First-person Socialism  —  I think our president needs to invest more in the use of the third-person “government,” since his speeches more and more center on the narcissistic “I” and “me.”  Even the car-takeover speech was “I-ed” to death.  E.g. My Auto Task Force And so today …

‘New York Times’ Spiked Obama Donor Story  —  Congressional Testimony: ‘Game-Changer’ Article Would Have Connected Campaign With ACORN  —  A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 …

Why the Democrats Can't Govern  —  Look who's killing Obama's agenda now.  —  The last Democrat who held the White House, Bill Clinton, saw the core of his domestic agenda come to ruin, his political support collapse, and his failure spawn a massive Republican resurgence that made progressive reform impossible for a decade to come.

Angie Harmon: I'm Not Racist Because I Disagree With Obama  —  Angie Harmon is not afraid to come out and say she doesn't like how President Obama is handling the job — but she's sick of having to defend herself from being deemed a racist.  —  “Here's my problem with this, I'm just going to come out and say it.

Murtha's defense of earmark gobbling  —  But it was this line that caught our eye:

Dem Strategists: Sarah Palin Is The New Rush Limbaugh  —  Is the Rush Limbaugh strategy giving way to the Sarah Palin strategy?  —  Multiple Democratic strategists say the party plans to increasingly elevate Palin in the same manner it has employed Rush for weeks, using her high-visibility …

Obama Derangement Syndrome  —  I have been watching an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern.  I am referring to the over-the-top hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president, which distinctly reminds me of the “Bush Is Hitler” crowd on the Left.

Banks Starting to Walk Away on Foreclosures  —  SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure.  A date for a sheriff's sale had been set, and notices about the foreclosure process were piling up in her mailbox.

Legal Group's Neutrality Is Challenged  —  Two weeks ago, the American Bar Association's eight-year exile ended.  The Obama administration restored the group to the special status it had enjoyed since the Eisenhower years, and it will once again get early word about potential nominees to the federal bench.

Big Trouble  —  The more I look at these investment decisions of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and former Lehman exec Charles Millard the more my suspicion grows that some very bad happened here.  There's no question that something happened very bad for the pensioners who were relying on this fund.

U.S. Decides to Release Detainee at Guantánamo  —  The Justice Department announced Monday that the administration had decided to release a detainee at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, a Yemeni doctor who the Bush administration once claimed had taken part in an anthrax program of Al Qaeda.

DNC chair infuriates abortion backers  —  Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor and President Barack Obama's hand-picked choice as the head of the Democratic National Committee, infuriated abortion-rights groups Monday by signing legislation that gives abortion foes an important symbolic win.

The Swastika and the Cedar  —  In newly liberated Lebanon, the signposts on “the Arab street” point in opposite directions.  The author's experiences—he was buoyed by a huge rally for democracy in downtown Beirut, then beaten up by Fascist bullies—show how much this diverse society offers hope …

Clinton Calls Years of Afghan Aid ‘Heartbreaking’ in Their Futility  —  The billions of dollars spent in U.S. aid to Afghanistan over the past seven years have been largely wasted, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.  —  “For those of you who have been on the ground in Afghanistan …

Bush's Torture Rationale Debunked  —  Abu Zubaida was the alpha and omega of the Bush administration's argument for torture.  —  That's why Sunday's front-page Washington Post story by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick is such a blow to the last remaining torture apologists.

20th CD, La Deluge  —  Even as Jim Tedisco plans an all-night sprint of campaigning leading up to tomorrow's 20th CD special election, Republicans are privately lowering expectations and rather gloomily suggesting that this could be the beginning of the end for them in New York.  Again.

Video: Maher salutes American troops  —  I stopped watching Bill Maher a long time ago, and it's moments like this that remind me why he's a waste of broadcast air time.  Maher complains that we need to bring home the troops from World War II by pulling out of Germany and Japan …

House rejects Flake's call for PMA investigation  —  For the sixth time, the House has rejected a resolution by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to initiate an ethics investigation into the relationship between lawmakers at the PMA Group.  This time, however, Flake gained more Democratic supporter than any of the previous votes.

Rep. Paul Ryan Concedes GOP Alternative Budget Would Increase The Deficit ‘A Lot’  —  Last week, the House GOP presented its alternative budget proposal.  Members of the media, including conservative commentators, widely panned the document for being scant on details and appearing more as “campaign-style talking points.”

Americans Divided on Treasury Secretary Geithner  —  Democrats approve; Republicans disapprove  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are split essentially down the middle when asked to assess the job Tim Geithner is doing as Treasury secretary: 42% say they approve, 40% disapprove, and 18% have no opinion.

Should My Blog Word Count Be Restricted?  —  The other day I was musing about the possibility of a 95 percent tax on earnings over $10 million, which prompted this piece of correspondence from reader J: … Personally, I would love a legal cap on the number of words a blogger is allowed to produce per day.

Don Barack  —  When the Godfather helps you out, you owe the Godfather.  And you'd better comply when the favor is called in.  That appears to be the model the Obama administration is following when it comes to companies that accept federal bailout money — and, in one case, the “favors” owed are being called in.

Star Lobbyist Closes Shop Amid F.B.I. Inquiry  —  WASHINGTON — For most of the last three decades, the lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti might have been mistaken for an owner of the Alpine, a wood-paneled Italian restaurant across the Potomac River from Washington where he routinely presided …

India's New Face  —  IF THE SPIRIT of modern India has a geographic heartland it is Gujarat, the northwestern state bordering Sindh, in Pakistan.  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the mahatma—Sanskrit for “great soul”—was a Gujarati, born in Porbandar, on the Arabian Sea, in 1869.

Catholics Similar to Mainstream on Abortion, Stem Cells  —  Catholics actually more liberal on some issues  — USA - Abortion - Moral Issues - Religion - Religion and Social Trends - Stem Cell Research - Americas - Northern America  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Despite the Roman Catholic Church's …

What Happened in NH?  AAPOR's Answer  —  Most political junkies remember two things about last year's New Hampshire primary.  First, Hillary Clinton's surprising three point win and the fact that the pollsters were the “biggest losers” as the final round off of pre-election polls had shown Barack Obama surging ahead.

Fox News's Mad, Apocalyptic, Tearful Rising Star  —  “You are not alone,” Glenn Beck likes to say.  For the disaffected and aggrieved Americans of the Obama era, he could not have picked a better rallying cry.  —  Mr. Beck, an early-evening host on the Fox News Channel …

Experts: Obama needs to watch the gaffes  —  Instant Internet communication and an explosion in political commentary are magnifying President Obama's gaffes and administration missteps, and could erode his popularity faster than that of other presidents, say experts from both left and right.

The Rich Uncle Argument  —  Back at the beginning of the month, I recounted an odd incident from a Kaufman Foundation conference that I'd attended: … Crazy.  I didn't think this would go anywhere.  But today I read my Ed Kilgore: … As Ed says, the argument is that …