The New Republic

Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz defends Joe Lieberman against the crazed liberal hord: In leveraging his position as the Dems' potential 60th vote on health care, Lieberman is doing nothing different than Ben Nelson or Olympia Snowe -- the Senate's perpetually gridlocked system gives any member the power to blow up any contested measure. But the anger surrounding the independent iconoclast is truly stunning. READ MORE >>

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The guiding myth underpinning the reconstruction of our dangerous banking system is: Financial innovation as we know it is valuable and must be preserved. Anyone opposed to this approach is a populist, with or without a pitchfork.Single-handedly, Paul Volcker has exploded this myth. Responding to a Wall Street insiders' Future of Finance “report,“ he was quoted in the WSJ yesterday as saying: “Wake up gentlemen. I can only say that your response is inadequate.”Volcker has three  main points, with which we whole-heartedly agree:(1) “[Financial engineering] moves around the rents in the financial system, but not only this, as it seems to have vastly increased them.”(2) “I have found very little evidence that vast amounts of innovation in financial markets in recent years have had a visible effect on the productivity of the economy.”and most important:(3) “I am probably going to win in the end.” READ MORE >>

From The Sun's report of the attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: Mr. Berlusconi's office yesterday denied reports that he doodled pictures of women's underwear in climate talks in Brussels last week. READ MORE >>

Accompanying the main PR thrust of Obama's new Afghanistan policy was a more subtle argument: that a new degree of cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against Islamic radicals had given Obama faith that a U.S. offensive could succeed. But now comes word that Pakistan is refusing our demands to crack down on the Haqqani network, whose home base is in Pakistan and which is a major source of insurgency in eastern Afghanistan. The problem is that Pakistant sees the Haqqanis as assets, not enemies. READ MORE >>

It must be so very, very awesome to always know God is fighting for your political team: Conservative lawmakers will join 'prayercast' against health bill   READ MORE >>

Just when you thought reality TV couldn't get any ickier, WaPo's Lisa de Moraes tells us that the CW network is trolling for women (translation: hot, 20-something women) with a range of mental illnesses sufficiently entertaining to sustain a reality series. Think: anorexia, bulimia, rage issues, shopping addiction, and--the holy grail--sex addiction. READ MORE >>

At National Review, Tevi Troy wonders why liberals are so exasperated with Joe Lieberman. In so doing, he proceeds from a false premise to an erroneous conclusion: READ MORE >>

Grading Obama’s First Year in Office: Will the Idealism of His Campaign Show Itself Again? by The Editors Coping With the Loss of a Friend, a Sparring Partner, and a Link to History by Paul Berman READ MORE >>