Santorum dodges Friess ‘bad joke’  —  POLITICO's Juana Summers reports on Rick Santorum's reaction to Foster Friess with reporters tonight: … Buzzfeed's Rosie Gray had a bit of this earlier.  —  UPDATE: Friess himself, in an interview with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell …

Obama Campaign Weighs Santorum  —  President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has begun discussing whether to attack Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and try to define him for a general-election audience, potentially breaking from its focus on Mitt Romney.

Blacklisted, But Not Beaten  —  My days as a political analyst at MSNBC have come to an end.  —  After 10 enjoyable years, I am departing, after an incessant clamor from the left that to permit me continued access to the microphones of MSNBC would be an outrage against decency, and dangerous.

Virginia's Proposed Ultrasound Law Is an Abomination  —  Under the new legislation, women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason.  Where's the outrage?  —  This week, the Virginia state Legislature passed a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before they may have an abortion.

Over-regulated America  —  The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation  —  AMERICANS love to laugh at ridiculous regulations.  A Florida law requires vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if the label is not there.

At Work in Syria, Times Correspondent Dies  —  Anthony Shadid, a prize-winning newspaper correspondent whose graceful dispatches for both The New York Times and The Washington Post covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack …

A Syllabus for the ‘Occupy’ Movement  —  Conservatives are wrong to deride college courses on the anti-Wall Street protests.  Here's a lesson plan and possible reading list.  —  Schools from New York's Columbia to Chicago's Roosevelt University are offering courses on the “Occupy” movement.

Americans Give Record-High Ratings to Several U.S. Allies  —  Iran has the lowest favorable rating; China's declines  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are feeling more favorably toward several of the United States' major allies in 2012 than they have in the past.

Is birth control fight a Terri Schiavo moment?  —  The respected Dem firm Democracy Corps has just published an important polling memo that gets right to the heart of why the birth control battle could matter so much in this year's elections.  —  The firm's poll finds that one of the most …

What are women for?  —  In a simpler time Sigmund Freud struggled to understand what women want.  Today the significant battle is over what women are for.  None of our culture warriors are anywhere close to settling the matter.  The prevailing answer is the non-answer …

Pot-laden plane blows into Obama's air space  —  WASHINGTON - Two Air Force F-16 fighters intercepted a privately owned Cessna airplane that entered the same Los Angeles airspace as Marine One on Thursday as the helicopter was ferrying President Barack Obama.

Darrell Issa Compares His All-Male Anti-Contraception Panel To Martin Luther King  —  House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has been catching flack for holding a panel today relating to women's access to birth control that featured zero women, but Issa won't let the fact …

Business groups launch legal, Capitol Hill attacks on EPA mercury rule  —  Major industry groups have stepped up efforts to scuttle new EPA rules that require curbs on emissions of mercury and other air toxics from coal-fired power plants.  —  The rule's formal publication Thursday …

Victoria Jackson At CPAC: Former SNL Star On Gay Marriage, Barack Obama, GOP Candidates … LGBT Rights , Republican Party , Cpac , Gay Rights , Republicans , Video , Cpac 2012 , Victoria Jackson , Gay Voices News  —  “I'm here to save America from communism,” the former “Saturday Night Live” …

CNN Poll: Half oppose Obama birth control insurance plan  —  Washington (CNN) - Half of all Americans say they oppose the Obama administration's new policy concerning employer-provided health insurance plans and their coverage of contraceptive services for female employees including …

To infinity and beyond!  This is the debt chart Obama and Geithner should be ashamed of  —  Testifying before the House Budget Committee today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Chairman Paul Ryan the following: “We're not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem.

D.C. Circuit Examines $3.4B Settlement In Native American Trust Case  —  The Justice Department today defended in a Washington federal appeals court the historic $3.4 billion settlement to resolve claims that the government mismanaged Native American trust accounts for decades.