Top Items:

Michelle Obama's ‘Get Moving’ Program Linked to Pedestrian Deaths — WASHINGTON — The Governors Highway Safety Association says pedestrian deaths increased in the first half of 2010 and the First Lady's program to get Americans to be more active could be partly responsible.
RELATED:

First Lady's anti-obesity campaign could be causing more pedestrian deaths — Pedestrian deaths increased sharply during the first half of 2010, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). The reason may be First Lady Michelle Obama and her “Let's Move” campaign.

Exercise, iPods could be causing pedestrian deaths
Discussion:
Mother Jones, TBD All News, Grist, Gawker, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, The Incidental Economist and FrumForum


Safety Group Accidentally Touches Off Accusations That Michelle Obama …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and Talking Points Memo

Michelle Obama “Linked” to Pedestrian Deaths
Discussion:
Detroit News, The Atlantic Online, Mediaite, USA Today and JustOneMinute

House Conservatives Introduce Spending Cuts: $2.5 Trillion Over Ten Years — You can stop needling Republicans about what programs they want to cut now. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)'s Republican Study Committee is introducing the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, to cut back …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, RSC, Grist, AmSpecBlog and FrumForum
RELATED:

REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE LAYS DOWN A RADICAL ‘MARKER’ ON SPENDING.... The new House GOP majority suffered some embarrassment a couple of weeks ago when party leaders backed off a promise to cut $100 billion from the budget in their first year. — This week, a leading right-wing contingent within …
Discussion:
TPMDC, The Hill, AMERICAblog News, Wonk Room and Democrats.senate.gov

A number of the House GOP's leading conservative members on Thursday …
Discussion:
The Politico, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Hot Air, Wake up America, AmSpecBlog and No More Mister Nice Blog

Can't reduce federal spending? Here's a plan to cut $2.5 trillion by 2021
Discussion:
Cubachi, The Foundry, Whiskey Fire, Liberty Pundits Blog and Big Government

House GOP Lists $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts
Discussion:
Don Surber, Hit & Run and Pajamas Media

Social conservatives launch Iowa series, without Romney for now [UPDATED] — The Family Leader, Bob Vander Plaats' Iowa conservative group, announces a speaking series: — The series line-up begins with former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty on Monday, February 7.
Discussion:
The Note, TPMDC, GOP 12 and Right Wing Watch
RELATED:

Huckabee points to Rudy and Hillary's failures
Discussion:
Daily Kos and The Brody File

First Thoughts: Are the political winds changing?
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Other McCain

Obama looking stronger
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Politico, GOP 12, Taegan Goddard's …, msnbc.com and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Huckabee's book tour lavishes attention on Iowa, South Carolina
Discussion:
The Politico, ABCNEWS, GOP 12, Ben Smith's Blog, Public Policy Polling and The Page

Greg Mankiw's thinking cap — There's an interesting mixture of callousness and accidental truth lurking within Greg Mankiw's satirical proposal to reduce the budget deficit: … Like health-care reform, Greg Mankiw's plan really would reduce the budget deficit. That's been contested, so I'm glad to see Mankiw admit it.
Discussion:
Economist's View
RELATED:

Give me $1 billion to cut the budget deficit — I have a plan to reduce the budget deficit. The essence of the plan is the federal government writing me a check for $1 billion. The plan will be financed by $3 billion of tax increases. According to my back-of-the envelope calculations …
Discussion:
The Incidental Economist, Modeled Behavior and The New Republic

Rick Santorum Responds to Brody File on Comment About President Obama's Race and Abortion — EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: RICK SANTORUM HAS JUST SENT THE BRODY FILE A STATEMENT ON THE STORY BELOW: … Abortion is a toxic subject. Race is a toxic subject. And soon to be GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, LifeNews.com, NewsBusters.org, Salon, AmSpecBlog, TPMDC, CNN, GOP 12, Daily Kos and Right Wing Watch
RELATED:

Rick Santorum plays race card on President Obama
Discussion:
Weigel, Hotline On Call, The Note, NewsBusters.org blogs, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Little Green Footballs, NJDC Blog, TPMDC, Taylor Marsh and FrumForum


How Should Dems Manage the Healthcare Repeal Circus? — It's a slow day, so let's do some political strategizing. Here's what the LA Times has to say about yesterday's vote in the House to repeal healthcare reform: … Here's my take: Democrats are nuts to take this attitude.
Discussion:
Yglesias, A plain blog about politics, Ezra Klein and Prairie Weather
RELATED:

