Obama's debt expert yells at kids  —  Alan Simpson referred to Snoop Dogg (left) and Eminem (right) in his tirade.  —  AP Photo  —  Alan Simpson might need to freshen up on his pop culture.  —  The co-chairman of President Obama's deficit commission tried to scold the elderly on Monday …

White House memo notes shortage of applicants for contest to have Obama to speak at high school graduation  —  The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama.

NPR executives caught on tape bashing conservatives and Tea Party, touting liberals  —  A man who appears to be a senior National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.  —  “The current Republican Party …

Florida Republicans at Odds With Their Leader  —  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Rick Scott, the conservative Republican billionaire who plucked the governor's job from the party establishment in November with $73 million of his own money and the backing of the Tea Party, vowed during his campaign …

Wisconsin's Walker accuses Senate Democrats of blocking negotiations  —  A chance to end the legislative standoff that has paralyzed the Wisconsin government for weeks seemed to slip away Monday after Gov. Scott Walker (R) accused the leader of the state Senate Democrats of blocking negotiations to end the impasse.

Discord Fills Washington on Possible Libya Intervention  —  WASHINGTON — Nearly three weeks after Libya erupted in what may now turn into a protracted civil war, the politics of military intervention to speed the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi grow more complicated by the day — for both the White House and Republicans.

Missing: Marizela Perez  —  I just got off the phone with my family.  —  This is my beautiful cousin, Marizela Perez:  —  She is a University of Washington undergrad and she has been missing since Saturday afternoon, when she left the Rainier Beach neighborhood headed to the UW Seattle campus.

Report says too many whites, men leading military  —  WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday.

Obama Clears Way for Guantánamo Trials  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday reversed his two-year-old order halting new military charges against detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, permitting military trials to resume with revamped procedures but implicitly admitting …

FIRED!  Charlie Sheen Axed From ‘Two And A Half Men’, He Fires Back & Vows To Sue  —  UPDATED: It's over for Charlie Sheen on the hit CBS comedy Two and a Half Men.  But his ongoing war with the series producer Warner Bros. TV is far from over, with lawyers for both sides expected to take the lead in the coming weeks.

Mitt Romney, the most transparent candidate  —  We're all for transparency these days, and if anything is transparently clear about American politics, it is that Mitt Romney will do or say anything to become president.  The best guess is that at heart he is an old-fashioned, business-oriented Republican.

Rep. Alcee Hastings Sued by Employee for Sexual Harassment: “Unwelcome Sexual Advances” and “Unwelcome Touching”  —  Hastings Allegedly Retaliated Against Victim for Complaining About Conduct  —  Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption …

No guts, no glory: GOP should heed lesson of '91  —  Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork  —  In early March 1991, all the smart people in politics knew one thing about the upcoming 1992 campaign: President George H.W. Bush was unbeatable.  —  Fresh from victory in the Gulf War …

Clinton Launches 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day  —  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the ‘100 Women Initiative’ at the State Department in Washington, March 7, 2011  —  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday launched the “100 Women Initiative …

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Scott Brown Begs David Koch For Money  —  At the public dedication of MIT's David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute last Friday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) effusively thanked conservative billionaire David Koch for supporting his election in 2010 and made a plea for help in his re-election campaign next year.

Newt Gingrich admits ‘unfortunate confusion’ in news about exploration plans  —  Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged in a Des Moines Register interview Monday that his team bobbled the news last week before the announcement Thursday that he planned to begin raising money to explore seeking the 2012 GOP presidential nod.

Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message  —  FORT WORTH — Brigitte Gabriel bounced to the stage at a Tea Party convention last fall.  She greeted the crowd with a loud Texas “Yee-HAW,” then launched into the same gripping personal story she has told in hundreds of churches, synagogues and conference rooms across the United States:

Why Fire Teachers?  —  ED Kain has been blogging a lot about teacher firings, and makes what I think is one of the better cases for the tenure/civil service/union protections from firing that teachers now enjoy. … Naturally, I'm going to be the mean person who steps in and argues in favor …

Sessions: Democrats proposing ‘fake cuts’ to budget  —  Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Monday said the Senate Democrat proposal to cut about $6.5 billion from FY 2010 levels proposes only “fake cuts” to government spending, and said a vote in favor of that proposal is a vote to “do nothing.”