Can Anyone Stop Hillary?  Absolutely  —  Time magazine's cover this week asks, “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?”  The answer to that question is yes, but you'd never know it judging by the overwhelming belief among Democratic insiders that the party's 2016 presidential nomination is simply Hillary Clinton's for the asking.

Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End  —  WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency's program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down.

GOP Rep.: Wife Should ‘Voluntarily Submit’ To Her Husband  —  Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) believes that although a wife is supposed to “voluntarily submit” to her husband, she is not inferior to him, according to the Washington Post.  —  “The wife is to voluntarily submit …

Angry Geithner once warned S&P about U.S. downgrade - filing  —  Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner angrily warned the chairman of Standard & Poor's parent that the rating agency would be held accountable for its 2011 decision to strip the United States of its coveted “triple-A” rating, a new court filing shows.

The real problem with the American right: Aging, white radicals  —  But less understood is the true reason why  —  The Republican Party's total failure to make even cosmetic changes to its image and policy agenda last year has at this point become the kind of cliché-cum-running joke …

Virginia to fight same-sex marriage ban  —  Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring will announce Thursday that he believes the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that Virginia will join two same-sex couples in asking a federal court to strike it down …

Cochran's Tea Party challenger raises $500K in 10 weeks  —  Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-Miss.) Tea Party challenger is off to a quick fundraising start, raising $500,000 in his first 10 weeks in the race.  —  Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R), who has the backing of many conservative groups including …

Gregory Hicks: Benghazi and the Smearing of Chris Stevens  —  Shifting blame to our dead ambassador is wrong on the facts.  I know—I was there.  —  Last week the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its report on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The GOP's Birth-Control Trojan Horse  —  The right wants to use religion as an excuse to legally discriminate against gays and unmarried women—and, ultimately, anyone who doesn't share their Christian faith.  —  Ever since the Obama administration included contraception in the list of services …

Where Is Rep Steve Stockman?  —  The Texas congressman mounting a long shot campaign for Senate hasn't appeared on Capitol Hill for weeks.  —  Judge Crater, Jimmy Hoffa and Steve Stockman?  —  The Tea Party Texas congressman challenging incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in March's primary …

Experts: McDonnell's corruption trial will test line between political favors, official action  —  Prosecutors laid out a startling corruption case against former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, but the government faces a high bar in proving that the couple committed a crime, legal experts said Wednesday.

Bernie Madoff recovering from heart attack, battling kidney cancer as he rots in federal prison  —  The 75-year-old mastermind behind the epic Ponzi scheme has stage four kidney cancer, meaning it could have spread to the tissue and other parts of the body.  —  Bernard Madoff …

What Obama's Next Three Years Will Look Like—for Better or Worse  —  Imagining the best- and worst-case scenarios for the rest of the president's term  —  On the cusp of his 2014 State of the Union message, President Obama is not exactly floating on air.  —  His fifth year …

9th congressional GOP hopefuls differ on many issues  —  Voters in the Republican primary will have two very different candidates to choose from in the 9th Congressional District, as David Earl Williams III and Susanne Atanus vie for the right to face Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the fall.

Antiabortion movement faces a cold reality  —  James Dobson's Focus on the Family asked Christians to pray for rain to fall on Barack Obama in 2008 when he accepted the presidential nomination.  Various religious conservatives have said that hurricanes, earthquakes and other meteorological phenomena …

Ohio Dem: Why not John Kasich?  —  The mayor of Columbus, Ohio — a Democrat who “supports Democrats across the board” — says pundits have mistakenly overlooked his home-state governor, Republican John Kasich, in the 2016 presidential parlor game.  —  “They're talking about the wrong Republicans …

Iranian official on nuke deal: ‘We did not agree to dismantle anything’  —  Watch CNN's full interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Sunday at 10 a.m. on “Fareed Zakaria GPS”  —  (CNN) — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted Wednesday that the Obama administration …

Chinese Internet Traffic Redirected to Wyoming Company Servers  —  Updated: This post was updated to include the new location of the registered agent for Sophidea Inc., Wyoming Corporate Services, as well as additional reporting.  —  In one of the more bizarre twists in recent Internet memory …

Miami Beach mayor: Take your tech start-up gospel, and shove it  —  In the chatter around urban revitalization over the past few years, no idea has caught local officials' imaginations more than the idea of filling their downtowns with tech start-ups, in hopes of growing the next Google or Facebook.

The Loud Truth About Abortion Protesters  —  Justice Scalia calls the demonstrators “counselors” who are comforting women.  That's not what I found at one New Jersey clinic.  —  “Be a man-stop your woman from killing your baby!”  —  “Mommy, don't kill me!”  —  “You are going to be the father of a dead baby!”

US and other Olympic teams get terror threat ahead of Sochi Games  —  Delegations in some countries, including Hungary, have reported receiving letters warning that Sochi, the location for the upcoming Olympic Winter games, is not safe.  The U.S. continues to take precautions to protect Americans at the event.

GOP touts school choice to woo minority vote  —  Republicans eager to attract black and Latino voters believe they have hit on an ideal magnet: school choice.  —  Led by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, with high-profile contributions from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor …

Poll: Christie favorability rating drops after George Washington Bridge controversy  —  Governor Christie's favorability rating has dropped to 46 percent according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll.  —  The George Washington Bridge controversy has taken a toll on Governor Christie's favorability ratings …

In $137B state budget proposal, Gov. Cuomo trumps de Blasio's universal pre-K plan  —  Gov. Cuomo unveiled his plan to offer statewide prekindergarten without raising taxes on the rich.  Mayor de Blasio ran for election on his tax-the-rich-for-universal-pre-K plan and has called it a ‘mandate’ by voters.