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 …

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 …

Bachmann says she's “not in competition with Paul Ryan”  —  Washington (CNN) - Representative Michele Bachmann tells CNN at the top of her post State of the Union speech she will announce that her remarks are not the official Republican response.  —  She says she's spoken with Representative Paul Ryan …

Cairo protest: Clashes on Egypt's ‘day of revolt’  —  The BBC's Jon Leyne describes “remarkable scenes” in the Egyptian capital  —  Police in Cairo have been using tear gas and water cannon to try to quell rare anti-government protests.  —  Thousands have joined the protests …

U.S. Embassy Bomber Gets Life Sentence Without Parole  —  Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first former Guantánamo Bay camp detainee to be tried in the civilian court system, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa.

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 …

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 …

“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 …

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.

Not The U.N.'s Most Helpful Employee  —  It turns out that “Palestine expert” on the UN Human Rights Council, the law professor Richard Falk, is something of a 9/11 Truther (sorry, Troofer).  Here is what Falk had to say about 9/11 on his blog: … This has brought forth a strong condemnation …

Oversight panel bickers over subpoenas  —  The House Oversight committee got off to a contentious start Tuesday morning as its organization meeting devolved into partisan sniping and accusations of hypocrisy.  —  Chairman Darell Issa (R-Calif.) has pledged to aggressively investigate …

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 …