Obama to offer $3.7 trillion budget blueprint; deficit to hit $1.6 trillion this year  —  President Obama will roll out a $3.7 trillion budget blueprint Monday that would trim or terminate more than 200 federal programs next year and make key investments in education, transportation and research …

The U.S. Government: An insurance conglomerate protected by a large, standing army  —  American politics is one long argument about what government should or shouldn't be doing, and how it should or shouldn't be doing it.  It's rare that we step back, take in the larger picture and ask what it is doing.

Disrespectful Libertarians Hijack CPAC Poll — And Its Mission  —  The top three winners of this weekend's CPAC straw poll will not win the 2012 presidential nomination.  And if any of the top three do break through to prove that prediction wrong, none of them will go on to win the White House in 2012.

Obama To The Next Generation: Screw You, Suckers  —  The logic behind president Obama's budget has one extremely sensible feature: it distinguishes between spending that simply adds to consumption, and spending that really does mean investment.  His analogy over the weekend …

THE EXTRAORDINARY TIMING OF JIM DEMINT AND MIKE PENCE.... Almost immediately after President Obama's budget proposal was released, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) issued a statement condemning it.  As the right-wing senator put it, the White House's budget “would push us over the edge into generational debt.”

Word and Lyric, Giffords Labors to Speak Again  —  PHOENIX — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an eloquent speaker before she was shot in the head last month, is relearning the skill — progressing from mouthing words and lip syncing songs to talking briefly by telephone to her brother-in-law in space.

Rahm Emanuel hits opponent on Tea Party endorsement as Chicago mayor race heats up  —  Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel went on the offensive Monday, attacking a rival in the Chicago mayoral race for being endorsed by the Chicago Tea Party.  —  Responding to a question …

The Great Abdication  —  Andrew Leonard is right: the Obama budget isn't going to happen, so in a sense it's irrelevant.  But it still has symbolic meaning.  What is Obama saying here?  —  The important thing, I think, is that he has effectively given up on the idea that the government …

Wanted: A Grand Strategy for America  —  NEWSWEEK's new columnist on Obama's Egypt debacle and the vacuum it exposes.  —  Mandel Ngan / AFP-Getty Images  —  President Barack Obama in front of the Sphinx during a tour of the Great Pyramids of Giza following his landmark speech to the Muslim World on June 4, 2009.

Birther debate alive across U.S.  —  The opening of 2011 state legislative sessions has been accompanied by a spate of birther-related bills, the clearest indication yet that the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama's place of birth will continue to simmer throughout his reelection campaign.

Iran police fire tear gas at opposition rally in Tehran  —  Security services have kept a high profile in Tehran to try to prevent rallies  —  Iranian police have fired tear gas at opposition demonstrators gathering in central Tehran in support of the protests in Egypt.

Morley Safer Ruffles Feathers at Century Club  —  At the height of a messy internal dispute a few weeks ago, members of the exclusive Century Association in Manhattan traded unusually tart and testy e-mail messages.  —  But the words of a single member stood out for their harsh tone …

At Media Companies, a Nation of Serfs  —  Some of the fizz, if not a great big bubble, seems to have returned to media, depending on how you define “media.”  —  There have been reports in The New York Times and elsewhere that Facebook is now valued at $50 billion, and The Wall Street Journal reported …

Boehner and the Birthers.  —  Sigh: … I guess there are a couple of ways to look at this.  One is that Boehner is so cynical that he won't repudiate ideas based on even the most blatant bigotry and hatred if he thinks they might provide the smallest political benefit to his party.

Wait, Who's Cutting Pell Grants?  And Why?  —  Reports that President Obama's budget request would cut Pell Grant funding first began to circulate over the weekend.  —  If you happened to see those stories, you may have reacted the way I did: What?  Wasn't the whole point of the Obama budget to spend more money on education?

Forde convicted in killing of Arivaca man, daughter  —  A Pima County jury convicted Shawna Forde today of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009 deaths of Arivaca residents Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia.  —  The jury also convicted Forde of attempted …

House GOPer against big government health care enjoys taxpayer-funded state government insurance  —  Okay, this one is funny.  As you know, Dems and lefty groups have been loudly insisting that House Republicans in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act should forego the “government run” insurance they enjoy as members of Congress.

Wall Street's Dead End  —  THE stock market has been big news in recent days.  Last week's report that Deutsche Börse, a giant German exchange, intends to buy the New York Stock Exchange, creating a company worth some $24 billion, arrived shortly after the Dow broke the 12,000-point barrier …

Ryan: W.H. budget is ‘bankruptcy’  —  House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) dismissed President Obama's budget as failing to meet the “critical test of leadership.”  But he said that Republican members of his panel “want to get serious” and that he expects to bring a …

Secretary Clinton: House Republican budget cuts will endanger national security  —  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday afternoon that the spending levels outlined by House Republicans late last week for the remainder of the fiscal year would endanger the country's national security.

Obama Isn't Trying to ‘Weaken America’  —  Some conservatives call the president the political equivalent of a suicide bomber: so consumed with hatred that he's willing to blow himself up in order to inflict casualties on a society he loathes.  —  Some conservative commentators may feel inclined …