Tony Perkins urges conservatives to stop giving money to RNC  —  Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council and an influential social conservative, is urging his members to stop giving money to the Republican National Committee, POLITICO has learned.  —  “I've hinted at this before …

Dem congressman: If Guam gets too overpopulated, it might tip over  —  Via Weasel Zippers, a clip that's destined to be viral by tomorrow morning.  Even so, go easy on him.  Yes, he was an Iraq defeatist, and granted, he demagogued Joe Wilson's outburst in the scummiest way imaginable …

Like LL Cool J, Toby Keith was unaware of his inclusion in Sarah Palin's show  —  Like LL Cool J, Toby Keith is slated to appear on “Real American Stories,” a Fox News show hosted by Sarah Palin.  Unlike LL Cool J, Keith is still slated to be on the program, but his inclusion was news to him.

USA fumes over politics  —  WASHINGTON — Seven months before the midterm elections, Americans seem disaffected about nearly everything political.  —  A majority disapprove of both political parties, their leaders and most members of Congress, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Republicans Move Ahead in 2010 Vote for Congress  —  Hold 47% to 44% advantage in registered voters' preferences  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Registered voters now say they prefer the Republican to the Democratic candidate in their district by 47% to 44% in the midterm congressional elections …

Federal Judge Finds N.S.A. Wiretapping Program Illegal  —  WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration's effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed …

A different kind of company name  —  Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google.  We've been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture.  Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM …

Administration seeks to change pay incentives at major firms  —  When the Obama administration imposed restrictions on executive pay last year at some of the largest companies the government had bailed out, officials said they were aiming to set a new standard for compensation across corporate America …

The Affordable Care act is not a “mandate.”  It's government paying for your private insurance when your employer doesn't.  —  My post on why the ACA will become popular was too long and confusing.  Shorter me:  —  The phrase “individual mandate,” though it explained to wonks …

Secretary of the Army Says He Will Not Pursue 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Discharges  —  WASHINGTON — The secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, said Wednesday that he was effectively ignoring the “don't ask, don't tell” law because he had no intention of pursuing discharges of active-duty service members …

State of the Art: David Pogue's Review of the iPad  —  In 10 years of reviewing tech products for The New York Times, I've never seen a product as polarizing as Apple's iPad, which arrives in stores on Saturday.  —  “This device is laughably absurd,” goes a typical remark on a tech blog's comments board.

Complaints about Obama drive 11 percent surge in Tiahrt's office spending  —  In a year when he was saying government needed to tighten its belt to get through the recession, Rep. Todd Tiahrt increased spending on his taxpayer-funded congressional office by 11 percent, federal records show.

Dems squeezed by health care lawsuit  —  They played almost no role in crafting or passing the new federal health care legislation, but Democratic attorneys general have suddenly emerged as prominent actors in the post-passage drama over the constitutionality of the landmark law.

How to fix CNN  —  The future of CNN, never exactly bright the past couple of years, suddenly looked dire this week when ratings came out showing a 40 percent decline in prime time viewers since 2009.  —  Jon Klein, the network president, has consistently defended the network's …

How Is the Stimulus Money Allocated?  — By: Veronique de Rugy  —  Unemployment isn't a factor, but politics is.  Your stimulus dollars at work.  —  Using recipient report data from Recovery.gov, as well as economic and political data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau …

SUDERMAN: Whimsical FCC encroaches on First Amendment rights  —  A doddering bureaucracy whose time has passed  —  As exercises in bureau-cratic hairsplitting go, it is tough to beat the sheer audacity of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's recent declaration …

How to fix CNN  —  “What we understood from the get-go was that by focusing on opinion, analysis and using topic-area expertise to draw conclusions, we could easily differentiate ourselves from CNN, that was so wedded to just regurgitating the facts,” Goldin said.

Pay of Hedge Fund Managers Roared Back Last Year  —  The Lazarus-like recovery of the nation's big banks did not benefit just the bankers — it also created huge paydays for hedge fund managers, including a record $4 billion gain in 2009 for one bold investor who bet big on the financial sector.

Getting Serious About Pornography  —  Imagine a drug so powerful it can destroy a family simply by distorting a man's perception of his wife.  Picture an addiction so lethal it has the potential to render an entire generation incapable of forming lasting marriages and so widespread …

Recess Appointments End Deadlock on Labor Relations Board  —  Because of President Obama's recess appointments of two union lawyers to the National Labor Relations Board, business groups are warning that the panel will kick quickly into a pro-union gear after 26 months of near paralysis, when just two of its five seats were filled.