Steele offers Jindal ‘slum love’  —  In an interview with Curtis Sliwa on ABC Radio last night, the host and RNC Chairman Michael Steele jokingly linked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to the film “Slumdog Millionaire.”  Steele offered Jindal “slum love.  —  Here's the transcript:

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT ...  If you haven't been following Eric Kleefeld's bang-up coverage of the Minnesota Senate election saga at TPMDC (come to think of it, this fiasco pre-dates the launch of TPMDC and dates back to our TPM Election Central days — just another reminder that here it is almost March …

Rocky Mountain News to close, publish final edition Friday  —  Executives from E.W. Scripps Co., announce their decision on the future of the Rocky Mountain News in the 150-year-old newspaper's newsroom on 2/26/09 in Denver.  In December 2008, the Rocky's parent company put the paper up for sale …

CPAC audience roars with applause when speaker suggests Obama wasn't born in U.S.  —  ThinkProgress is attending the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference today.  Earlier this afternoon, Cliff Kincaid, head of a conservative group Accuracy in Media, introduced Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

Freeman's in  —  The Obama administration has notified Congress that Chas Freeman has been appointed chairman of the National Intelligence Council, demonstrating a willingness to rebuff pro-Israel activists and an embrace of a more realist foreign policy line.

Senate tunes out Fairness Doctrine, 87-11  —  The Senate voted Thursday in favor of an amendment to the District of Columbia voting-rights bill that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which critics say would decimate conservative talk radio.

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 …

Senate Passes Bill Giving the District a House Vote  —  The Senate today passed a bill that for the first time would give the District a full voting member of the House of Representatives.  But senators managed to attach an amendment that would scrap most of the District's local gun-control laws.

Gates: Media photos of war dead need families' OK  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets when families …

Prosecutors Prepare Charges Against Final ‘Enemy Combatant’ in U.S.  —  Federal prosecutors are preparing to charge Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with providing material support to al-Qaeda terrorists in a groundbreaking move that would put the alleged sleeper agent under the jurisdiction …

Pelosi throws cold water on assault-weapon ban  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tossed cold water on the prospect of reinstating the assault weapons ban, highlighting Democrats' reluctance to take on gun issues.  —  Attorney General Eric Holder raised the prospect Wednesday that the administration would push to bring back the ban.

Limbaugh Responds To Sanford: The 'Hell We Don't' Want Obama To Fail!  Just Need ‘The Guts’ To Say So  —  Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that in an interview with the Real Clear Politics, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) was asked about the “view that perhaps Republicans are rooting for President Obama to fail. ”

Obama Budget Sees $1.75 Trillion Deficit  —  President Obama's budget proposal for 2010 projects a stunning deficit of $1.75 trillion for the current fiscal year, which began five months ago, reflecting a shortfall of more than $1 trillion as the fiscal year began, plus the costs of bank bailouts …

Holder Vows To End Raids On Medical Marijuana Clubs  —  Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law.  His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise …

Obama's Budget: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011  —  President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.  —  1) On people making more than $250,000.

Joe the Author, Plumbing New Lows in Interest  —  Joe the Plumber (no longer a plumber; first name actually Samuel) popped into our town yesterday evening to sell his new book and to remind people that he's still a plain and simple guy.  Mission accomplished, on at least one of his missions.

Dem blasts Obama's budget  —  (CNN) - Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor blasted the budget outline President Obama submitted to Capitol Hill today, saying “I don't like it...change is not running up even bigger deficits that George Bush did.”  —  “That's what George Bush did very well.

Right, and Left Out  —  Young Conservatives Can't Get With the Program  —  It's early February, and the happy hour at the Union Pub on Capitol Hill is jammed with an unlikely slice of young Washington strivers: conservatives, libertarians, free-market/small-government types, anyone right of center.

Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats to Left  —  WASHINGTON — A group of liberal bloggers said it was teaming up with organized labor and MoveOn.org to form a political action committee that would seek to push the Democratic Party further to the left.

OMB boots lobbyist off press call  —  Maybe President Obama really is serious about making his White House inhospitable to lobbyists.  One of them even got scolded by name for trying to spy on an administration conference call with reporters Thursday.  —  The call was set up for the press but …

Conservatives Hit Dems Over “Tattoo Removal” Pork — But It's An Anti-Crime Program!  —  Uh oh — looks like we have our next marsh mouse-style talking point.  —  Conservatives are hammering the House's new $410 billion spending bill because it contains $200,000 for what they're derisively referring to as “tattoo removal.”

The 2% Illusion  —  Take everything they earn, and it still won't be enough.  —  President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it.  On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end …

Joe The Plumberization of the Republican Party  —  Patrick Ruffini decries the “Joe-the-Plumberization of the GOP.” … Of course, they didn't appoint Wurzelbacher as VP as they did with Sarah Palin.  The two are of a piece: A faux populism that comes at the cost of alienating the intellectuals and serious leaders of the movement.

Feelings of despair  —  There's so much to like about where Obama is going — health care, transparency in government, ending the war in Iraq.  And the stimulus bill is OK, though not big enough.  —  But on the question of fixing the banks, many of us are feeling a growing sense of despair.

59% Still Believe Government Is the Problem  —  In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that …

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 …

Napolitano orders review of Wash. immigration raid  —  SEATTLE (AP) — Immigration agents this week conducted their first work-site raid since President Barack Obama took office, but it was news to their boss, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who on Wednesday ordered a review of the action.

We're on the brink of disaster  —  Violent protests and riots are breaking out everywhere as economies collapse and governments fail.  War is bound to follow.  —  Editor's note: This article has also appeared on TomDispatch.com.  —  A destroyed street market burns in the aftermath of riots …