Report: Shelby Blocks All Obama Nominations In The Senate Over AL Earmarks  —  Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary “blanket hold” on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, according to multiple reports this evening.  The hold means no nominations …

Jobless Rate Down to 9.7%; 20,000 Jobs Lost in January  —  The United States economy shed 20,000 jobs in January, the government said Friday, deepening concern that relief from the deepest economic downturn in a generation would be slow to come.  But the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent in December.

Franken lays into Ax over health bill  —  Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.  —  Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration's failure …

‘Tea Party’ Fireworks: Speaker Rips McCain, Obama, ‘Cult of Multiculturalism’  —  Ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo Suggests ‘Civics, Literacy Test’ Would Have Foiled Obama's Election; High-Priced National ‘Tea Party’ Convention Stirs Debate Among Factions  —  The opening-night speaker …

Andrew Sullivan's Heroic Self-Appraisal  —  Is there some world championship for self-deceit and puffery of which I am unaware?  Andrew Sullivan seems to have penned a winning entry.  His theme, roughly - How I Was So Right About Sarah Palin Yet So Wrong About John Edwards. … Any day now!

Palin Denounces Limbaugh Over ‘Retard’ Cracks, Glenn Beck Next?  —  By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog  —  The collateral damage from Sarah Palin's broadside against Rahm Emanuel for his “retard” comments keeps spreading.  Her spokeswoman today flamed Rush Limbaugh …

The great peasant revolt of 2010  —  “Iam not an ideologue,” protested President Obama at a gathering with Republican House members last week.  Perhaps, but he does have a tenacious commitment to a set of political convictions.  —  Compare his 2010 State of the Union to his first address to Congress a year earlier.

Fiscal Scare Tactics  —  These days it's hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on a news program without encountering stern warnings about the federal budget deficit.  The deficit threatens economic recovery, we're told; it puts American economic stability at risk; it will undermine our influence in the world.

Struck Down: Feds Refuse to Explain How Agent Injured Daily Caller Writer  —  The State Department has refused to answer basic questions about an accident that took place in Washington on Wednesday night, in which a U.S. Diplomatic Security Service vehicle struck Daily Caller employee Sean Medlock as he was crossing the street.

Queens girl Alexa Gonzalez hauled out of school in handcuffs after getting caught doodling on desk  —  A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense - doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.

Black Debater From ‘Race and Conservatism’ Event Defends O'Keefe, Slams Blumenthal  —  Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or (703) 568-4727 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org or Judy Kent at (703) 759-7476 or jkent@nationalcenter.org  —  Washington, DC - Kevin Martin …

Socialism Viewed Positively by 36% of Americans  —  Majority of Americans positive on capitalism, entrepreneurs, free enterprise, and small business  —  PRINCETON, NJ — More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of “socialism,” while 58% have a negative image.

Is Obama a Corpse-man?  —  I don't think President Obama is dead politically, by any means, but corpses seem to be on his mind.  I heard about his mispronounciation of “corpsman” on Hugh Hewitt's show tonight—if you don't listen to it regularly, you should.

New Hampshire independents abandoning Obama in droves: Poll  —  The crucial independent voters of notoriously independent New Hampshire, the ones who were so vital to Barack Obama's 2008 victory there and nationally, are fast falling out of love with the Democrat.