Obama budget reveals Obama's core  —  Here's what President Barack Obama's new budget tells me: He hasn't shifted to the center, he's shifted into 2012 campaign mode, one that let's him be who is really is.  —  The budget is a political document that bets voters really don't care much about deficits.

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.

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.

Debt now equals total U.S. economy  —  President Obama projects that the gross federal debt will top $15 trillion this year, officially equalling the size of the entire U.S. economy, and will jump to nearly $21 trillion in five years' time.  —  Amid the other staggering numbers in the budget …

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.

‘A weapon of mass destruction was found in the U.S.’: Shock confession of Customs officer  —  A port official has admitted that a ‘weapon of mass effect’ has been found by ‘partner agencies’ in the U.S., raising major questions over a possible government cover-up.

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.

Journalists angry over the commission of journalism  —  (updated below)  —  Over the weekend, The Los Angeles' Times James Rainey mocked CNN's Anderson Cooper for repeatedly using the word “lie” to describe the factually false statements of Egyptian leaders.

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 Haley Barbour Didn't Tell Fox News: He Lobbied For Mexico On “Amnesty”  —  Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour made the case Sunday on Fox News that his career as a high-powered federal lobbyist for domestic corporations and foreign governments would be an asset if he ran for President in 2012.

Housing Crash Is Hitting Cities Once Thought to Be Stable  —  SEATTLE — Few believed the housing market here would ever collapse.  Now they wonder if it will ever stop slumping.  —  The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress …

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 …

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 …

Stick a fork in it, we're done  —  Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Green the Capitol initiative is over at the House's Longworth cafeteria.  —  After about a month in control of the House of Representatives, Republicans haven't managed to undo as many deeds of their Democratic predecessors as they'd like.

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 …