GOP Can Force a Senate Vote on Repeal
Discussion:
NationalJournal.com, Pajamas Media, Salon and AmSpecBlog

Goodbye to a Guy Named Joe — On Wednesday, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced that he won't be a candidate for re-election in 2012. Normally people look particularly appealing when they're promising to go away. This time, not so much. — “I can't help but also think about …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The New Republic, Commentary, Opinion L.A., Connecting.the.Dots, The Impolitic, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Swampland and First Draft
RELATED:

LIEBERMAN GETS FOREIGN POLICY AND FEMINISM WRONG AT THE SAME TIME. …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Hullabaloo and Commentary


SPOTTED: Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan Waiting for Jury Duty — ABC News' Devin Dwyer reports: If you thought Supreme Court justices are exempt from jury duty in their local courts, think again. — Justice Elena Kagan was spotted among a crowd of prospective jurors huddled in a waiting lounge this morning at D.C. Superior Court.
Discussion:
New York Times, Commentary, National Review, Patterico's Pontifications, Law Blog, Ben Smith's Blog and Gawker


An update from the Chairman — When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined—even in my wildest dreams—that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has quite literally changed people's lives—increasing the collective sum of the world's knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process.


Exclusive: Over a million immigrants land U.S. jobs in 2008-10 — (Reuters) - Over the past two years, as U.S. unemployment remained near double-digit levels and the economy shed jobs in the wake of the financial crisis, over a million foreign-born arrivals to America found work, many illegally.
Discussion:
24Ahead, The Gateway Pundit, Fausta's Blog, Economist's View and HotAirPundit


Police Seize ‘Large Amount’ Of Weapons From Blogger Who Praised Gifffords Shooting: ‘1 Down And 534 To Go’ — Police in Arlington, MA this week seized a “large amount” of weapons and ammunition from local businessman Travis Corcoran after he wrote a blog post threatening U.S. lawmakers …
Discussion:
YourArlington.com, Raw Story and Robot 6


Fox News Poll: Most Say Prayer Helped Save Congresswoman Giffords — Nearly 8 in 10 American voters say they believe prayers helped Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords survive the Tucson shooting, according to a Fox News poll (Reuters). — Nearly 8 in 10 American voters say they believe prayers helped Arizona …
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared and Weasel Zippers


The Most Emailed ‘New York Times’ Article Ever — It's a week before the biggest day of her life, and Anna Williams is multitasking. While waiting to hear back from the Ivy League colleges she's hoping to attend, the seventeen-year-old senior at one of Manhattan's most exclusive private schools …

Delusions of world-historical grandeur — One thing that is endlessly amusing about the contemporary right is their comical lack of historical proportion, their frequent tendency to compare their current situation to the plight endured by history's leading victims of oppression, persecution, and genocide.
Discussion:
TPMDC and No More Mister Nice Blog
RELATED:


A Racy Show With Teenagers Steps Back From a Boundary — MTV executives have a new hit drama on their hands, featuring the sexual and drug-fueled exploits of misfit teenagers. They also have something else — a fear that coming episodes of the show may break the law.

Ted K's son may be eyeing Lieberman's seat in Conn. — The late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's son, Ted Jr., is among the names being floated as potential candidates for Connecticut U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman's seat in 2012. — Kennedy, the middle child of the late senator and his former wife …
Discussion:
Weigel, New York Magazine and Ben Smith's Blog


Palinoia, the Destroyer — What's behind the left's deranged hatred. — Why does their hatred of her burn so hot? — Ask them, and they'll most likely tell you: Because she's a moron. But that is obviously false. To be sure, her skills at extemporaneous speaking leave much to be desired.


If Obama wants to be bold, he should be bold — Peter Baker has a lot of juicy tidbits about the frequent infighting and petty spats that split the White House economic team over the past two years, but the individual who comes off worst in the article is not Larry Summers or Christina Romer or Peter Orszag or Rahm Emanuel.

F.B.I. and Police Arrest More Than 100 in Mob Sweep — In a blanket assault against seven mob families in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, the F.B.I. and local authorities began arresting more than 100 people on Thursday on charges including murder, racketeering and extortion, people briefed on the arrests said.
Discussion:
NBC New York, Law Blog, Gothamist, New York Magazine, AOL News, Left Coast Rebel, TPMMuckraker, Prairie Weather and Eschaton