The Health Care Whip Count  —  Dems are aiming to pass health care legislation, once and for all, by Easter recess.  But for all their optimistic talk, one thing remains clear: They don't have the votes just yet.  Then again, they don't have a bill yet, either.

Do You Miss Him Yet?  —  I know you're not supposed to, but I just love to say I told you so.  —  What I told you back on Sept. 28, 2008, was that within a year of the day he left office George W. Bush would come to be regarded with affection and a little nostalgia.

Massa as conservative media hero  —  He's spent only 431 days in Congress, has never seen any of his bills pass out of subcommittee and was best known for voting against major pieces of legislation because they weren't liberal enough for him — at least until he was accused of sexually harassing a male staffer.

Poll shows Obama, Dems losing ground  —  A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds.

Introducing Mediagazer  —  Mediagazer presents the day's must-read media news on a single page.  —  The media business is in tumult: from the production side to the distribution side, new technologies are upending the industry.  What do news organizations need to do to survive?  Will books become extinct?

House liberals force vote on pullout from Afghanistan  —  Liberals in the House, who have spent much of the past year complaining that other congressional Democrats and the White House are insufficiently progressive, will get a chance this week to vent about one of their biggest concerns: the war in Afghanistan.

The Source of Obama's Trouble  —  The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to: the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families.

Glenn Beck, think before you preach  —  UPDATE: Right Scoop grabbed the video:  —  Something very disturbing happened today on FOX.  Glenn Beck, who has, for the most part, steered clear of jihad, sharia and Islamic supremacism, put his toe in the water, and for the first time since I started fighting the long war, I got nervous.

Consider the Possibility that Congress Isn't Very Smart.  —  Matt Bai has a piece in this weekend's New York Times Magazine riffing off of Larry Lessig's important work in correcting both the perception and practice of Congress being horrifyingly warped by the money that flows into campaign coffers.

United Arab Emirates to Follow Third Reich Policies against Jews  —  Pages: 12  —  The authorities of the United Arab Emirates made an unusual decision.  Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim said on March 1 that anyone who looks or sounds like a citizen of Israel will be blocked …

Culled out  —  Obama administration will accept no more public input for federal fishery strategy  —  The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

High standards at The Washington Post  —  By publishing a book that clearly and unapologetically defends the Bush torture regime, Marc Thiessen catapulted himself from obscure, low-level Bush speechwriter into regular Washington Post columnist, joining fellow torture defenders Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol.

The Emotion of Reform  —  We all have our emotional hot and cold spots.  If you asked me about the New York Mets, you'd see a glow in my eyes.  If you asked me about banking reform, words might come out of my mouth, but you'd notice me nodding off midsentence.

Health care reform CPR  —  Can Speaker Pelosi bring health care reform back from the dead?  Did it ever really die? … In addition to my last health care post, Nate Silver summarizes well the forces pushing in both directions.  John Podhoretz also has a good strategic overview.

Sean Penn Suggests Prison Time for Journalists Who Call Hugo Chavez a Dictator  —  At the end of a discussion of Haiti on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Sean Penn went on a rant in defense of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, suggesting prison time for American journalists: “every day …

Fed's Reach May Be Curbed Under Plan  —  Several high-ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee have reached a tentative consensus on a plan that would strip the Federal Reserve of regulatory powers over all but the very largest banks, those with more than $100 billion in assets …

Dan Rather: ‘Articulate’ Obama Couldn't Even ‘Sell Watermelons’  —  HDNet's Dan Rather stepped on one mine after another in the racial minefield that exists when talking about the nation's first black President as the former CBS anchor, on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show over the weekend …

California Man Took College Exams for Middle Eastern Students, ICE Officials Say  —  Daniel Higgins doesn't look like a Middle Eastern student, but officials say he routinely portrayed himself as one for almost a decade, getting paid up to $1,500 per student to attend their classes and take exams …

Obama Confuses Decades, Inflates Estimated Health Care Savings by $868B  —  Obama boasted Monday that Democrats' health care proposals would cut deficits by $1 trillion “over the next decade,” a flub that inflated the actual estimate by $868 billion

In a Polarized Court, Getting the Last Word  —  A few times a year, Supreme Court justices go out of their way to emphasize their unhappiness by reading a dissent from the bench out loud, supplementing the dry reason on the page with vivid tones of sarcasm, regret, anger and disdain.