping would come from Connolly getting elected.

Obama's aunt back in Boston for deportation hearing  —  President Obama's aunt, a Kenyan immigrant who ignited controversy last year for living in the United States illegally, has returned to her quiet apartment in a Boston public housing complex to prepare for an April 1 deportation hearing.

Don't Fear the Swedish Model  —  The Triumph of the Geeks and Tough Guys by Tina Brown  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Bo Lundgren, Sweden's minister for fiscal and financial affairs, stared down a financial crisis in the 1990s and lived to tell the tale.  In a Daily Beast interview …