Exclusive: White House aides insisted F-22 be removed from Obama speech venue  —  When President Obama spoke to troops at Alaska's Elmendorf Air Force Base last month, the unit there parked a shiny new F-22 fighter plane in the hanger.  But according to multiple sources …

New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill  —  ALBANY — The State Senate defeated a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights, family and history.  The vote means that the bill, pushed by Gov. David A. Paterson …

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over ‘Climategate’  —  Leaked e-mails allegedly undermining climate change science should be treated as a criminal matter, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Wednesday afternoon.  —  Boxer, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee …

White House Blocks Testimony on Party Crashers  —  Updated |  10:22 p.m. The White House on Wednesday invoked the separation of powers to keep Desiree Rogers, President Obama's social secretary, from testifying on Capitol Hill about how a couple of aspiring reality television show celebrities crashed …

Senator Moves to Hold Up Bernanke Confirmation  —  WASHINGTON — Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont said on Wednesday that he would try to block the Senate from confirming Ben S. Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.  —  The move is unlikely to derail Mr. Bernanke's reappointment …

ClimateGate: The 7 Biggest Lies About The Supposed “Global Warming Hoax”  —  A few weeks ago, hackers broke into the emails of one of the Climate Research Unit of The University of East Anglia, and climate skeptics have been having a field day making mountains out of molehills about what the emails contain.

Franken fallout has GOP fuming  —  Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes.  —  The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn't doing much to stop them.

GOP Senator Pens Obstruction Manual For Health Care  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Sen. Judd Gregg, (R-NH) has penned the equivalent of an obstruction manual — a how-to for holding up health care reform — and has distributed the document to his Republican colleagues.

Utahns growing tired of Bennett  —  Poll shows most want a change — but rivals trail far behind senator  —  Two of every three Utahns want to see Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, ousted in his re-election bid next year.  —  However, all of the challengers seeking to unseat him currently trail far behind …

Anderson Cooper's Ratings Plummet  —  Anderson Cooper is fading in the ratings.  —  The respected CNN anchor has seen his numbers slip significantly through the past year.  His 10 p.m. show, “Anderson Cooper 360,” has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 from November 2008, according to Nielsen figures.

All men watch porn, scientists find  —  Scientists at the University of Montreal launched a search for men who had never looked at pornography - but couldn't find any.  —  Researchers were conducting a study comparing the views of men in their 20s who had never been exposed to pornography with regular users.

If you give away the public option, what do you get?  —  Most of the energy in the Senate right now is being directed into a mad rush for compromise proposals on the public option.  This reflects the sense that the right compromise on the public option is a compromised public option.

Unbelievable update: The crappiest NYTimes column on Obamacare just got crappier; Update: Kristof's disingenuous non-response  —  Scroll for updates...Kristof non-responds...holes remain...  Today, I did something that Pulitzer Prize-winning NYTimes columnist Nick Kristof apparently didn't do …

Sens. Feinstein and Durbins attack on citizen journalism  —  The Senate is currently considering a media shield law, pushed by media outfits that want federal protection for their journalists.  —  The legislation originally had a broad definition of “journalist”, but that was curtailed thanks …

‘Family Ties’ mom: ‘I am a lesbian’  —  Meredith Baxter says she has been dating women for the past seven years  —  For seven years, actress Meredith Baxter has been hiding a secret.  —  Now Baxter, who played the devoted hippie mom constantly butting heads with her conservative kids on “Family Ties,” is making a public admission.

Sarah Palin's Fee Schedule - Found!  —  Many of us were surprised to learn from news reports today that while cameras and all recording devices have been banned from ALL of Sarah Palin's appearances, one can purchase a photo of oneself meeting Sarah at a book signing event:

Mean Street: The Sham of a Mockery of an Obama Jobs Summit  —  What is it about Thursday's White House “jobs summit” that rubs me the wrong way?  —  All presidents engage in these sorts of elaborate PR stunts.  Why not just dismiss it as another meaningless piece of Washington political theater?

Decline of the West  —  Ten years ago, in the final pages of a collection of his selected writings, Cornel West gave readers a look at the work he had in progress, or at least in mind, for the years ahead.  One would be “a major treatment of African-American literature and modern Greek literature.”

Tiger comments on current events  —  I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.  I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.  I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect.  I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family.

New Haven fire board approves long-sought promotions (full coverage)  —  NEW HAVEN — The Board of Fire Commissioners today approved the promotions of one Hispanic and 13 white firefighters, giving them the advancement they fought for all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy  —  Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial …

WashTimes cutting staff up to 40 percent  —  Jonathan Slevin, acting publisher and president of the Washington Times, outlined a new plan for the beleaguered newspaper and spoke of “significant staff reductions” at a meeting this afternoon.  —  Staff are receiving notices at the meeting …

A More Perfect Union  —  I have a pretty good marriage.  —  It could be better.  —  I.  —  There are things about my husband that drive me crazy.  Last spring he cut apart a frozen pig's head with his compound miter saw in our basement.  He needed the head to fit into a pot so that he could make pork stock.

Immigration Detention System Lapses Detailed  —  Growing numbers of noncitizens, including legal immigrants, are held unnecessarily and transferred heedlessly in an expensive immigration detention system that denies many of them basic fairness, a bipartisan study group and a human rights organization concluded …