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 …

Little-Known GOP Challenger Tops Specter In Primary, Quinnipiac University Pennsylvania Poll Finds; Support For Obama Plan Helps Among Democrats  —  Apparently paying a political price for his support of President Barack Obama's Stimulus Plan, longtime Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter …

Geithner ‘open’ to China proposal  —  Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is “open” to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar …

Democrats Take Knife To Obama's Budget  —  Key Democratic leaders were performing major surgery yesterday on President Obama's first budget plan in an effort to bring skyrocketing annual deficits under control, while preserving the option of enacting some of the president's most significant and costly domestic priorities.

E.U. President Calls U.S. Stimulus the ‘Way to Hell’  —  BRUSSELS — Transatlantic tension over the handling of the global economic crisis intensified on Wednesday when the prime minister of the Czech Republic, which holds the European Union presidency, described the U. S. stimulus measures as the “way to hell.”

Michelle Bachmann, Vigilant Guardian of the Constitution  —  diggs  —  digg it  —  Watch Timothy Geithner's face as he's grilled here by Bachmann.  Priceless. … Funny how all these Bush/Cheney Republicans have suddenly discovered there's this thing called “the Constitution,” isn't it?

Former CNN Anchor Moves to The Onion  —  In yet another sign that the line between real news and fake news is getting thinner, one of CNN's main anchors during the 1980s and 1990s, Bobbie Battista, has taken a step through the looking glass and can now be seen anchoring reports online for ONN, The Onion News Network.

Jindal defends those who want Obama to fail  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — It's OK for Republicans to want President Obama to fail if they think he's jeopardizing the country, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told members of his political party Tuesday night.  —  Jindal described the premise of the question …

Is it back to the Fifties?  —  “My mother is 75,” said Jon Stewart, the US late-night comedian, at the end of his already famous interview with Jim Cramer, the television stock market pundit.  “And she bought into the idea that long-term investing is the way to go.  And guess what?”

Of all the reasons to plant a garden, free food may be the worst.  —  The much-discussed Obama kitchen garden seems very noble and well-intentioned (despite Michelle Obama's controversial outfit), and as an avid gardener, I was loving the whole project until I came across the following quote from an ecstatic Alice Waters:

Obama, DNC jump in on New York race  —  National Democrats and the Obama White House are moving to counter criticism that party bigwigs have largely been AWOL in a New York special House election.  —  The DNC, which has given candidate Scott Murphy $5,000, is now sending another $5,000 …

Transcript: President Obama's Press Conference  —  [*] OBAMA: Hello, everybody.  Please have a seat.  —  Good evening.  Now, before I take questions from the correspondents, I want to give everyone who's watching tonight an update on the steps we're taking to move this economy from recession to recovery …

Netanyahu, Lieberman ‘struck secret deal for West Bank construction’  —  Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a secret deal with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for highly contentious construction on West Bank land known as E1, Army Radio reported Wednesday.

My speech to Gordon Brown goes viral  —  The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever.  Twenty-four hours ago, I made a three-minute speech in the European Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown.  I tipped off the BBC and some of the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly …

Obama testing pundits' patience  —  Barack Obama's second televised presidential news conference saw him in combative mood, pundits and bloggers judged after his prime-time White House performance.  —  Online reaction was dominated by the president's minor spat with a TV reporter …

GOP's rising star runs into a rough patch  —  A rising star in the Republican Party has dimmed over the past week.  —  House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), a politically shrewd up-and-comer in the GOP, has broken with his party on two high-profile issues.

‘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 …

Obama and the Teleprompter  —  Following this and this.  —  Obama's opening statement at this evening's press conference, delivered no doubt with the help of a teleprompter, sounded smoother and more polished than his real-time answers through the rest of the event.

Howard Dean To Announce Major New Campaign On Health Care Reform  —  Looks like Howard Dean is well on his way to finding a post-DNC niche, and he won't be needing the Obama administration to find it for him.  —  On a conference call with supporters later today, Dean will make a surprise announcement …

ROMNEY: Cautionary tale of card check  —  ANALYSIS/OPINION:  —  In 2006, my last year as governor of Massachusetts, I vetoed a card-check bill that allowed public workers to organize if a majority signed union authorization cards as opposed to casting a traditional secret ballot.

Andrew Malcolm is bored, too  —  Los Angeles Times blogger/former Laura Bush press secretary wasn't impressed by President Obama last night.  Surprise, surprise. … Now, I don't want Andrew Malcolm to be bored.  That's a less-than-ideal way to go through your workday.  —  So here's a suggestion, Mr. Malcolm: Quit.

Sacrifice  —  Apparently Chuck Todd asked President Obama why he isn't asking people to “sacrifice” more amidst the recession.  —  The standard progressive answer to this starts by observing that the hundreds of thousands of people who are losing their jobs each week are, presumably, sacrificing.

Obama Years Ago Helped Fund Carbon Program He Is Now Pushing Through Congress  —  While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president.

Barney Frank: Justice Scalia “makes it very clear that he's angry, frankly, about the existence of gay people.”  —  “If you read his opinion [in Lawrence v. Texas], he thinks it's a good idea for two consenting adults who happen to be gay to be locked up because he is so disapproving of gay people.”

The man who survived both atomic bombings  —  Japan has certified a man aged 93 as the only known survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both hit by atomic bombs towards the end of World War II.  —  Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when a US plane dropped the first atomic bomb.