U.S. pulling out of racism conference  —  White House aides told Jewish leaders on a conference call today that the United States will boycott the United Nations' World Conference on Racism over hostility to Israel in draft documents prepared for the April conference.

Jindal aides clarify Katrina story  —  A spokeswoman for Bobby Jindal says the Louisiana governor didn't imply that an anecdote about battling bureaucrats during Katrina directly involved the governor or took place during the heat of a fight to release rescue boats.

Conservatives Confident Their Day Is Coming  —  Tucker Carlson closed out the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference to a chorus of boos.  His crime: informing a crowd of youngish, frustrated conservatives that if they wanted to succeed, they had to copy The New York Times.

Obama Plans to End Combat Mission in Iraq by August 2010  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama heads to one of the nation's most storied military bases Friday morning to unveil plans to pull most troops out of Iraq by August 2010 and he has support from an unlikely quarter — Senator John McCain …

Steele to CPAC: The Republican party is just fine  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Capping off a day of conservative soul-searching, strategizing and navel-gazing at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele announced Thursday …

Calif. Mayor Who Sent White House Watermelon Patch E-Mail Quits  —  Mayor of Orange County, California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons.  —  LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. — The mayor …

The “Worst Food Product Ever” May Have Been Found  —  Pork Brains In Milk Gravy.  Could it be the worst food product ever?  It does have 1170% of your daily cholesterol per serving.  Mmmm.  —  [This Is Why You're Fat via BuzzFeed]

Reid joins Pelosi in opposing weapons ban revival  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will join Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in opposing any effort to revive the 1994 assault weapons ban, putting them on the opposite side of the Obama administration.  —  Reid spokesman Jim Manley …

Climate of Change  —  Elections have consequences.  President Obama's new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years.  If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course.

RE: Fred Hiatt  —  Speaking of Fred Hiatt's absurd claim that people who don't like George Will spreading global warming misinformation should “debate” him, rather than expect the Post to run a correction ...  Yesterday's Washington Post featured op-eds by Henry Kissinger, David Broder, Bill Kristol, David Ignatius, and George Will.

James Dobson resigns as Focus on the Family chair  —  DENVER (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that James Dobson has resigned as chairman of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family.  —  Jim Daly, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs …

Why Banks Are Screwed—An Illustration  —  The FT has a great piece sorting through how much the banks' mortgage-related assets might be worth.  The answer for the particular assets it looked at: not much.  The highest-grade stuff came in at about 32 cents on the dollar; the mid-level stuff at about 5 cents.

Experts: Big Flaw in Will's Ice Assertions  —  Sea ice near the North Pole, April 2003.  The water is 14,000 feet deep.  —  The office of former Vice President Al Gore complained about my story on climate exaggeration the other day and now George Will, the other (very different) …

Obama Approval Rating Increases to 67%  —  Had dropped to 59% prior to his Tuesday congressional address  — USA - Government and Politics - Presidential Job Approval - The Presidency - Americas - Northern America  —  PRINCETON, NJ — In the days immediately after Barack Obama's …

Obama administration may rescind ‘conscience rule’  —  Officials say the move seeks to clarify rules for health care workers  —  WASHINGTON — Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows health-care workers …

Exclusive: Joe the Plumber suggests some members of Congress should be shot.  —  On Wednesday, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that if he were in Congress, he would “probably be in jail” because he'd be charged with “slapping some member.”  He added, “And that's not [bull] either.”

Jobless Angry at Possibility of No Benefits  —  As governors in nine states, mostly in the South, consider rejecting millions of dollars in federal stimulus money for increased unemployment insurance, there is growing anger among the ranks of the jobless in those states that they could be left out of a significant government benefit.

The Obama Revolution  —  Paid for by the people.  —  In the closing weeks of last year's election campaign, we wrote that Democrats had in mind the most sweeping expansion of government in decades.  Liberals clucked, but it turns out even we've been outbid.