Rick Santorum Wants to Fight ‘The Dangers Of Contraception’  —  Candidates often say things when polling in the single digits that come back to haunt them when they start leading the polls.  Last October, Rick Santorum gave an interview with an Evangelical blog called Caffeinated Thoughts …

59% of Catholics Disapprove of Obama's Job Performance  —  Catholics strongly disapprove of the job President Obama is doing as the debate continues over his administration's new policy forcing Catholic institutions to pay for contraception they morally oppose.

Media Matters memo called for hiring private investigators ‘to look into the personal lives’ of Fox employees  —  A little after 1 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2009, Karl Frisch emailed a memo to his bosses, Media Matters for America founder David Brock and president Eric Burns.

CPAC: Not Quite Like the Media Matters Communications Room.  But Still, Grow Up.  —  UPDATE: Melissa Clouthier has taken on the task of writing the same point about the young women, too many of whom were even more scantily clad than some of Fox News hosts.  —  Stephen Glass was a fabulist.

Pressure mounting for GOP caucus reconsideration  —  AUGUSTA, Maine — Pressure is on the Maine Republican Party to reconsider its weekend declaration that Mitt Romney won the state's caucuses.  —  The Maine GOP announced Saturday that Romney narrowly edged Ron Paul, 39 percent to 36 percent …

Preschooler's Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”  —  State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead  —  RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told …

Oliver Stone's son converts to Islam in Iran  —  US filmmaker Sean Stone, son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, converted to Islam on Tuesday in Iran, where he is making a documentary, he told AFP.  —  “The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with.

People Are Human  —  David Brooks is unhappy with the turn the conversation over the white working class has taken; that's his right, although I think he's caricaturing my position.  But I do want to make a point about the nature of social explanation.  —  David says, … True enough.

Romney op-ed: Taxpayers should get GM shares' proceeds  —  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns in Portland, Maine.  The candidate contends that the Obama administration should sell its ownership in GM and return the money to taxpayers.  (Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)

CDC Warns Untreatable Gonorrhea is On the Way  —  A new strain of gonorrhea is resistant to one of the last known effective treatments  —  Gonorrhea, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the United States, is increasingly showing resistance to one of the last known effective …

Christie's Valentines Message To Gays In New Jersey: Your Marriages Are ‘A Good Bunch Of Theater’  —  New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R) described yesterday's vote in favor of marriage equality in the state Senate as “a good bunch of theater” and predicted that the legislature …

Fox News ‘course correction’ rankles some  —  As a white, male, middle-aged conservative talk radio host from Virginia, John Fredericks is something close to the Platonic ideal of a Fox News fan.  —  And until last year, he was one.  But then Fox's treatment of the Republican primary race …

Roseanne Barr Pulls 6 Percent Against Obama And Romney In National Presidential Poll  —  Someone at Public Policy Polling clearly has a sense of humor, because they included comedian Roseanne Barr, who is pursuing the Green Party nomination for President in their latest national polling survey.

Obama's epic blunder on birth-control mandate  —  Before Barack Obama can defeat his opponents, he must first be rescued from his friends.  —  Some of them are now suggesting that his contraceptive mandate on religious institutions was a skilled political stratagem.

Payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits: Congress nears deal  —  House and Senate leaders are nearing a sweeping deal on jobless benefits, the payroll tax cut and the Medicare reimbursement rate for physicians, according to several sources familiar with the talks.

VALENTINE'S DAY GOOGLE DOODLE: Today's charming musical animation makes for one sweet gift  —  SOMETIMES, not even Google keywords can navigate the search for love.  —  Today, Google is celebrating Valentine's Day the world over with a charming animated “Doodle” that is free of dialogue — yet is all heart.

Sexual harassment case against Dem Rep. Alcee Hastings dismissed  —  A federal judge has dismissed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.).  —  Hastings applauded the U.S. District Court's decision on Tuesday as he echoed comments he has made for nearly a year maintaining his innocence.

Coach resigns over nude photo on Facebook … High school football coach, Paul Withee, resigned after accidentally posting a naked picture on Facebook.  (Source: WMTW/CNN)  —  SOUTH PARRIS, ME (WMTW/CNN) - A high school football coach in Maine has resigned after accidentally posting a naked picture on his Facebook page.

The Internal Contradictions of Mitt Romney  —  And by “internal”, I mean in the same paragraph: … Yep, Obama has failed to resolve the problem of excessive entitlement spending; furthermore, he's cutting entitlement spending!  —  It gets even better when you bear in mind that Romney …

The George Washington Candidate  —  For a time, it looked as though Newt Gingrich would be the Romney alternative that the religious right and Tea Partiers would coalesce around.  Now Rick Santorum has taken that spot after a string of victories in primaries last week and a huge rise in national polls.

FIFTY MEDICAL DOCTORS FOR SINGLE PAYER URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRIKE DOWN INDIVIDUAL MANDATE  —  Fifty medical doctors who favor a single payer health insurance system today urged the US Supreme Court to strike down the individual mandate.  —  In a brief filed with the Court …

Newt Gingrich reveals sexy Valentine's Day plans for wife Callista while stumping in California  —  The intimate remarks come as Team Gingrich tries to rev up Callista's public presence on the campaign trail  —  Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich …

The Materialist Fallacy  —  The half-century between 1912 and 1962 was a period of great wars and economic tumult but also of impressive social cohesion.  Marriage rates were high.  Community groups connected people across class.  —  In the half-century between 1962 and the present …