STORMY DANIELS SWITCHES TEAMS  —  Stormy Daniels, the former porn star who has been debating whether to run for Senate in Louisiana for what seems like decades, says she'll make her decision April 15.  More important, she announced Tuesday that if she does run — because apparently …

Yakima County man charged with threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray  —  A 64-year-old Yakima County man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Sen. Patty Murray over her support of the National Health Care Reform Act.  —  The FBI and local police arrested Charles Alan Wilson at his Selah home early Tuesday.

Black conservative tea party backers take heat  —  ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values.  Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement …

Despite previous governors' refusals, McDonnell issues Confederate history month proclamation  —  Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic predecessors — Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — refused to do.

What Does Palinspeak Mean?  —  Why does Sarah Palin talk the way she does?  Just what is this sort of thing below? … Just forty years ago people would be shocked to read something like this as a public statement from someone even pretending, as Palin pretty much had to have been by the time of this quote …

Court Rules Against F.C.C. in ‘Net Neutrality’ Case  —  WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a sharp blow to the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to set the rules of the road for the Internet, ruling that the agency lacks the authority to require broadband providers …

Rudy Giuliani and Joe Scarborough Humiliate Arianna Huffington  —  Arianna Huffington stuck her foot in her mouth during Tuesday's “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, and ended up being totally humiliated by host Joe Scarborough and guests Rudy Giuliani and Mort Zuckerman.

The 9/14 Presidency  —  Barack Obama is operating with the war powers granted George W. Bush three days after the 9/11 attacks.  —  If you believe the president's Republican critics, Barack Obama takes a law enforcement approach to terrorism.  His FBI came under fire for reading Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab …

Chopra Blames Own Meditation for Baja Quake  —  The U.S. Geological Survey is blaming day-to-day seismological changes for Sunday's 7.2 earthquake along the U.S.-Mexico border.  But Deepak Chopra, the famed alternative-medicine practitioner and transcendental meditation guru, is pretty sure he knows what really happened.

Volcker: Taxes likely to rise eventually to tame deficit  —  (Reuters) - The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.

Yes, Larry Summers is Leaving  —  One angle in my recent profile of Tim Geithner concerned his relationship with Larry Summers, his former mentor and the director of the National Economic Council.  I contend that Geithner, not Summers, has emerged as Obama's key adviser on financial matters, and that Summers isn't happy about it.

Massey Energy & Don Blankenship: Million-dollar Tea Party sponsors  —  Meet Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Company.  Blankenship is also on the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce.  In this speech above, he denies climate change, derisively refers to Speaker Pelosi …

Ex-U.N. envoy: Karzai may have drug problem  —  Peter Galbraith questions Afghan leader's mental stability  —  NEW YORK - A former U.N envoy to Afghanistan on Tuesday questioned the “mental stability” of Hamid Karzai and suggested the Afghan president may be using drugs.

Alan Simpson Blasts Antitax Critics  —  Former Sen. Alan Simpson is none too pleased with conservatives who say he lacks sufficient antitax fervor.  —  “I got the best damn record on no taxes of any son-of-a-bitch in the Senate,” says the blunt-speaking Wyoming Republican …

Economic Scene: To Cut Health Costs, U.S. Needs to Learn to Say No  —  How can we learn to say no?  —  The federal government is now starting to build the institutions that will try to reduce the soaring growth of health care costs.  There will be a group to compare the effectiveness …

Where is the NPR of Cable News?  —  The title of this post is a question asked by a student in my media and politics class a couple years ago.  It came to mind when I was reading Ross Douthat's column today.  (And a tip of the hat to another student in that class, Ben Balter, for forwarding the article to me.)

Just Admit It: The Surge Worked  —  Ever since my friend and mentor Tom Ricks concluded at the end of his book The Gamble that the Surge succeeded tactically but failed strategically, it has been safe among others to say that the Surge — for all the heroics of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps — failed.

Kirk moves ahead  —  The last two months have not been good for Alexi Giannoulias, and Mark Kirk now leads him 37-33 in his bid to be the next Senator from Illinois.  —  A PPP survey taken a week and a half before the primary found Giannoulias up 42-34 on Kirk.