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 …

‘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 …

20,000 Jobs Lost in January as Jobless Rate Falls to 9.7%  —  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 even as the economy struggled …

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 …

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.

Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans  —  WASHINGTON — Four months ago, it appeared all but certain that the White House and Democrats in Congress would succeed in overhauling the student loan business and ending government subsidies to private lenders.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Minority rules  —  Steve Pearlstein really goes to town on bipartisanship today: … Word.  But I'm a bit less taken with his belief that the “dynamic is unlikely to change until the voters get so disgusted that they are willing to indiscriminately turn out all incumbents, irrespective of party and ideology.”

New senator Scott Brown sure gets down to Republican business  —  Great.  Here comes one more model prone to sudden acceleration.  —  Another Toyota?  Actually, no. This one is Scott Brown, as of Thursday the junior senator from Massachusetts.  —  Brown, the surprise victor …

“It's a joke name, sir”  —  With his all-seeing eye, Glenn Reynolds has directed readers to an intriguing story out of Pakistan and/or Saudi Arabia: … In place of any straightforward cue to the story, Glenn substituted a quote from a very funny scene in “Monty Python's Life of Brian” (the scene is below).

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.

Climategate: Is It Criminal?  —  The potential criminality of the Climategate scandal is exactly the issue that is being investigated by authorities in Britain.  The British Parliament has convened hearings to investigate East Anglia University and the Climate Research Unit to uncover unethical and illegal activities.