1.) Your grandmother drives faster than the new Republican majority — Welcome to the Lowered Expectations dating service, where nobody’s profile picture reflects what he looks like in real life. First up: The House’s Republican majority. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor promised $100 billion in spending cuts. Late Tuesday, unnamed GOP aides downgraded that amount to roughly $50 billion, reports the New York Times, “because the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before spending cuts could become law.” The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward, after attending Cantor’s press availability on Tuesday, reported that Republicans may be relying on Obama to do their cutting for them: “Once we get to the State of the Union I expect this president to put some action behind the words he’s been about,” Cantor said yesterday afternoon. “When pressed numerous times for whether there will be specific spending cuts proposed and regulations put under the axe prior to the State of the Union,” Ward added, “Cantor mentioned only an already announced five percent reduction to congressional office budgets that will save $35 million.” Hear that noise? That is the sound of the Tea Partiers sharpening their knives. (more)
It was 19 years ago — and about 30 degrees warmer — when Cal and Billy Ripken played in the last game at Memorial Stadium. But on Tuesday, when they replanted home plate in its old spot off East 33rd Street, the past returned as if on a welcome summer breeze. (more)
Just last week, the Transportation Security Administration had an 80 percent approval rating. Then, after a few days of media scrutiny, its numbers began to crash. As The Daily Caller noted yesterday, the number of Americans who approve of the TSA dropped 16 points in a single week, and is still plummeting. (more)
Without a doubt, these are difficult days for Barack Obama. With a job approval rating in the 40s, with voters threatening to desert the Democrats in the midterms, and with no sign of events breaking his way, the heady days following his inauguration seem a dim and distant memory. (more)
Angela Grube quickly combed through the clothing rack ignoring several pristine looking garments before the prized item caught her eye: a black dress with a torn zipper and holes in the underarms. (more)
A textbook tactic of statist radicals in America is the systematic character assassination of their enemies as racists. Loathe to engage their intellectual opponents in a real discussion of the issues, lest the radicals should be perceived for what they are and lose the fight to bring America under their heel, they prefer instead to slander their opponents, to intimidate and shout them down, and to destroy their credibility with whatever lies or twisted propaganda they can muster in a never-ending witch-hunt. (more)
Progressive ‘journalists’ coordinated smear against critics of Rev. Wright — Reporters harangue a sweaty Robert Gibbs after Obama mischaracterizes fight over unemployment benefits — Dueling Tea Party leaders channel Hamilton and Burr (sort of!) — Congressman points out that signs heralding stimulus are not a good use of the stimulus — How is Obamacare helping FLOTUS? Oh right, it’s not — Cops don’t want to be filmed doing anything ever again (more)
It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign. (more)
Cal Ripken Jr. said Tuesday night that talks with the Orioles about his potentially taking an advisory and secondary role in the club’s front office are “progressing nicely,” but he isn’t sure his situation will be settled in time for the 2011 season. (more)
This is a no-brainer: The Phillies with Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Oh, wait, the Phillies wanted to rebuild their farm system and dealt away Lee. How is that move working out? (more)
JOHANNESBURG — Ryan Appell stood on an isolated stretch of highway on the outskirts of an old South African mining town dressed like Betsy Ross’ worst nightmare. (more)
WASHINGTON — Hired in 2001 by the National Security Agency to help it catch up with the e-mail and cellphone revolution, Thomas A. Drake became convinced that the government’s eavesdroppers were squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on failed programs while ignoring a promising alternative. (more)
After high school seniors graduate this season, they and their parents will soon face another time-honored tradition —paying college tuition. (more)
It has come down to style now. It’s the speed and athleticism of No. 5 Duke against the defense and overall discipline of unseeded Notre Dame. (more)
It didn’t take long, Miles Harrison said, for the familiar lacrosse stereotypes to resurface. Within a day after a University of Virginia lacrosse player was charged with murdering a female player, the Baltimore surgeon said somebody told him, “‘There are those lacrosse guys again.” (more)
It started last year, with growing opposition to the federal stimulus package and other record spending in Washington. (more)
DNA has long been used to solve crimes and even exonerate the innocent. Soon, it could be used to pinpoint poo. Apparently, video camera surveillance was way too 20th-century for the good people of Scarlett Place Condominiums in Baltimore, who have proposed DNA tests to identify the originators of dog poop left on the premises. (more)
A Riverdale, Md., funeral home had its license suspended after a surprise inspection found an estimated 40 bodies in bags stacked in a garage, officials said. (more)
Before the Republican National Committee spent $1,946 at a bondage-themed nightclub, before its chairman, Michael Steele, drew complaints for frequently chartering private jets on his donors’ dime, before Steele redecorated his office for more than $18,000 and hosted a winter meeting in Honolulu during the worst economy since the Great Depression – before all that, Steele had already accumulated a long list of money management woes as a Maryland politician. (more)
LOS ANGELES — – In a move that could provide economic relief for hundreds of communities nationwide, General Motors Co. said it will reinstate nearly 700 dealerships that the automaker had planned to drop from its sales network. (more)
