Obama Advisor David Plouffe: Budget Cuts Both ‘Draconian’ and ‘Historic’  —  Plouffe Lauds Bipartisanship and Slams Trump  —  Senior Advisor to the President David Plouffe conceded this morning that some of the cuts the White House agreed to in order to avoid a government shutdown were draconian.

Comments follow statements by Donald Trump questioning legitimacy of president's birth record  —  Below:  —  The Hawaiian state health official who personally reviewed Barack Obama's original birth certificate has affirmed again that the document is “real” and denounced “conspiracy theorists” …

Mike Pence: Spending Deal ‘Probably Not Good Enough’ To Vote For … WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a leading conservative House Republican, said Sunday he will likely vote against a budget deal to cut about $38 billion from federal spending levels because the compromise bill does not eliminate subsidies for Planned Parenthood.

Keynes' Ghost  —  I'm blogging from Bretton Woods, NH, site of the 1944 conference that reconstructed the rules for the global financial, monetary and trading system and the postwar recovery.  This weekend, the world's leading critics of the current economic mess have gathered here to discuss measures …

Blowin' in the Idiot Wind  —  Bob Dylan may have done the impossible: broken creative new ground in selling out.  —  The idea that the raspy troubadour of '60s freedom anthems would go to a dictatorship and not sing those anthems is a whole new kind of sellout — even worse than Beyoncé …

Third day of ‘sleep-in’ at Washington state capitol  —  OLYMPIA, Wash. - Thousands of union members from all over Washington poured into the state Capitol Friday, calling on lawmakers to “put people first” by ending corporate tax breaks and painful cuts to public programs.

Anatomy of an Afghan war tragedy  —  U.S. Predator teams and a special operations unit on the ground studying a suspicious convoy make a series of fateful missteps as they try to distinguish friend from foe.  —  Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan …

Challenging the Leftist Domination of the Jewish Community  —  Change is in the air.  From the toppling of Middle East potentates to the Tea Party's dramatic rise to the recent historic public employee union legislation enacted across the Midwest, things suddenly seem to be turned on their heads.

BNP man ‘videoed burning Koran in garage’ arrested and charged  —  A senior member of the British National Party has been arrested for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran in his garage.  —  Sion Owens, a BNP candidate in the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections, was charged under the Public Order Act.

The Drought Is Over (at Least for C.E.O.'s)  —  HAPPY days are back — in the corner office, at least.  —  After shrinking during the 2008-9 recession, paychecks for top American executives are growing again — in many cases, significantly so.  —  Rarely has the view from the corner office seemed …

Mubarak Denies Corruption and Defends His Legacy  —  CAIRO — Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian autocrat forced from power by the throngs in Tahrir Square two months ago, spoke for the first time since then in an audiotape broadcast on Sunday, denying that he and his family had amassed wealth overseas and defending his honor and legacy.