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Deficit to Hit All-Time High — Obama's $3.8 Trillion Budget Forecasts a $1.6 Trillion Shortfall for 2010 Before It Drops — WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will propose on Monday a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011 that projects the deficit will shoot up to a record $1.6 trillion this year …
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Deficit to Grow $100 Billion Under New Obama Budget — WASHINGTON — President Obama sent Congress on Monday a proposed budget of $3.8 trillion for the fiscal year 2011, saying that his plan would produce a decade-long reduction in the deficit from $1.6 trillion this year …
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, The Agonist, Gateway Pundit, The Caucus, Runnin' Scared, AMERICAblog News and Hyscience


Obama's $3.8 trillion budget calls for jobs assistance, tax changes — The $3.8 trillion budget blueprint President Obama plans to submit to Congress on Monday calls for billions of dollars in new spending to combat persistently high unemployment and bolster a battered middle class.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Reuters, Wonk Room, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, ABCNEWS, PostPartisan and The BLT


Five years, $5.08 trillion in debt — President Barack Obama's new $3.83 trillion budget paints a bleak landscape of record deficits aggravated by the economy and wars overseas and now threatening to pull down his top legislative domestic priority—health care reform

Obama unveiling record $3.8 trillion budget
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Political Punch, CBS News, Think Progress, Los Angeles Times, Scared Monkeys, msnbc.com, Swampland, Wake up America and The Page


‘Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on Feb. 11’ — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the “global arrogance” on this year's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. — “The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race …
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US raises stakes on Iran by deploying missile shield — Pentagon says Patriot shield will deter strike on American allies in the Gulf — Tension between the US and Iran heightened dramatically today with the disclosure that Barack Obama is deploying a missile shield to protect American allies in the Gulf from attack by Tehran.

Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in ‘No Child’ Law — The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination …

PUTTING THE PENTAGON BUDGET ON THE TABLE?.... When the White House started talking up the notion of a spending freeze (which isn't really a spending freeze) last week, officials outlined a proposal with modest reductions in discretionary spending not related to national security.
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The Obama Spell Is Broken — Unlike this president, John Kennedy was an ironist who never fell for his own mystique. — The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic …

Forces Pushing Obama on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' — WASHINGTON — President Obama and top Pentagon officials met repeatedly over the past year about repealing “don't ask, don't tell,” the law that bans openly gay members of the military. — But it was in Oval Office strategy sessions …
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Monthly, ACS Blog, Think Progress, Washington Post, Towleroad News #gay, ATTACKERMAN, Raw Story, Shakesville, AMERICAblog Gay, The Page and AMERICAblog News
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Pelosi's Children and Grandchildren Used Military Jets As Private Cross-Country Shuttle Service So They Could Avoid Dealing With the Rabble … Is it a legitimate use of military jets to transport the Speaker of the House and her favored Congressional coterie for routine travel?

Media Notes: Jon Stewart's Obama barbs on ‘The Daily Show’ are creating buzz — Days before the 2008 election, Jon Stewart jokingly asked Barack Obama whether his “white half” would have trouble making a decision in the voting booth. — “Yeah,” the candidate said, “I've been going through therapy to make sure that I vote properly.”

Ponzi on the Potomac — The U.S. attorney general recently announced that the Justice Department is beefing up its efforts to fight financial fraud such as Ponzi schemes. Good. The agency should start by reviewing the spending habits of the federal government, which is running the largest Ponzi scheme our country has ever seen.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, The Hill, The Daily Dish, Capital Gains and Games blogs and Derek Wallbank


Democrats squabble over jobs bill — Democrats from the president on down say jobs are their No. 1 priority, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expects to announce details of a bill this week. But a squabble among Senate Democrats is complicating early efforts to bring a bill to the floor.

New media help conservatives get their anti-Obama message out — In November, the morning after Election Day, a conservative blogger in Georgia blasted an e-mail to 65,000 people. — Erick Erickson's 5 a.m. “Morning Briefing” seemed counterintuitive — the election of a Democrat …


Editorial Shake-Up as Harper's Tries to Stabilize in a Downturn — Just before noon last Wednesday, John R. MacArthur, the president, publisher and chief benefactor of Harper's Magazine, joined his editorial staff after its monthly meeting. — “We are going through a crisis,” Mr. MacArthur …

Free James O'Keefe — In case you wonder what the future is for justice and law enforcement and media control in this country, take a look at two cases. — During the last Presidential election, a gang of men calling themselves Black Panthers showed up at a polling place in Michigan.


New Role Puts Anchor in Fox News Spotlight — First “America's Newsroom.” Then “America's Election Headquarters.” And on Monday, Megyn Kelly will begin anchoring a third all-about-America newscast, “America Live.” — “We're big on America here at Fox,” Ms. Kelly said in an interview last week.


Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs ‘expecting $100 million bonus’ — Goldman Sachs, the world's richest investment bank, could be about to pay its chief executive a bumper bonus of up to $100 million in defiance of moves by President Obama to take action against such payouts.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Gothamist, Deal Journal, The Confluence, AMERICAblog News, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, naked capitalism, Felix Salmon and Gawker

Good and Boring — In times of crisis, good news is no news. Iceland's meltdown made headlines; the remarkable stability of Canada's banks, not so much. — Yet as the world's attention shifts from financial rescue to financial reform, the quiet success stories deserve at least as much attention as the spectacular failures.

Colorado Springs cuts into services considered basic by many — COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric. — More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday.