Get Off Obama's Back ...second thoughts from Michael Moore  —  Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize.  “No, I don't think so,” I replied.  I thought it was important to remind him he's now conducting the two wars he's inherited.

Where's the beef?  —  Joe's reaction to Obama's gay speech is up on the gay blog.  —  As for my take... Barack Obama just promised us that if he becomes president, he's going to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act, and get ENDA passed.  It was a bit surreal.

In Polanski Case, '70s Culture Collides With Today  —  LOS ANGELES — At the end of “Manhattan,” the celebrated movie romance from 1979, a teenager played by Mariel Hemingway delivers some good news to the 42-year-old television writer, portrayed by Woody Allen, with whom she has had a long-running sexual affair.

Debate Follows Bills to Remove Clotheslines Bans  —  CANTON, Ohio — After taking a class that covered global warming last year, Jill Saylor decided to save energy by drying her laundry on a clothesline at her mobile home.  —  “I figured trailer parks were the one place left where hanging …

Top Judge Calls Calif. Government ‘Dysfunctional’  —  LOS ANGELES — In a rare public rebuke of state government and policies delivered by a sitting judge, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court scathingly criticized the state's reliance on the referendum process, arguing that it has …

Hot and cold  —  This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.  —  But it is true.  For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

Small Banks Fail at Growing Rate, Straining F.D.I.C.  —  A year after Washington rescued the banks considered too big to fail, the ones deemed too small to save are approaching a grim milestone: the 100th bank failure of 2009.  —  In what has become a ritual, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation …

Star-Ledger endorses independent Chris Daggett for N.J. governor  —  The Star-Ledger today endorses independent candidate Chris Daggett and recommends his election as the next governor of New Jersey.  —  The newspaper's decision is less a rejection of Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican Chris Christie …

What I Heard in Honduras  —  Our ambassador is the only person I met there who thinks there was a ‘coup.’ Let's release the State Department legal analysis.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Tegucigalpa  —  In the last three months, much has been made of a supposed military “coup” …

After Siege, Pakistan Army Retakes Its Headquarters  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani commandos rescued 25 hostages early Sunday who were held by militants inside the nation's military headquarters, after gunmen dressed in army fatigues stormed the building in a brazen attack 18 hours earlier, according to the chief army spokesman.