U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O'Keefe Case  —  James O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was “framed” by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday.

Pentagon To Announce End To Third Party Outings  —  When Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint of Chiefs of Staff, testify before Congress today, they are expected to announce a series of first steps in the direction of preparing the military for the integration of gays and lesbians.

Obama Budget Would Impose Host of Tax Increases  —  Obama budget plan would imposes host of tax increases on businesses, wealthy families  —  While President Barack Obama is proposing to cut some taxes for companies that hire workers, his budget would raise a host of other taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals.

Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power  —  WASHINGTON — In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.  —  The first is the projected deficit in the coming year …

Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores  —  One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image.  So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee …

Curveball Alters Talks on Wall St. Reform  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's proposals to tax and curb the activities of Wall Street have thrown an unpredictable element into the debate over financial regulatory reform.  They also have touched off an intensive new round of lobbying …

Climate emails scientist ‘hid’ flaws  —  Exclusive: Key study by East Anglia professor Phil Jones was based on suspect figures  —  • How the location of weather stations in China undermines data  —  • How the ‘climategate’ scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics' lies

Virginia Senate bills say no to requiring health insurance  —  RICHMOND — Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health care.

Durbin, Schumer prep for fight with donations to Senate colleagues  —  The second- and third-ranking Senate Democratic leaders are doling out huge sums of cash, laying the groundwork for a leadership race should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lose reelection.

Abstinence-only programs might work, study says  —  Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for U.S. efforts …

Sanger: Deficits could undermine U.S. power — Baltimore fallout: West Wing looking for ways POTUS can mix it up, sans talking points — Obama to Indonesia — Study: Abstinence works  —  BIRTHDAYS: Teddy Downey (hat tips: Carol, Marc Adelman) ... Sen. Cornyn is 58

Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?  —  The newly-released mind-boggling, record-smashing $3,400,000,000,000 federal budget invites plenty of opportunity to debate the merits of incurring more and more debt that will drown the next generation of Americans.  Never has it been possible to spend your way out of debt.

Danny Williams going to U.S. for heart surgery  —  Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States.  —  CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 59, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.

Rep. Paul Ryan's daring budget proposal  —  The White House's 2011 budget is only the second-most interesting budget proposal released recently.  First prize goes to Congressman Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, who's released a budget proposal that actually erases the massive long-term deficit.

Obama administration is tone-deaf to concerns about terrorism  —  There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer.  Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists their rights …

Poll: Republicans Think Obama Is A Socialist, And Palin More Qualified To Be President  —  A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, conducted among 2,000 self-identified Republican respondents nationwide, gives an interesting peek into the psyche of the minority party's base.

Rising FHA default rate foreshadows a crush of foreclosures  —  The share of borrowers who are falling seriously behind on loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration jumped by more than a third in the past year, foreshadowing a crush of foreclosures that could further buffet an agency vital to the housing market's recovery.

The Geezers' Crusade  —  We like to think that in days gone by, the young venerated the elderly.  But that wasn't always so.  In “As You Like It,” Shakespeare's morose character, Jaques, calls old age “second childishness and mere oblivion.”  Walt Whitman hoped that the tedium and pettiness …

At Issue: Counting the Jobs Created  —  As the Obama administration begins talking to Congress about a new jobs bill, it is still having trouble saying with precision how many jobs have been spurred so far by last year's effort, the $787 billion stimulus package that was designed to create or save 3.5 million jobs over two years.

We've got a big announcement  —  I'm just going to republish the press release that went out:  —  The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) - a project of the American Conservative Union Foundation, in association with Young America's Foundation and Human Events …

No Room for Reagan  —  In the end, chairman Michael Steele persuaded the Republican National Committee not to require that any candidate hoping to receive help from the party promise to support eight out of ten principles in the so-called Reagan Resolution.  That requirement …

Chris Matthews Compares Conservative Republicans to Murderous Khmer Rouge Regime  —  Appearing on the January 29 “Rachel Maddow Show,” fellow MSNBCer Chris Matthews compared Republican conservatives to the Khmer Rouge, the murderous Communist regime that racked up a body count of some two million during its reign of terror:

Bill Kristol agrees that Obama's ‘been doing all kinds of crazy stuff that risks destroying America’  —  One of the key points President Obama made in his back-and-forth with House Republicans seems to be really sticking in the craw of the right-wing pundit class: … Bill Kristol, yesterday on Fox News Sunday: