CBS reporter's Cairo nightmare  —  “60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, “Jew!  Jew!” as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's main square Friday, CBS and sources said yesterday.

House Votes to Cancel F-35 Jet Engine Program  —  WASHINGTON — In a sign that some freshman Republicans were willing to cut military spending, the House voted 233-198 on Wednesday to cancel an alternate fighter jet engine that the Bush and Obama administrations had tried to kill for the last five years.

Sen. Scott Brown Speaks Out on Childhood Abuse  —  Tells “60 Minutes” Writing About Abuse Was An Act Of Catharsis For Him  —  Sen. Scott Brown reveals he was sexually abused as a child several times by a camp counselor in a “60 Minutes” interview with Lesley Stahl.

Chris Christie lays out a national vision  —  Gov. Chris Christie today delivered a broadside against the broken politics of Washington and the need for straight talk to solve the country's problems in a speech that will stoke talk of a 2012 presidential bid by the New Jersey Republican.

Justin Bieber Talks Sex, Politics, Music and Puberty In New ‘Rolling Stone’ Cover Story  —  'I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them,' Bieber tells Vanessa Grigoriadis  —  In the new issue of Rolling Stone - on stands and online in the digital archives on February 18th …

Santorum Talks About Longtime Google Problem  —  Rick Santorum has a Google problem.  —  The former Pennsylvania Senator might be well-known on Capitol Hill, but his name more regularly produces blank stares in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, if recent polling is any guide.

Florida Governor Rick Scott Rejects Federal High Speed Rail  —  Feb 16th 2011; Tallahassee, Fla. - After thoughtful consideration, Governor Rick Scott informed U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood of the state's decision to reject President Obama's Tampa to Orlando high-speed rail project.

California High Court Takes Prop 8 Standing Question  —  The California Supreme Court granted the request to take the certified question, as requested by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger challenge to Proposition 8 — putting off same-sex marriages …

Obama vulnerable...  Despite his recent popularity spike there should be no mistaking it- Barack Obama is vulnerable for reelection.  The problem for the GOP is that he's a lot more vulnerable against generic Republicans than the actual Republicans looking at the race.

By now you may have heard of the outrage spawned by a proposed Mississippi license plate that honors Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.  (For those searching for a pop culture reference, he was Forrest Gump's namesake).  —  As Tom Diemer noted earlier, Forrest “is regarded by admirers …

Teacher Blogged About ‘Rat-Like’ Students  —  Pennsylvania Teacher Natalie Munroe, Suspended With Pay, Says She Did Nothing Wrong  —  Teacher Natalie Munroe makes no excuses for writing blog posts about her students which include statements like, “A complete and utter jerk in all ways,” …

PBS stars fight for funding  —  Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) rarely holds press conferences with animated aardvarks, but he went for it on Wednesday, coaxing the shy Arthur the Aardvark up to the podium.  —  “Come over here Arthur,” Markey beckoned to the human-sized title character in the PBS series …

Carney debuts at White House  —  White House press secretary Jay Carney held his inaugural briefing Wednesday while the departure of a deputy considered for the job sent ripples through the press corps.  —  Deputy press secretary Bill Burton announced he was leaving the White House an hour …

On Chauncey DeVega's Herman Cain Post  —  Editor's Note: Yesterday, Chauncey DeVega, an African-American writer, published a post on AlterNet assessing the CPAC performance of Herman Cain, a right-wing potential presidential candidate, in strong and provocative language.  Like DeVega, Cain is African American.

From Prison, Madoff Says Banks ‘Had to Know’ of Fraud  —  BUTNER, N.C. — Bernard L. Madoff said he never thought the collapse of his Ponzi scheme would cause the sort of destruction that has befallen his family.  —  In his first interview for publication since his arrest in December 2008 …

UC-Davis Backs Away from ‘Christian Oppressors’ Policy  —  The University of California at Davis has backed away from a policy that defined religious discrimination as Christians oppressing non-Christians after more than two dozen Christian students filed a formal complaint.

In major reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council  —  The U.S. has informed Arab governments that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity,” …

GOP pushes birth control for horses?  —  A Republican representative has introduced a spending bill amendment aimed at promoting the use of contraception - by horses.  —  Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) introduced the amendment, which would control the population of wild horses and burros …

Horowitz vs. Khan  —  Posted by Robert Spencer on Feb 16th, 2011 and filed under Daily Mailer, FrontPage.  You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.  You can skip to the end and leave a response.  Pinging is currently not allowed.  —  Robert Spencer is a scholar …

Gabrielle Giffords Knows Little About Shooting  —  Congresswoman's Chief of Staff: Word of Deaths, Others' Injuries Will Be Unknown to Her Until She Can Communicate Better  —  (CBS) It's been nearly six weeks since Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was seriously injured in a shooting rampage in Tucson …

Bill Clinton in Surprise Talk on Tech: It's the Institutions, Stupid  —  The former president made a surprise visit to the Wired for Change conference in New York today to speak on the use—and overuse—of technology in developing and developed nations.  —  Though he joked he was too much of a dinosaur …

Cutting Government Spending May Be Popular But There Is Little Appetite For Cutting Specific Government Programs  —  Much less support for cutting programs now than in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated  —  Cutting government spending often sounds like a good idea to many people …

The Political Failure of Keynesian Economics  —  Last August I asked a question: “What if Keynesian stimulus works, but no one can ever actually afford to do it, short of something like World War II, where the government can tap into a patriotic outpouring of national savings by issuing bonds with negative real yields.”

Alternatives to Inefficient Ticket Pricing  —  As history's greatest monster, I've long been disturbed by good bands' aversion to efficient demand-based pricing for their shows.  Annie Lowrey's article about LCD Soundsystem's anti-scalper efforts is confirming my priors: