What Real Leadership Looks Like  —  House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has laid out a vision for 21st-century governance that will become the GOP program for 2011, 2012, and beyond.  —  It is unquestionably the boldest budget plan ever offered (including Reagan's first budget) …

Budget Stances Harden as Deadline Nears for Shutdown  —  WASHINGTON — In dueling news conferences just moments apart, President Obama and the speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, dug in their heels on Tuesday over terms of a budget deal to stave off a partial shutdown of the federal government as early as Saturday.

Bristol Palin's Nonprofit Paid Her Seven Times What It Spent On Actual Teen Pregnancy Prevention  —  In 2009, Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol joined a teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit called the Candie's Foundation.  Today, the Associated Press reported that the Candie's Foundation released …

Conservative Opposition To Human Happiness  —  Adam Serwer reports from Charles Murray's “State of White America” address.  Long story short, though, folks have gotten kind of soft: … This put me in mind of Monica Potts' review of Kay Hymowitz: … Hymowitz's argument, essentially …

Wasserman Schultz to lead DNC  —  President Barack Obama has settled on Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee, top Democratic sources said Tuesday.  —  Wasserman Schultz, 44, was chosen for her strength as a fund-raiser and as a television messenger …

CBS News Washington Bureau Chief Was an FBI Snitch  —  The Center for Public Integrity is reporting that an unnamed former ABC News journalist was an FBI informant during and after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, passing along tips and revealing a source.  We know who it is.  More »

The 2022 Medicare Crisis  —  Matt Yglesias has a very good point: the supposed transition strategy under the Ryan plan, in which everyone currently under 55 gets Medicare as we know it, while everyone younger than that gets vouchers that won't be enough to buy adequate insurance, sets up an unstable political dynamic.

Fired NPR CEO Rips Sting Artists, Admits Rest of Establishment is ‘Terrified’  —  Fired NPR CEO Vivian Schiller spoke Tuesday at the Paley Center for Media in New York and lashed out at the videographers who exposed the bigotry in her organization, calling the undercover sting an “abomination.”

King: Holder should resign for criticizing Gitmo prisoner trial reversal  —  The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder should resign after criticizing Congress for interfering with the trial venues for the detainees at Guantánamo.

Parody gets more views than real Obama launch  —  The National Republican Senatorial Committee's parody of Obama's 2012 campaign, released Friday, now has 665,000 views on YouTube.  —  Obama's real launch video, released yesterday: Just 168,000.  —  YouTube's metrics tend to lag a bit …

“Kloppenburg = A Vote Against the Bill.”  —  A pro-Kloppenburg yard sign that works as an anti-Kloppenburg yard sign (for 1 if not 2 reasons):  —  Meade and I voted at around 11.  He was #399 and I was #401 at our polling place (the First Congregational Church).

French interior minister facing legal action over Muslim comments  —  Claude Gueant, France's interior minister is facing legal action after declaring that the “growing” number of Muslims in France posed “a problem”.  —  “It's true that the increase in the number of faithful in (Islam) …

Romney leads in NH, Trump makes things interesting  —  Mitt Romney's still the clear early front runner to take the Republican primary in New Hampshire next year but for the first time in our polling of the race PPP finds someone within single digits of him...Donald Trump.

Welfare Use by Immigrant Households with Children: A Look at Cash, Medicaid, Housing, and Food Programs  —  Steven A. Camarota is the Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies.  —  Thirteen years after welfare reform, the share of immigrant-headed households (legal and illegal) …