Question to Broun: Who's going to shoot President Obama?  —  At Rep. Paul Broun's town hall meeting on Tuesday, the Athens congressman asked who had driven the farthest to be there and let the winner ask the first question.  —  We couldn't hear the question in the back of the packed Oglethorpe …

WI Assembly GOP Passes Walker Budget In Surprise Vote — Dems Chant “Shame!”  —  MADISON, WI — The Wisconsin State Assembly has just passed Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill, including its controversial provisions to eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights for public employee unions …

Jeremy Bernard: A historic choice for White House social secretary  —  The White House is set to make news and history this afternoon when it announces the new social secretary.  Jeremy Bernard, currently the chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to France, will become the third person to hold the job in the Obama administration.

Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin  —  The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment.  The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

How To Run America Like a Business: Get Rid Of All The Old People  —  Jamelle Bouie tags Sarah Lacy's piece on why America can't “function like a fiscally responsible company” as a good example of “why tech writers should stay away from politics.”  —  I endorse his critiques, but there's really a deeper issue here.

Senate Democrats eye the lockbox for Social Security, in Al Gore revival  —  Senate Democrats want to put the Social Security trust fund in a lockbox and insulate it from a broader budget-cutting package designed to reduce the national deficit.  —  It's a revival of the concept …

Koch Executives Speak Out on Wisconsin  —  Madison, Wis. — Earlier this week, a blogger impersonating industrialist David Koch spoke with Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is attempting to pass a budget-repair bill.  The conversation between Walker and the poseur, which was recorded …

Run Mitch, Run  —  On Feb. 11, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana met with a group of college students.  According to The Yale Daily News, he told them that there is an “excellent chance” he will not run for president.  Then he mounted the podium at the Conservative Political Action Conference …

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.  —  Here's a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn't Cairo after all.  Maybe it's Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence.

Pelosi edits honorary resolution...on Pelosi  —  The Democratic National Committee wanted to honor Nancy Pelosi Thursday — but its praise wasn't good enough for the House minority leader.  —  When the DNC's Resolutions Committee brought up a resolution commemorating Pelosi's years as speaker of the House …

GDP report: Economic growth revised sharply lower  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Budget cuts by state and local governments hurt the economy more than originally thought, according to a government release Friday.  —  Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity …

Jury Nullification Advocate Is Indicted  —  Julian P. Heicklen sat silent and unresponsive as his bail hearing began last week in federal court in Manhattan; his eyes were closed, his head slumped forward.  —  “Mr. Heicklen?” the magistrate judge, Ronald L. Ellis, asked.  “Mr. Heicklen?

U.S. Pulling Back in Afghan Valley It Called Vital to War  —  KABUL, Afghanistan — After years of fighting for control of a prominent valley in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the United States military has begun to pull back most of its forces from ground it once insisted …

Turning Tides  —  It may be that high water-mark of the GOP tide has been reached in Wisconsin: … Increasingly, it seems to me, Scott Walker's political gamesmanship is discrediting the vital cause of tackling deficits and debt in the states.  It's a classic case of over-reach.

Foiled by the winter: The £25,000 eco-classroom that can't be used because solar panels don't provide enough heat  —  Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.  —  Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson …

Does Donald Trump Have a Flesh-Pressing Problem?  —  Not everyone is as sterile as Miss USA.  —  Fresh off the heels off a somewhat unbelievable poll that shows him trailing President Obama by a mere two points in a head-to-head matchup, Donald Trump has told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough …

New Study Shows That Offshore Drilling Could Make Alaska the Eighth Largest Oil Producer in the World - Ahead of Libya and Nigeria  —  (CNSNews.com) - A new study says drilling on Alaska's Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) could make Alaska the eighth largest oil resource province in the world — ahead of Nigeria, Libya, Russia and Norway.

Mississippi Rates as the Most Conservative U.S. State  —  Vermont, Rhode Island, District of Columbia have highest percentages of liberals  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Mississippi is home to the largest percentage of conservatives among U.S. states, with a slim majority identifying their political views as conservative.