Blaze at Reactor Adds to Challenges  —  TOKYO — The company that runs the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan announced Wednesday that a fire was burning there, just hours after officials said flames that erupted Tuesday had been doused.  —  Soon after that announcement …

Rick Scott, John Kasich, Scott Walker, and a GOP Problem for 2012  —  I was talking the other day to a Democrat who'd been battle-scarred by the 2010 Florida campaign, in which Democrats lost everything.  Everything.  Alan Grayson's career died quickly.  Kendrick Meek became a trivia question.

House committee moves again to defund NPR  —  Meredith Shiner reports from the Hill that the House Rules committee will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday at 3 p.m. on H.R. 1076, the measure “to prohibit funding of National Public Radio and the use of Federal funds to acquire radio content.”

More from our Republican poll  —  In addition to the standard horse race stuff on our national Republican poll this month we also polled on some of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich's vulnerabilities- we described their potential baggage to poll respondents without actually naming them as the candidates in question.

Clinton: No U.S. support for Libya no-fly zone  —  From Cairo, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports on the ongoing negotiations over a no-fly zone in Libya.  —  Carrie Dann writes:We wrote this morning that lawmakers - and the public - are split about whether the United States should implement …

Unions vs. the little guy in Wisconsin recall fight  —  Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork  —  If you're a Republican, it's a scenario straight out of “Alice in Wonderland.”  Fourteen Wisconsin state senators, all Democrats, flee the state for three weeks …

While Japan Burns, Obama Fills Out His Bracket  —  Wow: … Via Mike Allen's newsletter, we see in the first line how the leader of the free world will spend his day during this awful crisis: … Okay, that's not all he's doing.  “Obama will tape interviews from the Map Room with KOAT Albuquerque …

Rand Paul ratchets his proposed spending cuts down to $200B  —  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has ratcheted down his proposal to cut $500 billion from the federal budget for fiscal year 2011.  —  Paul on Tuesday introduced an amendment on the Senate floor to cut $200 billion over the next six-and-a-half months.

Bachmann plays the victim  —  Michele Bachmann fired back at the media Tuesday, saying her Revolutionary War gaffe was only reported because she is a conservative politician.  —  “We all know there's a double standard in the media ... as we know all 3,400 members of the mainstream media …

Confidence Falls in U.S. System of Government  —  Confidence in the U.S. System of Government Drops to a 35-Year Low  —  Confidence in the U.S. system of government has dropped to a new low in more than 35 years, with public attitudes burdened by continued economic discontent …

Senate Republicans to drop contempt finding against Democrats  —  By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison — The top GOP leader in the state Senate backtracked Tuesday, saying Republicans would lift fines and a contempt finding against Democrats …

Jimmy Carter was right  —  For 40 years, America's energy policy has been a bipartisan disaster.  Since the early 1970s America's dependence on foreign oil has threatened our economy, security and national honor as we corrupted our foreign policy to satisfy our thirst for oil.  —  Nixon failed.

Snake dies from silicone poisoning after biting model's breast during photoshoot  —  It should have been an alluring photoshoot between two of nature's beautiful creatures as a model wrapped herself in a snake.  —  But surgically enhanced Israeli model Orit Fox got more than she bargained …

CNN Poll: Most say govt. shutdown bad; Tea Party disagrees  —  Washington (CNN) - Most Americans say that a federal government shutdown would be bad for the country, according to a new national poll.  —  But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey also indicates that Democrats and Republicans …

The Abuse of Private Manning  —  Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been imprisoned for nine months on charges of handing government files to WikiLeaks, has not even been tried let alone convicted.  Yet the military has been treating him abusively, in a way that conjures creepy memories …

Cain: Planned Parenthood's mission is ‘planned genocide’ of black babies  —  Washington (CNN) - Using unusually harsh words, a potential presidential candidate echoed some previous comments: claiming that Planned Parenthood's original mission was to “help kill black babies before they came into the world.”