The quickest and broadest tax cut ever  —  Two important takeaways from the President's Weekly Address this morning.  —  #1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will start having an impact as soon as a few weeks from now, in the form of the quickest and broadest tax cut in history:

A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage  —  IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road.  The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now.  —  We take very different positions on gay marriage.

Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe  —  The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.  —  The populist SVP, the country's biggest party …

J. Edgar Moyers  —  The TV moralist's government record.  —  One of the darker periods of modern American history was J. Edgar Hoover's long reign over the FBI, as we have learned since he died in 1972.  So it is more than a historical footnote to discover new records showing …

Former Chief of eBay Tries a New Bid.  It's Political.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Meg Whitman, a former chief executive of eBay, once said that running the Internet auction site was like being the mayor of a large city, with the mix of politics, competing constituencies and widespread resistance to change.

Dark Dark Dark  —  Barack Obama's grandmother told him to smile more.  Bill Clinton tells the new president to strut more.  —  As the country takes a bullet train to bankruptcy, the last Democratic president urged the current one to “embody” that old American spunk.

From Islamabad to Bradford  —  'It is hard to understand this deal," said Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy.  And, if the special envoy of the so-called smartest and most impressive administration in living memory can't understand it, what chance do the rest of us have?

Should Minnesota lower the drinking age to 18?  —  The argument over the legal drinking age will once again arise in Minnesota, and along with it, issues of states' rights, citizenship, and public safety.  Four members of the state legislature will introduce a bill to lower the age to 18 …

Mass migrations and war: Dire climate scenario  —  CAPE TOWN, South Africa - If we don't deal with climate change decisively, “what we're talking about then is extended world war,” the eminent economist said.  —  His audience Saturday, small and elite, had been stranded here by bad weather and were talking climate.

Obama Upholds Detainee Policy in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush's legal team.

The Anti-Bono  —  Q: As a native of Zambia with advanced degrees in public policy and economics from Harvard and Oxford, you are about to publish an attack on Western aid to Africa and its recent glamorization by celebrities.  “Dead Aid,” as your book is called, is particularly hard on rock stars.