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.”

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

No, He Wouldn't—Would He?  —  House Speaker's State May Get $450 Million Extra  —  Leaders of the new majority in the House of Representatives promised to cut spending and eliminate earmarks.  But House budget legislation filed Friday night contains a provision that looks very much like an earmark …

Carol Moseley Braun Under Fire for Comments About Emanuel, Hitler Character in ‘The Producers’  —  Chicago - Chicago mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun had some explaining to do this weekend after another apparent gaffe regarding one of her opponents.  —  During a rally with Princeton …

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.

Romney Holds Big Lead In Primary Poll  —  Survey Shows Most Likely Voters Still Undecided  —  DURHAM, N.H. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the early frontrunner in the New Hampshire Republican primary, according to a new poll.  —  The WMUR Granite State Poll shows Romney …

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.

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?

What Does Bias Look Like?  —  So my post on the liberal slant in academia has garnered what I believe to be a record number of comments, many, even most of them, pretty angry.  And as I predicted, the positions are very much reversed from the normal take on such things.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …