Don't touch my junk  —  Ah, the airport, where modern folk heroes are made.  The airport, where that inspired flight attendant did what everyone who's ever been in the spam-in-a-can crush of a flying aluminum tube - where we collectively pretend that a clutch of peanuts is a meal and a seat cushion is a …

Reid, Senate Dems go hardball on taxes  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has adopted a hardball strategy for dealing with Republicans on the expiring Bush-era tax cuts.  —  Reid will force a vote on extending tax cuts for families earning below $250,000 and individuals below $200,000 …

Axis of Depression  —  What do the government of China, the government of Germany and the Republican Party have in common?  They're all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs.  And the motives of all three are highly suspect.  —  It's not as if the Fed is doing anything radical.

Obama Forces Showdown With G.O.P. on Arms Pact  —  WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after an election that left him struggling to find his way forward, President Obama has decided to confront Senate Republicans in a make-or-break battle over arms control that could be an early test of his mettle heading into the final two years of his term.

U.S. deploying heavily armored battle tanks for first time in Afghan war  —  The U.S. military is sending a contingent of heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war, defense officials said, a shift that signals a further escalation in the aggressive tactics …

Senate Democrats vent anger with Barack Obama  —  Senate Democrats - including typically mild-mannered Bill Nelson of Florida - lit into President Barack Obama during an unusually tense air-clearing caucus session on Thursday, senators and staffers told POLITICO.

War of military vs. civil terrorism trials  —  If you rely on headlines and partisan politicians for news, you'd be forgiven for believing that the just-concluded civilian trial of former Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was, as Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) described, “a total miscarriage of justice.”

TSA Backscatter X-ray Backlash  —  Things are happening so fast that I don't know if I should bother.  But here are some links and observations.  —  The head of the Allied Pilots Association is telling its members to avoid both the full body scanners and the patdowns.

Worm Was Perfect for Sabotaging Centrifuges  —  Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran's nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control.  —  Their conclusion, while not definitive …

Meditation Diet  —  Now out of prison, a slimmed-down Bob Ney spends his days in India with devotees of the Dalai Lama.  —  Former Rep. Bob Ney and Tenzin Sherab by the prayer wheels at Sarah College.  —  Most Americans got their last glimpse of Bob Ney in 2006 when the powerful Ohio …

Lieberman on DADT: We Have 60  —  Sen. Joe Lieberman said Thursday that repealing “don't ask, don't tell” as part of the National Defense Authorization Act is no longer a question of votes, it's a question of process.  —  “I am confident that we have more than 60 votes prepared …

Raising Social Security Retirement Age Could Cause Spike in Disability Payments  —  The purpose of raising the retirement age, we're told, is to save money and put Social Security on a path to long-term solvency.  But the bean-counting geniuses Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson didn't take one thing …

Boehner Warns GOP on Debt Ceiling  —  Raising the debt ceiling is shaping up as a difficult early vote for the new House GOP majority.  Many of the new Republican lawmakers harshly criticized their Democratic opponents during the campaign for voting to raise the limit in the past …

Palin Aides Relish Beltway's Skepticism  —  Throughout the better part of the last two years, the narrative among influential political operatives and opinion makers in Washington remained unchanged: Sarah Palin would continue to be a dynamic media presence and possible kingmaker …

Miller seeks to stop election certification  —  LAWSUIT: Candidate asserts misspelled votes shouldn't count.  —  The Republican candidate in the Alaska U.S. Senate race asked a federal judge Thursday for a preliminary injunction stopping officials from certifying the election.

Three killed in North Waziristan drone strike  —  The drone attack occurred in Miramshah, North Waziristan.  — Photo by AFP  —  MIRANSHAH: A US drone attack destroyed a vehicle in Pakistan's tribal district of North Waziristan on Friday, killing at least three suspected militants, Pakistani security officials said.

Afghan Hero Dog Is Euthanized by Mistake in U.S.  —  FLORENCE, Ariz. — When a suicide bomber entered an American military barracks in Afghanistan in February, it was not American soldiers but Afghan stray dogs that confronted him.  Target and two other dogs snarled, barked and snapped at the man …

House Panel Recommends Censure for Rangel  —  WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee on Thursday recommended that Representative Charles B. Rangel be formally censured for ethical misconduct, the most serious punishment the House can mete out to a member short of expulsion.

Irish government rules out raising corporation tax  —  Mary Coughlan said there would be no change to the tax rate  —  The Irish government has insisted it will not raise the country's low corporation tax rate in return for a European Union-led bail-out.  —  Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan …

Another TSA Outrage  —  A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience.  He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.  —  As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

Sources: Cornyn Jabs at DeMint's Interference in Primaries  —  Sen. John Cornyn said during a closed-door meeting Tuesday that he expects colleagues to bring their concerns to him about candidates he recruits as National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman — and not to help mount challenges …

Thank the Courts  —  “America has reached a fork in the road, and the time has come to make a decisive choice,” Daniel J. Popeo, chairman of the Washington Legal Foundation, wrote this week in his monthly column in The Washington Examiner.  The choice he posited was between continuing …