There Will Be Blood  —  Former Senator Alan Simpson is a Very Serious Person.  He must be — after all, President Obama appointed him as co-chairman of a special commission on deficit reduction.  —  So here's what the very serious Mr. Simpson said on Friday: “I can't wait for the blood bath in April. ...

View from Middle East: President Obama is a problem  —  JERUSALEM — Vowing to change a region that has resisted the best efforts of presidents and prime ministers past, Barack Obama dove head first into the Middle East peace process on his second day in office.  —  He was supposed to be different.

Response to “Young Boy Strip Searched by TSA”  —  A video is being widely circulated showing a shirtless boy receiving secondary screening from a Transportation Security Officer (TSO).  A passenger filmed the screening with their cell phone and posted the video on the web.

Bombshell evidence may make Waters an ethics nightmare for Dems  —  Apparently, the Charlie Rangel ethics trial was just the warm-up act.  The New York Times reported over the weekend that the House Ethics Committee suddenly postponed the trial of Maxine Waters on ethics violation because it found …

Sarah Palin drops 2012 presidency hint with staff visit to Iowa  —  Palin scouts for office space in early voting state, suggesting next week's visit will be ‘more than just a book signing’  —  Sarah Palin has dropped another hint of her intention to run for the White House in 2012 …

Anti-earmark amendment cedes lawmakers' powers to White House  —  Even if the full Senate doesn't pass an earmark moratorium, a refusal by lawmakers to direct funding to their congressional districts will likely give more spending-priority power to the Obama administration and won't do much to chip away at the federal deficit.

'Don't ask, don't tell' study to be released day earlier than planned  —  Signaling the growing seriousness of the Obama administration's commitment this year to ending the military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, the Defense Department said Sunday that it will release …

The Answer Is No  —  New Jersey governor Chris Christie is denying money to teachers and tunnels, oxygen to Democrats, and intentions to run for president in 2012.  Which is only making him more popular.  —  C  —  hris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, was trolling for clicks.

The underwhelming Irish bailout  —  Color me underwhelmed by the Irish bailout.  By all accounts it's going to be less than €100 billion — probably in the €80 billion to €90 billion range — and that sum has to cover the country's entire borrowing needs for the next three years.

On Mrs. Kennedy's Detail  —  IT was with great trepidation that I approached 3704 N Street in Washington on Nov. 10, 1960.  I had just been given the assignment of providing protection for the wife of the newly elected president of the United States, and I was about to meet her for the first time.

WHAT GOOD IS WALL STREET?  —  Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless.  —  A few months ago, I came across an announcement that Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank, was to be honored, along with its chief executive, Vikram Pandit, for “Advancing the Field of Asset Building in America.”

Special Underwear Makes Your Privates Invisible to TSA Scanners  —  Citizens, take heart: Even as our country falls under the total domination of our new TSA overlords, capitalism continues unabated.  A Colorado man has developed undergarments with special body scanner-blocking fig leafs to hide your privates.

Some States Weigh Unthinkable Option: Ending Medicaid  —  Huge budget shortfalls are prompting a handful of states to begin discussing a once-unthinkable scenario: dropping out of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor.  —  Elected and appointed officials in nearly a half-dozen states …

Hillary Clinton Says She Won't Run Again for Elective Office  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today she won't run again for elective office, ruling out a future presidential bid.  —  “I am very happy doing what I'm doing and I am not in any way interested in or pursuing anything …

CBC Investigation: Who killed Lebanon's Rafik Hariri?  —  It wasn't until late 2007 that the awkwardly titled UN International Independent Investigation Commission actually got around to some serious investigating.  —  By then, nearly three years had passed since the spectacular public murder …

Snowe: Constitutionality of care law is arguable  —  and Rebekah Metzler rmetzler@mainetoday.com  —  Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are co-signing an amicus, or friend of the court, brief to be submitted to the federal court in Florida that will hear a constitutional challenge of the federal health care reform law.

Warren Buffett: Read My Lips, Raise My Taxes  —  Billionaire Buffett tells Amanpour Bush-era Tax Cuts for Rich Should Expire  —  In an exclusive interview on “This Week,” Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told Christiane Amanpour that the rich should be paying more taxes …

U.S. corn ethanol “was not a good policy"-Gore  —  * U.S. ethanol consumes about 40 pct corn crop  —  Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was “not a good policy”, weeks before tax credits are up for renewal.

Poll finds Obama, Romney deadlocked in 2012 matchup  —  A new poll shows President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a statistical dead heat for the White House.  —  The Republican edges Obama by one percentage point, 45-44 percent, in a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters released Monday.

Oklahoma's Islamic law ban heads to court  —  (CNN) — A federal judge will hear arguments Monday on a temporary restraining order against an Oklahoma referendum that would ban the use of Islamic religious law in state courts.  —  Oklahoma voters approved the amendment during the November elections by a 7-3 ratio.