Perry ‘taken aback’ by debate crowd reaction  —  TAMPA, FL — The morning after a sometimes-rocky appearance in front of a Tea Party debate audience, Gov. Rick Perry said he was “taken aback” by cheers from some crowd members on a hypothetical question of whether a young man who decides …

Emails: Obama White House Monitored Huge Loan to ‘Connected’ Firm  —  Chris Gronet, right, talks about solar technology with President Barack Obama on a tour of the Solyndra solar panel company, in this May 26, 2010 file photo, in Fremont, Calif. (Paul Chinn/Pool/Getty Images)

Social Security hurting Perry?  —  Americans strongly disagree with the statements Rick Perry made about Social Security in last week's Republican Presidential debate, and Barack Obama has nearly doubled his lead over Perry nationally in the span of just 3 weeks.

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010  —  Summary of Key Findings  —  The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.

Michele Bachmann: U.S. Immigration ‘Worked Very, Very Well’ Under The Asian Exclusion Act  —  Under Bachmann's Immigration Policy, Lt. Hikaru Sulu Would Not Be Allowed In The United States  —  In 1924, Congress passed a package of immigration laws — including the National Origins Act …

Obama's bill makes it illegal to discriminate against unemployed  —  President Obama's American Jobs Act, which he presented to Congress on Monday, would make it illegal for employers to run advertisements saying that they will not consider unemployed workers, or to refuse to consider or hire people because they are unemployed.

TPM2012  —  Elizabeth Warren Officially Launching Senate Campaign Against Scott Brown  —  Former White House financial reform adviser Elizabeth Warren will officially launch her campaign for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts on Wednesday, challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown, a source close to Warren told TPM on Tuesday.

Wisconsin unions start feeding on each other  —  If you want a good measure of how deeply the collective bargaining bill in Wisconsin has disrupted public sector unions, there is no better example than the Wisconsins Education Association Council (WEAC).  —  Last month WEAC announced that it was laying off 40% of its staff.

Shockingly Petty: News Corp. Outlets Attack Obama Over Paper Clip  —  In the annals of mindless partisan sniping, this may place at the top.  —  This morning, Fox & Friends joined the New York Post in attacking President Obama for using a paper clip.  Read that again: They attacked Obama for using a paper clip.

Connecting the Dots: How the Left Works  —  We wrote here and in several follow-up posts about the New York Times's outrageous front-page smear of Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  Times reporter Eric Lichtblau falsely accused Issa of using his Congressional office to enrich himself.

Indecent  —  The moment from last night that keeps haunting me:  —  Look: in some ways the honesty is refreshing.  Yes, failing to get your own health insurance creates an obvious free-rider problem, and this is at the heart of the health insurance debate.

IMF: Austerity boosts unemployment, lowers paychecks  —  These past few years, the Republican line on job creation has been simple: Cut government spending, tame the deficit, and unemployment will fall.  Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the day after, but soon.

Osama Bin Laden's Last Message to America: Beware Capitalism?  —  A day after Americans observed the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks by al Qaeda, a new video featuring the terror group's now-deceased leader surfaced in which Osama bin Laden warns the American people …

Time for Germany to make its fateful choice  —  “Perhaps future historians will consider Maastricht a decisive step towards the emergence of a stable, European-wide power.  Yet there is another, darker possibility ... The effort to bind states together may lead, instead, to a huge increase in frictions among them.

Liberal Democrats announce jobs platform to the left of Obama's  —  Liberal House Democrats on Tuesday announced a jobs proposal to the left of President Obama's jobs package.  —  At a news conference, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said Obama's proposal was a good start …

The Terrifying Tigers  —  Lt. Col. Charles de Choiseul was not a happy man.  It was September 1861, and de Choiseul, a well-educated French Creole, had been ordered to take temporary command of Maj. Chatham Roberdeau Wheat's First Special Battalion of Louisiana Infantry while Wheat recovered …

San Francisco Explores ‘Bird-Safe’ Building Standards  —  SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Legislation in San Francisco designed to prevent birds from deadly accidents involving high-rise windows has passed a Board of Supervisors committee and will be presented to the full board.