Emergency Cooling Effort at Reactor Is Failing, Deepening Japanese Crisis  —  TOKYO — Japan's struggle to contain the crisis at a stricken nuclear power plant worsened early Tuesday morning, as emergency operations to pump seawater into one crippled reactor temporarily failed …

Sadly, the primary process might help Sarah Palin  —  It is difficult to believe, but the first election for the next president of the United States is less than a year away.  —  The New Hampshire primary is alive and well and headed toward a date of Valentine's Day next year …

Fox News Signs Former Senator Evan Bayh As A Contributor … UPDATE: Fox News officially announced on Monday afternoon that former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is becoming a contributor to the network.  —  Michael Clemente, the network's senior vice president for news, announced the move in a statement.

No More Short-Term Budget CR's  —  “Washington politicians of both parties scrambling to put together two and three week plans to keep funding the government, while not fundamentally changing the behavior that has gotten us into this mess to begin with.”  —  Our country faces a brutal reality …

Japan, Reno humor in Barbour's shop  —  Every morning, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's press secretary sends to Barbour's staff and other allies a list of press clippings, along with a daily compendium of birthdays, historical notes, and jokes — which have recently included humor …

Fiddling While Libya Burns  —  PRESIDENT Obama says the noose is tightening around Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.  In fact, it is tightening around the Libyan rebels, as Colonel Qaddafi makes the most of the world's dithering and steadily retakes rebel-held towns.

NPR: O'Keefe ‘Inappropriately Edited’ Video; Exec's Words Still ‘Egregious’  —  An update on our post from Sunday about the questions that have been raised regarding conservative political activist James O'Keefe's editing of his secretly recorded video of then-NPR chief fundraiser Ron Schiller slamming conservatives.

Michele Bachmann's Historical Blunder  —  ABC New's Amy Walter and Amy Bingham report:  —  A blunder of historical fact - not proportions - tainted Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's first visit to New Hampshire this weekend.  Speaking to students and conservative activists in Manchester …

Virginia GOP Use Emergency Rule To Impose Anti-Abortion Rules, May Force 17 Of 21 Clinics To Close  —  In their battle against a woman's right to choose, anti-choice Republicans have adopted a new tactic to enforce their agenda: deem any anti-choice bill an “emergency.”

Iowa Woman Jailed for Thinking about an Abortion  —  Sounds far-fetched, right?  Well it isn't.  The anti-choice zealots aren't content to limiting a woman's access to safe and legal abortion, they're now thought police: … Yes, as if Ms. Taylor's existing problems weren't enough …

Why is there no looting in Japan?  —  The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll.  The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity …

Jobless Rate at 2012 Presidential Vote Forecast at 7.7%, Highest Since Carter-Ford, but the Trend May Matter Most  —  The U.S. jobless rate will be 7.7% in November 2012, the highest level for a presidential election month since Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in 1976 …

Hackers Just Released What They Say Is A Damning Trove Of Emails About Bank Of America And Its Mortgage Practice  —  Hacker group Anonymous (aka OperationLeaks on Twitter) just released what they say is a trove of damning documents on Bank of America.  —  You can find them here: bankofamericasuck.com

Chamber Of Commerce's Top SCOTUS Litigator Admits Justices Give Special Treatment to Chamber  —  A new study co-authored by conservative Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner confirms something that has been obvious to Supreme Court watchers for years — the Roberts Court places a huge thumb on the scale in favor of corporate interests.

Al Franken: 'They're coming after the Internet'  —  AUSTIN, Texas — Sen. Al Franken claimed Monday that big corporations are “hoping to destroy” the Internet and issued a call to arms to several hundred tech-savvy South by Southwest attendees to preserve net neutrality.

Conyers wants to make Obama ‘a better president’  —  Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) didn't hold back Monday in rattling off a list of go-to liberal complaints about President Barack Obama, explaining that he just “wants to make him a better president.”  —  “I'm sure he realized what he was getting into …