BURRIS' SON GOT STATE JOB FROM BLAGO  —  The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.  —  Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II …

To Pay for Health Care, Obama Looks to Taxes on Affluent  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken …

President and His Inner Circle Have Earmarks in Omnibus  —  Funny how items show up in spending bills without any notice — like an earmark for a president who promised not to seek any.  —  President Obama, who took a no-earmark pledge on the campaign trail, is listed as one of dozens …

The Joe-the-Plumberization of the GOP  —  With CPAC upon us, I had wanted to write a state-of-the-movement piece, and describing what I felt had gone wrong.  But I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  It hit me like a ton of bricks when I saw this:  —  It could have been like any other of the hundreds …

U.S. Is Arms Bazaar for Mexican Cartels  —  PHOENIX — The Mexican agents who moved in on a safe house full of drug dealers last May were not prepared for the fire power that greeted them.  —  When the shooting was over, eight agents were dead.  Among the guns the police recovered …

GOP at risk of becoming party in the no  —  Another day, another no vote.  —  After near-unanimous Republican congressional opposition to President Barack Obama's stimulus package and a week dominated by headlines of GOP governors poised to reject stimulus funding, House Republicans followed …

DATING A BANKER ANONYMOUS...EXPOSED!  —  On January 25, the New York Times reported on the women of Dating a Banker Anonymous.  The Times reported: … On February 2, the Times appended a typical Times correction to the story: … The Times missed a tad more than the second “t” in Buffett's name.

Obama's Straw Men  —  Why does he routinely ascribe to opponents views they don't espouse?  —  President Barack Obama reveres Abraham Lincoln.  But among the glaring differences between the two men is that Lincoln offered careful, rigorous, sustained arguments to advance his aims and …

Governor Jindal, Rising G.O.P. Star, Plummets After Speech  —  Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has been a rising star in the Republican Party, but his stock took a hit as he was roundly panned for his televised response to President Obama's first speech to Congress on Tuesday night.

ACLU sues city of Clearwater over tackle shop's fish mural  —  Herb Quintero, owner of the Complete Angler, and the ACLU's Becky Steele talk Tuesday after suing the city of Clearwater.  —  Times]  —  CLEARWATER — A fight over a fish mural has landed in federal court.

The Dead Tree Theory  —  Whenever a president gives a major address, like the one Barack Obama delivered to Congress this week, the opposition party delivers a rejoinder.  Which American citizens always ignore.  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's speech was, therefore, a kind of triumph.

Log Cabin under Democratic control?  —  Sources say Tim Gill, a prominent Dem donor, is dictating GOP group's direction  —  The amount of money that the Gill Action Fund has contributed to the Log Cabin Republicans — about one-third of its total budget in some years …

In President's Budget Plan, Broad Agenda and a Few Gaps  —  President Obama's spending plan is built on the assumption that lawmakers can resolve some hugely contentious issues — and it relies on a few well-worn budget tricks.  —  The request he will deliver to Congress today proposes …

Obama's Iraq Plan Has December Elections as Turning Point for Pullout  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's planned Iraq troop drawdown would leave the bulk of American forces in place until early next year while some combat units would remain in place in new roles even beyond a declared August 2010 target …

House Kills Effort to Investigate Lobbyist-Lawmaker Ties  —  The proposal would have forced the House Ethics Committee to launch a probe into ties between the source and timing of campaign contributions by lobbyists and subsequent legislator requests for special projects or earmarks.  —  FOXNews.com

Christopher Hitchens and the Battle of Beirut  —  Last week Christopher Hitchens and I were attacked in Beirut.  Less than 24 hours after we landed at the international airport, a half dozen members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party jumped us on Hamra Street when he defaced one of their signs.

Drone Attacks Inside Pakistan Will Continue, CIA Chief Says  —  Panetta Calls Strikes ‘Successful’ at Disrupting Insurgents  —  CIA Director Leon Panetta said yesterday that U.S. aerial attacks against al-Qaeda and other extremist strongholds inside Pakistan would continue, despite concerns about a popular Pakistani backlash.

667K new jobless claims; continuing claims top 5M  —  WASHINGTON - New jobless claims rose more than expected last week and the number of laid-off Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits topped 5.1 million, fresh evidence the recession is increasingly forcing employers to shed jobs.

Prudes at Dinner, Gluttons in Bed  —  Put down that cheeseburger and listen up: If food has become what sex was a generation ago — the intimidatingly intelligent Mary Eberstadt says it has — then a cheeseburger is akin to adultery, or worse.  As eating has become highly charged with moral judgments …

A Radical Presidency  —  When Barack Obama delivered his 44-minute acceptance speech in August among the majestic columns of Denver, it was apparent his would be an expansive presidency.  Some wondered whether his solutions for a very long list of problems was too ambitious.

Holder: Closing Gitmo won't be easy  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the Guantanamo detention center is a well-run, professional facility that will be difficult to close — but he is still going to do it.  —  Holder visited the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay …

The Negro Family: The Case For National Action  —  Office of Policy Planning and Research  —  Two hundred years ago, in 1765, nine assembled colonies first joined together to demand freedom from arbitrary power.  —  For the first century we struggled to hold together the first continental union of democracy in the history of man.

Kristol Reveal's GOP's Secret Plan  —  Remember when Mike Schaffer wrote that Bill Kristol's column was “immensely useful” because he was “shunning the responsibilities of a public intellectual and instead writing an amoral column that might have been drafted by a paid political operative of the sort Kristol used to be”?