Shutdown Showdown: Stalemate Thaws As Democrats “Encouraged” By New GOP Proposal  —  ABC News' John R. Parkinson & Matthew Jaffe report:  —  The prospect of a government shutdown one week from today appeared to become less likely Friday as Republicans unveiled a new short-term spending proposal that earned praise from Democrats.

Gingrich: If Palin Took Obama Actions, There Would Be Calls for Impeachment  —  In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama's decision not to fully enforce the Defense of Marriage law eventually could lead to a constitutional crisis …

Question to Broun: Who's going to shoot President Obama?  —  At Rep. Paul Broun's town hall meeting on Tuesday, the Athens congressman asked who had driven the farthest to be there and let the winner ask the first question.  —  We couldn't hear the question in the back of the packed Oglethorpe …

Breaking: Kathleen Parker Splits From CNN's ‘Parker Spitzer’  —  Kathleen Parker, the co-host of “Parker Spitzer,” CNN's four-month-old, ratings-challenged primetime show, is being dropped from the program, according to sources inside the CNN newsroom.  Eliot Spitzer, her co-host, will remain …

Is Barack Obama Secretly Swiss? … Like This Story  —  Follow Slate's Fighting Words … - What It's Like To Spend the Night With the Village of Protesters in Wisconsin's Capitol- The MPAA Ratings System Is Much Harsher on Independent Films Than on Studio Films- Slate Readers Hate Their iPads …

Where Are the Thugs?  —  MADISON, Wisc.  — Michelle Malkin promises to do “the reporting the Tea Party-bashing national media won't do on the rabid outbreak of progressive incivility and violence at Big Labor protests across the country.”  Sounds promising!  But here's what she delivers.

Bush cancels Denver trip in dispute with Wikileaks founder  —  Former President George W. Bush has canceled his planned Saturday visit to Denver after learning that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would be speaking at the same conference he was to attend.  —  “Six months ago …

The Craigslist Congressman and the Crossdressing Prostitute  —  Chris Lee's resignation from the House on Feb. 9 may be the quickest political downfall in history: It came just three hours after Gawker published a photo of Lee standing in the mirror shirtless, along with a story …

Southern Poverty Law Center lists anti-Islamic NYC blogger Pamela Geller, followers a hate group  —  Manhattan blogger Pamela Geller and her posse of anti-Islamic protesters have been branded a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  —  Stop the Islamization of America was included …

Scott Brown's Falling Star  —  Cape Codders were saddened last week by Sen. Scott Brown's (R.-Mass.) claim that he was molested at a local summer camp.  Camp Good News, in the Forestdale section of Sandwich, has confirmed that Brown attended the camp and has reached out to the senator repeatedly …

Jeremy Bernard: A historic choice for White House social secretary  —  The White House is set to make news and history this afternoon when it announces the new social secretary.  Jeremy Bernard, currently the chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to France, will become the third person to hold the job in the Obama administration.

Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin  —  The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment.  The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

The Untold Story of Scott Walker's Longstanding History with Labor  —  may be a new marvel to cable news, but he is certainly no stranger to Wisconsin politics.  Scott K. Walker, son of a Baptist preacher, began his political career in the early 1990s when he ran for an Assembly seat in the State Legislature.

23 killed in Iraq's ‘Day of Rage’ protests  —  BAGHDAD - Tens of thousands of Iraqis surged into the streets Friday in at least a dozen demonstrations across the country, storming provincial buildings, forcing local officials to resign, freeing prisoners and otherwise demanding more from a government …

Public employees not such an easy scapegoat after all  —  As the Wisconsin standoff continues, it's worth stepping back and considering an underappreciated but heartening aspect of this whole affair: Public employees are turning out to be far harder to scapegoat in the public mind than many predicted.

Jury Nullification Advocate Is Indicted  —  Julian P. Heicklen sat silent and unresponsive as his bail hearing began last week in federal court in Manhattan; his eyes were closed, his head slumped forward.  —  “Mr. Heicklen?” the magistrate judge, Ronald L. Ellis, asked.  “Mr. Heicklen?

How To Run America Like a Business: Get Rid Of All The Old People  —  Jamelle Bouie tags Sarah Lacy's piece on why America can't “function like a fiscally responsible company” as a good example of “why tech writers should stay away from politics.”  —  I endorse his critiques, but there's really a deeper issue here.

College Costs Aren't the Main Problem  —  The ranks of top colleges have been suspiciously stable over time.  —  If someone asked your grandparents 50 years ago to name the country's best colleges, they would have come up with a list that looks very much like the list you'd come up with today.

Egyptian Armed Forces Fire At Christian Monasteries, 19 Injured  —  (AINA) — For the second time in as many days, Egyptian armed force stormed the 5th century old St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi el-Natroun, 110 kilometers from Cairo.  Live ammunition was fired, wounding two monks and six Coptic monastery workers.

Foiled by the winter: The £25,000 eco-classroom that can't be used because solar panels don't provide enough heat  —  Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.  —  Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson …

Warning Against Wars Like Iraq and Afghanistan  —  WEST POINT, N.Y. — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly told an audience of West Point cadets on Friday that it would be unwise for the United States to ever fight another war like Iraq or Afghanistan, and that the chances of carrying …