CBS News' Lara Logan Assaulted During Egypt Protests  —  CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Separated From Her Crew And Brutally Assaulted on Day Mubarak Stepped Down  —  On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering …

Romney and the Birthers  —  Birtherism is alive and well within the GOP ranks, and their 2012 nominee preferences tell a story about the difficulty Mitt Romney faces in trying to appeal to an electorate that's a whole lot further out there than he is.  —  Birthers make a majority among …

South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers  —  A bill under consideration in the Mount Rushmore State would make preventing harm to a fetus a “justifiable homicide” in many cases.  —  Post Comment  —  A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of …

Boehner: If Jobs Are Lost As A Result Of GOP Spending Cuts ‘So Be It’  —  If House Republicans succeed in cutting tens of billions of dollars in discretionary spending over the next six months, some of the most immediate victims will be federal employees, many of whose jobs will be slashed as their agencies pare back.

‘I lied about WMD to topple Saddam’  —  • Man codenamed Curveball ‘invented’ tales of bioweapons  —  • Iraqi told lies to try to bring down Saddam Hussein regime  —  • Fabrications used by US as justification for invasion  —  Read the full story of how the US was duped

Chances up for federal shutdown  —  The chances of a government shutdown are on the rise.  —  With less than three weeks to strike a deal before government funding for the year is scheduled to expire, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are moving in opposite directions.

It's Time to Defund Kentucky  —  While its small-government crusaders decry Obama's budget and government spending, the Bluegrass State is thriving on D.C. welfare.  Paul Begala says it's the perfect place for a truly democratic experiment.  —  The great Mark Shields has said that most Americans …

Trump's Flip-Flop on Abortion  —  Donald Trump leaves the stage after speaking at the 2011 CPAC conference.  —  Donald Trump is describing himself as pro-life as he courts Republican support for a potential presidential bid - a complete reversal of his position on abortion during a previous flirtation with a White House run.

Closed captioning of: Prosecutors gear up to charge Edwards in criminal case  —  >> for two years a federal grand jury has been in fact investigating john edwards and whether he break campaign finance laws to try to cover up an affair with rielle hunter.  now the investigation reached a decisive point.

Should Republicans Fret Over Their Presidential Field?  —  Republican insiders, reports the Washington Post's plugged-in Jennifer Rubin, are worried about the quality of their slate of presidential candidates for 2012.  Indeed, it has become the conventional wisdom to assert that the Republican field is a fairly weak one.

How penicillin fooled us  —  Perhaps it's the mark of a good book that after you read it, you begin seeing evidence for its thesis in lots of different areas.  Since reading Tyler Cowen's “The Great Stagnation,” I've been seeing a lot of support for a claim that I'd initially resisted …

Climate change: GOP Galileo moment  —  Will it take the Republican Party as long to accept modern science as it took the Roman Catholic Church?  The church waited 359 years to admit Galileo was right — the earth does move around the sun.  Not until 1992 did the Vatican officially withdraw …

Afghanistan: Petraeus, personalities and policy  —  Buried in the Washington Post story on Marc Grossman taking over as the new U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan are some interesting references to the possible departure of U.S. commander General David Petraeus.

More Racism on the Left  —  On Friday, AlterNet—you know, the organization that “confront[s] the failures of corporate media, as well as the vitriol and disinformation of right wing media, especially ‘hate talk’ media”—published a vile attack on conservative businessman Herman Cain, who was the last speaker at CPAC:

Village onthe rocks: CW shift?  —  Village on the rocks  —  Oh my God.  I think hell froze over int he Village.  Talking to Elijah Cummings about all this slashing of discretionary spending in the President's budget, Andrea Mitchell wondered why he would want to hit the poor but not even touch entitleme —

Obama's Media Machine: State Run Media 2.0?  —  White House Hones Online Messaging Operation Ahead of 2012 Campaign  —  As the 2012 presidential campaign kicks into gear, President Obama's White House media operation is demonstrating an unprecedented ability to broadcast its message through social media …

The Ever-More-Desperate Health Care Budget Gimmicks  —  I attracted a lot of angry comments last October when I wrote that I didn't trust the Democrats to be much more fiscally responsible than the Republicans.  What made people especially angry was that I argued that ObamaCare …

KS GOP Rep. Connie O'Brien Says She Can Tell Who Is ‘Illegal’ Because They Have ‘The Olive Complexion’  —  One week ago, the Kansas House Federal and State Committee held a hearing about in-state tuition being granted to the children of undocumented immigrants, which has been the policy in the state since 2004.

Apple Launches Subscriptions on the App Store  —  Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc.  This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service …

Michele Bachmann swipes at Michelle Obama  —  Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann ripped Michelle Obama on Tuesday, speculating that the first lady might one day run for office, and accusing her of trying to implement a “nanny state” based on her newest push to get mothers to breastfeed their children …

Kaine could speak with Obama as early as today  —  Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is expected to speak with President Barack Obama in the next day or two before deciding whether to re-enter elective politics and run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic incumbent Jim Webb in 2012.

Egypt Convenes a Panel to Revise Its Constitution  —  CAIRO — The military officers governing Egypt convened a panel Tuesday to revise the country's constitution that included both a distinguished Coptic Christian jurist and a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, offering …

Common Cause Asks Court About Thomas Speech  —  WASHINGTON — Discrepancies in reports about an appearance by Justice Clarence Thomas at a political retreat for wealthy conservatives three years ago have prompted new questions to the Supreme Court from a group that advocates changing campaign finance laws.

Asteroid defense and libertarianism  —  I agree with Jonathan below that the Constitution (through the spending power) allows Congress to spend tax money to protect the Earth from an asteroid.  —  On the other hand — and at the risk of confirming Mark Kleiman in his belief that libertarians are loopy …