Huffington Post Smear of Gibson Uses Doctored Video!  —  A headline at Huffington Post blares: John Gibson Compares Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum (VIDEO).  Writer Alex Leo lays it all out: … Here's the HuffPo video:  —  Hundreds of HuffPo commenters erupted in predictable outrage:

Would You Join Santelli's “Chicago Tea Party?”  —  CNBC's Rick Santelli leads the trader mortgage revolt.  Would you want to join his “Chicago Tea Party?” … The plan is a discrace!  I pay my mortgage and bills on time.  I live on a fixed income.  I find it tough each month to make ends meet, but do.

THAT CARTOON  —  Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.  —  It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” one officer says.

Bill Clinton: Obama Should Sound More Hopeful  —  Says President Should Voice Economic Optimism, Paint GOP as the Party of ‘No’  —  Former President Bill Clinton gives President Barack Obama an “A” grade for his first month in office, but tells ABC News that Obama needs to put on a more positive face …

American Issues Project Slams Stimulus Bill As Large  —  When the economy enters a recession, you lower interest rates.  When monetary policy's gone as low as it can, you try fiscal expansion.  That means you need a deficit that's large relative to the size of your economy.

Money for Idiots  —  Our moral and economic system is based on individual responsibility.  It's based on the idea that people have to live with the consequences of their decisions.  This makes them more careful deciders.  This means that society tends toward justice — people get what they deserve as much as possible

The Obama Cabinet is a CEO black hole  —  In President Barack Obama's Cabinet, there is a Nobel Prize winner, a former mayor, and a veteran CIA agent.  Surrounding him in the White House West Wing are a former four-star general, one of the nation's most eminent economists …

Who'll Stop the Pain?  —  Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the most recent meeting of its open market committee — the group that sets interest rates.  Most press reports focused either on the Fed's downgrade of the near-term outlook or on its adoption of a long-run 2 percent inflation target.

On Asia Trip, Clinton Shows How She'll Try to Repair the U.S. Image Around the World  —  On Her First Trip as Secretary of State, Clinton Shows How She'll Attempt to Repair the U.S. Image Worldwide  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new campaign and message: The United States wants to listen.

Geronimo's Heirs Sue Secret Yale Society Over His Skull  —  HOUSTON — The descendants of Geronimo have sued Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University with ties to the Bush family, charging that its members robbed his grave in 1918 and have kept his skull in a glass case ever since.

Iran has enough fuel for a nuclear bomb, report says  —  The report by the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, surprises diplomats and arms control experts.  Officials note that major obstacles remain to building a weapon.  —  Reporting from Tehran — Iran has enough nuclear fuel …

FIRST THOUGHTS: ONE MONTH DOWN  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro  —  *** One month down: Today marks exactly one month since Obama was inaugurated.  The country, and the world frankly, is engaged on pretty much anything this president does.

Upside-Down Economics  —  In January, Suze Orman, the blonde financial adviser who's all over TV telling you to cut up your credit cards, went on “Oprah” to discuss how to cope with the recession.  Orman recommended not eating in restaurants for a month.  The appalled National Restaurant …

The Crisis of Credit Visualized  —  Can you explain the existing economic crisis' pivotal crisis of credit simply so anyone can grasp the crisis?  The answer is YES and California graduate student Jonathan Jarvis shows us how below:  —  The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Czech president compares EU to Soviet Union  —  BRUSSELS - The European Union has turned into an undemocratic and elitist project comparable to the Communist dictatorships of eastern Europe that forbade alternative thinking, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told the European Parliament on Thursday.

Obama's First Month  —  Early reflections on the Obama Revolution.  —  It only seems like Barack Obama has been president forever.  Actually, as of today, he's been in office for exactly one month.  Granted, with 47 months to go in his term, it's too soon to render a verdict on the Obama presidency.

U.S. Tries a Trillion-Dollar Key for Locked Lending  —  Credit cards, home equity lines, student loans, car financing: none come cheaply or easily in these credit-tight times.  The banks, the refrain goes, just will not lend money.  —  But it is not simply the banks that are the problem.

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence  —  Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday, there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole.  —  In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack.

Lieberman's firm suspected of doing business with PA officials  —  A company established by Avigdor Lieberman did business to the tune of over NIS 1 million with officials in the Palestinian Authority, apparently selling wood in 2000 and 2001 when Lieberman was an MK, Haaretz has learned.

Lawmakers take fundraising to slopes  —  WASHINGTON — The deepening economic recession hasn't stopped members of Congress from throwing lavish events to raise campaign money for the 2010 election.  —  This weekend, donors to a political action committee run by Rep. Jeb Hensarling are invited …

Mr. President, Keep the Airwaves Free  —  As a former law professor, surely you understand the Bill of Rights.  —  Dear President Obama:  —  I have a straightforward question, which I hope you will answer in a straightforward way: Is it your intention to censor talk radio through a variety …