The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality  —  (updated below)  —  It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki.

Requiem for a Governor Before He's in the Ring  —  Look, I'm sorry, but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cannot be president: He is just too fat.  Maybe, if he runs for president and we get to know him, we will overlook this awkward issue because we are so impressed with the way he stands up to teachers' unions.

Obama: America's Gone ‘Soft’  —  In an interview this evening with a local NBC affiliate in Orlando, President Obama claimed that America has “gotten a little soft.”  —  “I mean, there are a lot of things we can do,” Obama said.  “The way I think about it is, you know, this is a great …

Banks to Make Customers Pay Fee for Using Debit Cards  —  Bank of America, the nation's biggest bank, said on Thursday that it planned to start charging customers a $5 monthly fee when they used their debit cards for purchases.  It was just one of several new charges expected to hit consumers as new regulations crimp banks' profits.

90 percent of Americans say economy stinks  —  New York (CNNMoney) - Three years after a financial crisis pushed the country deep into recession, an overwhelming number of Americans - 90% - say that economic conditions remain poor.  —  The number, reported Friday in a new CNN/ORC International Poll …

The Limits of Empathy  —  We are surrounded by people trying to make the world a better place.  Peace activists bring enemies together so they can get to know one another and feel each other's pain.  School leaders try to attract a diverse set of students so each can understand what it's like to walk in the others' shoes.

Time to think the unthinkable and start printing again  —  It is the policy that dare not speak its name: the printing press.  The time has come to employ this nuclear option on a grand scale.  The alternative is likely to be a lost decade.  The waste is more than unnecessary; it is cruel.

Durbin says Democrats don't currently have the votes for Obama jobs bill  —  Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, at the moment, Democrats in Congress don't have the votes to pass President Obama's jobs bill, but Durbin added that that situation would change.

Phony Fear Factor  —  The good news: After spending a year and a half talking about deficits, deficits, deficits when we should have been talking about jobs, job, jobs we're finally back to discussing the right issue.  —  The bad news: Republicans, aided and abetted by many conservative policy intellectuals …

Michelle Obama shops incognito at Target (Photo)  —  AP photographer Charles Dharapak told CBS News he took pictures of the first lady at the Target on Route 1 in Alexandria, Virginia.  —  The first lady's office confirmed that the pictures showed Mrs. Obama, though it did not immediately respond when asked if it tipped off Dharapak.

Outsize Severance Continues for Executives, Even After Failed Tenures  —  The golden goodbye has not gone away.  —  Just last week, Léo Apotheker was shown the door after a tumultuous 11-month run atop Hewlett-Packard.  His reward?  $13.2 million in cash and stock severance …

NEIN, NEIN, NEIN, and the death of EU Fiscal Union  —  Judging by the commentary, there has been a colossal misunderstanding around the world of what has just has happened in Germany.  The significance of yesterday's vote by the Bundestag to make the EU's €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) more flexible is not that the outcome was a “Yes”.

2 Long Island Weeklies Wonder About Spike in Sales  —  It is possible there is some larger lesson for ailing newspaper sales in the sudden good fortune of The Suffolk Times and The Riverhead News-Review, two modest Long Island weeklies that saw an unprecedented sales spike last week …

Buffett: My plan was not the ‘Buffett rule’  —  Billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett, who has become the face of President Obama's $447 billion jobs-creation legislation, said Friday that he might not agree with everything in the bill.  —  Obama has called for higher tax rates …

Investigation clears gay Fort Worth teacher  —  Kristopher Franks set to return to work Friday after 4-day leave stemming from allegations of improper behavior  —  nash@dallasvoice.com  —  FORT WORTH — Gay Western Hills High School teacher Kristopher Franks, put on paid administrative leave on Monday …