Axelrod: President Obama Has “On Several Occasions Directly Confronted” Mubarak on Human Rights for the Past 2 Years “To Get Ahead of This”  —  In a network exclusive interview to air on Nightline tonight, we sat down this afternoon with White House senior adviser David Axelrod …

The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape  —  Drugged, raped, and pregnant?  Too bad.  Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding.  —  Post Comment  —  Rape is only really rape if it involves force.  So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

On Sputnik vs. Spudnut  —  Please read this article by the Hoover Institution's Research Fellow Peter Schweizer.  Schweizer, who has written extensively on the subject of the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, offers a Washington Post writer an important refresher on the real history of Sputnik …

Republicans terrified of tea  —  When Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was named to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, one of her Republican colleagues responded this way: “Is that a punchline?”  Another simply said, “Jumbo shrimp.  Oxymoron.”  —  Neither dared to attach his name to his comment.

TNT apologizes for Tracy Morgan's lewd comments on Palin  —  UPDATE: TNT sponsor AutoTrader.com is complaining to the network about being stuck in the middle, literally, of Tracy Morgan's lewd remarks about Sarah Palin on last night's edition of Inside the NBA.

VFW WILL DEFEAT BACHMANN PLAN  —  “NO WAY, NO HOW, WILL WE LET THIS PROPOSAL GET ANY TRACTION IN CONGRESS.”  —  America's oldest and largest major combat veterans' organization announced it will do everything within its power to defeat a plan introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) …

Too young not to work, too old to get a job  —  Pew's new report on long-term unemployment is sobering stuff: … The interplay between age and unemployment really worries me.  On some level, we have a rosy view of “structural unemployment”: It's a guy in Reno, Nev., who has skills better suited …

Fla. rep failed to explain thousands in expenses  —  MIAMI (AP) — Freshman U.S. Rep. David Rivera, who is facing a state criminal investigation of his finances, paid himself more than $60,000 in unexplained campaign reimbursements over the eight years he served in the state legislature …

Downgrading America  —  Karl Smith on the possibility that ratings agencies will downgrade U.S. debt from its current AAA rating: … I can't speak for Obama, but I have a feeling that the significance would be: zero.  Granted, there's symbolic importance to something like this …

Biden thinks The Onion's spoofs of him are ‘hilarious’  —  A mock photo of Vice President Joe Biden washing a Trans-Am shirtless.  Strange?  Distasteful?  Crossing the line?  —  Not so, Biden says.  —  “I think it's hilarious,” Biden told Yahoo! in a wide-ranging interview Thursday.

A big warning sign for Mitt Romney  —  An array of Republican heavyweights who backed Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid are not yet committed to - and in some cases, downright skeptical of - the former Massachusetts governor's all-but-certain 2012 campaign.

Jordanian protesters demand political reforms  —  (Reuters) - Islamists, leftists and trade unionists gathered in central Amman Friday for the latest protest to demand political change and wider freedoms.  —  A crowd of at least 3,000 chanted: “We want change.”

Bush takes swing at former press secretary  —  Washington (CNN) - Former President George W. Bush is landing a stinging jab at his former longtime aide and press secretary, Scott McClellan, saying the man who served as the public face of his administration for three years was irrelevant.

Obama's Sputnik Moment  —  On Tuesday President Obama said we were entering “our generation's Sputnik moment”: … This is only half right.  It's true that after the launch of Sputnik science and math education became an American obsession, but that's not what got us to the moon.

Who Are We in This ‘Sputnik Moment’?  —  One of the difficulties progressives face is trying to make centralized planning sound like a good idea.  Even the president, with all his rhetorical genius and majestic vagueness, can struggle with the task.  So from time to time …

Furor at Washington U. nixes Bristol Palin appearance  —  Anger over a decision to pay Bristol Palin several thousand dollars in student fees to talk to Washington University students about abstinence led to a decision Thursday night to nix Palin's appearance on a panel here next month.