President Obama to Propose Partial Budget Freeze and Earmark Ban Tonight*  —  Pursuing a path of deficit reduction and government reform, President Obama will tonight in his State of the Union address call for a ban on earmarks and he will propose a five year budget freeze …

Judicial arrogance  —  With startling arrogance and audaciously twisted reasoning, two appellate judges ignored more than 100 years of legal precedent, invented a new definition of “residency” and ordered Rahm Emanuel off the Feb. 22 mayoral ballot.  —  With the election just four weeks away …

Scalia: No plans to attend Obama's State of the Union address  —  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told The Hill on Monday evening that he does not plan on attending the State of the Union address on Tuesday.  —  The conservative-leaning jurist said that he hasn't “gone to the State …

Bachmann: SOTU rebuttal is not a ‘competition’ with Ryan  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said her rebuttal to the president's State of the Union address tomorrow isn't a “competition” with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who's delivering the official Republican response.  —  “This is not a competition,” Bachmann said.

Inspired by Tunisia, Egypt's protests appear unprecedented  —  Egypt's protests today appear to be the largest public call for democratic reform and an end to the Mubarak regime for years.  —  The scope of Egypt's protests today, calling for greater freedom and downfall of strongman President Hosni Mubarak, is unprecedented.

GOP to push for D.C. gay marriage ban  —  House conservatives say they will pursue legislation that would ban gay marriage in the nation's capital.  —  Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), told The Hill that he will push for a vote on the controversial issue in the 112th Congress.

Various matters  —  (updated below)  —  The combination of a mild (I'm hoping) flu and the all-consuming fixation by many on Obama's speech tonight makes this a good time to raise several discrete matters worth noting:  —  (1) Last month, The New York Times' Charlie Savage reported that the DOJ …

Mitch McConnell: I get more Obama ear time  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joked Tuesday morning that he's now on President Barack Obama's “speed dial,” a marked change since Democrats endured a shellacking from Republicans this fall.  —  “I think I'm on speed dial right …

National Archives Discovers Date Change on Lincoln Record  —  Thomas Lowry Confesses to Altering Lincoln Pardon to April 14, 1865  —  Washington, DC...Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero announced today that Thomas Lowry, a long-time Lincoln researcher from Woodbridge, VA …

Dentist uses sexy dresses to distract patients  —  Advanced drugs can cure many ills, new technology can revolutionise surgery but sometimes a low-cut, sorry lo-tech, solution is all you need - one dentist has bought herself and her ten nurses tight-fitting, cleavage-maximising dresses to distract worried patients while they work.

Financial Crisis Commission Finds Cause For Prosecution Of Wall Street  —  The bipartisan panel appointed by Congress to investigate the financial crisis has concluded that several financial industry figures appear to have broken the law and has referred multiple cases to state or federal authorities …

“History tells us” something that history doesn't tell us, say sociologists stumbling to protect Frances Fox Piven.  —  Here's the expression of “outrage” by the officers of the American Sociological Association: … So vigorous debate about Piven's ideas is really important …

E-mails Show Bear Stearns Cheated Clients Out of Billions  —  Lawsuit alleges the bank took extreme measures to defraud investors, and now JPMorgan may be on the hook Former Bear Stearns mortgage executives who now run mortgage divisions of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America …

Paper: Governor pictured as Nazi  —  Atlanta (CNN) — A Spanish-language newspaper in Georgia has drawn bipartisan criticism for publishing a doctored photograph depicting the state's new governor as a Nazi.  —  El Nuevo Georgia Editor Rafael Navarro said the picture was meant to call attention …