Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, according to administration officials.

Book portrays dysfunction in Obama White House  —  The book, which covers Obama's presidency through February of this year and is based on more than 700 hours of interviews, suggests that the president was not always the dominant figure in his White House.  —  Suskind cites a series of memos …

Rex Murphy: The media's love affair with a disastrous president  —  As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue.  American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barrack Obama's rise …

Eleanor Mondale, Daughter of Former Vice President, Dies at 51  —  Eleanor Mondale Poling, a former television and radio personality and the daughter of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, died early Saturday at her home in Prior Lake, Minn. She was 51.

Rick Perry, Uber Texan  —  YOU think of Rick Perry, you think of Texas.  And more Texas.  Perry the cowboy coyote-killer, the lord of the Texas job-creation machine, the g-dropping glad-hander with a “howdy” for every stranger in the room.  He barely exists in the national mind outside of the Texas connection.

Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked  —  For months the protesters had planned to descend on Wall Street on a Saturday and occupy parts of it as an expression of anger over a financial system that they said favors the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Silvio Berlusconi wiretaps reveal boast of spending night with eight women  —  Conversations show that Italian PM resented meetings with the Pope and world leaders interfering with his partying  —  Magistrates investigating an alleged prostitution ring in Italy have published wiretaps …

Egghead and Blockheads  —  THERE are two American archetypes that were sometimes played against each other in old Westerns.  —  The egghead Eastern lawyer who lacks the skills or stomach for a gunfight is contrasted with the tough Western rancher and ace shot who has no patience for book learnin'.

The Masters of Hispanic Destiny  —  ‘Do we want to be the next victimized minority group, or do we want to be the next successful immigrant group?’  —  Fourteen months out, it's a safe bet that Election 2012 won't hinge on immigration.  But with no major federal action on the issue since 1986 …

Suddenly, Over There Is Over Here  —  THE debt crisis in Europe has finally, and officially, washed up on American shores.  Last week, the mighty Federal Reserve moved to help European banks that have been having trouble finding people who are willing to lend them money.