It is nothing less than astounding that Pres. Obama and the congressional Democrats have allowed themselves to be put on the defensive about stimulus spending by the same Republicans who, with George Bush, ran the national debt into the trillions in just six short years.
It does not bode well that the president and the Democrats [...]

Joan Walsh at Salon says Republicans are winning the media war over the economic stimulus package.
This had merely been a stupid GOP talking point until 10 minutes ago; now it’s becoming a stupid media talking point. Funny how that works.
…the stimulus fight is tougher than it should be for Democrats. Clearly the best ally the [...]

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.? He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
— David Axelrod (1955 – ), White House senior advisor, explaining why people are allowed to take off their suit jackets in the president’s presence

Here are the folks invited to the White House Super Bowl party. I’m not familiar with a lot of the representatives.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA)
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)
Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA)
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Rep. Paul [...]

Chinese New Year began Monday, Jan. 26, ushering in the Year of the Ox. As is customary, many Chinese, Vietnamese, and other Asian families spent a few days cleaning their homes to sweep away the bad luck from last year and make way for the good fortune to come.
Understanding the symbolism of the ox helps [...]

Cardinals mascot “Big Red” sends a message

The world (well, except for Buck and Jon) will watch as the Arizona Cardinals, who have never been to a Super Bowl, try to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have won the big game five times. The winners will take home gold and diamond rings, along with bragging rights [...]

The National Review’s Charlie Cook had a very interesting column today that gives a pretty good overview of where we are as a nation in relation to our new president. It’s worth a read:
John Edwards was right when he spoke about there being “two Americas.” The way Edwards framed it, there was an America of [...]

Now here’s a site that’s fun and useful. Paste Magazine is providing a wonderful utility. Just upload your pic and instantly “Obama-icon” it. You can even add your own caption, or choose one of those provided: hope, progress, change, etc. The registration part’s a bit of a pain but the results are well worth it.

While pundits picked apart President Barack Obama’s inaugural address — did it meet expectations, was it too sober, did he rip off earlier presidents’ speeches — Chinese authorities were busy censoring parts of the 20-minute speech. Though most Chinese news sites carried the full text of the speech in English, the versions translated into Chinese [...]

While you were watching Obama being inaugurated on T.V., elves were busy transforming the White House web site. Actually, it might not have been elves but one Macon Phillips, who in the first blog post (!) to the site, identifies himself as the White House’s “Director of New Media.”
By clicking on “the Agenda” in the [...]