RNC “census” mailer offers phone sex number  —  A new entrant in the when-it-rains-it-pours category.  —  The Republican National Committee sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone-sex line offering “live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl …

Rep. Hank Johnson: Guam could ‘tip over and capsize’  —  Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) is afraid that the U.S. Territory of Guam is going to “tip over and capsize” due to overpopulation.  —  Johnson expressed his worries during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the defense budget Friday.

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.

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 …

Liberal group march meets pushback  —  A handful of liberal groups - but only a few dozen protesters — marched on the Republican National Committee offices Thursday to denounce the threats against members of Congress during the health care vote.  —  But in an oddly Washington moment …

The Tea Party Of The Future.  —  I think Cato's Gene Healy is misjudging how integration works here while imagining the future of small government conservatism: … Healy's problem is he's looking into the future with a mind-set that the eroding tribal rivalries of the present will resemble today.

Returning the census is our constitutional duty  —  I'm worried about this year's census.  —  I'm not worried about ACORN rigging the count - we already succeeded in kicking them out of the census.  I'm not worried about the President's attempt to run the census out of the White House - we beat that power grab back last year.

Pope has immunity in abuse trials: Vatican  —  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, accused by victims' lawyers of being ultimately responsible for a cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests, cannot be called to testify at any trial because he has immunity as a head of state, a top Vatican legal official said on Thursday.

McCain: GOP hopes to sidestep veto in repeal efforts  —  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday backed a plan that he says would allow the Republicans to avoid a presidential veto while negating the effects of a new healthcare law.  —  The 2008 GOP presidential nominee backed a plan …

The Best-Covered News Story, Ever  —  This week's On the Media laments the low quality of press coverage in health care reform.  It's certainly easy to find examples of shoddy journalism and public ignorance to bolster this charge.  Every night, one could watch cable TV screamers trafficking …

Study Claiming Link Between Stimulus Funding and Partisanship is Manifestly Flawed  —  A study purporting to find a connection between stimulus spending and the partisanship of a district suffers from an obvious flaw.  But in so doing, it provides an example of why it's important to retain …

Democrat Boxer warns colleagues: Don't take your seats for granted  —  Democratic incumbents must be wary of taking their seats for granted this election cycle, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Thursday.  —  Boxer, who's facing one of the most competitive election challenges in her own career …

Palin to RNC: Take me off fundraiser  —  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has asked the Republican National Committee to remove her name from a fundraiser the committee is planning piggybacking off of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, POLITICO has learned.

The War on Terror-Bush Without the Stetson — By: Victor Davis Hanson  —  There is much to criticize about President Obama on foreign policy, but increasingly, despite all the “reset button” rhetoric and the obligatory nods to the Left, his anti-terrorism policies are becoming near identical extensions …

Barney Frank directs his staff not to talk to aide-turned-lobbyist  —  Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Thursday barred his staff from having any contact with an aide-turned-financial lobbyist.  —  In a statement, the House Financial Services Committee chairman said the normal one-year ban …

Tough talk on China ignores economic reality  —  In the past few weeks, Washington has upped the rhetoric concerning China and its currency.  Coming at a time when there are a number of other sensitive issues facing the US-China relationship, it is not obvious to some of us why Congress is so excitable about this issue.

Those Ignorant, Racist Tea-Baggers; Meredith Shakes Her Broomstick  —  Those Ignorant, Racist Tea-Baggers  —  “The collective IQ of Searchlight, Nevada plunged over the weekend as the Tea Party Tart, Sarah Palin, brought her flannel-and-flapjacks followers to Harry Reid's hometown.

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.

Economics without mathematics  —  Justin Fox sums up the overwhelming majority of economics papers in one sentence: … What he doesn't (need to) mention is the way that journalists, myself included, read economics papers: we generally have no ability or inclination to try to understand …

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 …

Democratic operative Steve Hildebrand goes rogue  —  On a recent afternoon in his exposed-brick office, Steve Hildebrand coolly explains why his latest target is the woman down the hall.  —  “She voted against health care because she thought it was bad politically,” Hildebrand says …

An Electoral Majority for Obama?  —  Over the last two years, there has been a massive increase in the number of people who have no place to turn except to the government.  Enactment of the Obama administration's health care reform legislation demonstrates the growing power of this burgeoning constituency …

Why Ban Insider Trading in Credit Default Swaps?  —  Felix Salmon has a post on insider trading in credit default swaps that prompts Kevin Drum to say … I am willing to entertain the notion that credit default swaps should certainly be banned.  But I'm not sure why we should care about insider trading in them.

White House mandates new fuel efficiency standards  —  The Obama administration finalized the first national rules curbing greenhouse gas emissions Thursday, mandating that the U.S. car and light-truck fleet reach an average fuel efficiency of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

Exclusive: The new federal menu mandate meets the real world  —  Yesterday, I spent a little time at a local pizzeria to find out more about the impact of the new federal menu mandate in the real world.  Davanni's has 21 locations throughout the Twin Cities, a smaller, local chain …