The transformation of Americans’ retirement outlook is complete: we now havemore money in 401(k)s than in all the corporate pension plans combined.

John Boehner, the number two vote getter on the first ballot and everyone’s consensus second choice, has defeated Majority Whip Roy Blunt and been elected House Majority Leader, according to GOP.gov and Mike Krempasky at RedState. Update: AP confirms: “Rep. Boehner Elected House Majority Leader” Rep. John Boehner of Ohio was elected House majority leader [...]

U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte warned Congress on the danger of Iran’snuclear weapons program this morning. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte told Congress on Thursday that Iran probably does not yet have nuclear weapons, nor has it obtained the material central to producing them. Still, Negroponte called Iran’s nuclear program a matter of “highest concern.” [...]

Justice Samuel Alito’s first official act will have conservatives scratching their heads. New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court’s conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection. Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court [...]

Charges have dropped against Cindy Sheehan, with the Capitol Police saying they mistakenly arrested her for a law no longer on the books. Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address [...]

West Virginia’s governor called for a halt to coal mining after two more miners were killed in separate accidents today. Two mine workers were killed in separate accidents in West Virginia on Wednesday, prompting Gov. Joe Manchin to call on all coal companies to cease production until safety checks can be conducted. “We’re going to [...]

Beverly Young, wife of Republican Congressman Bill Young, claims she was ejected from the State of the Union address for wearing a t-shirt. The wife of Representative C-W- Bill Young says she was ejected during President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that says, “Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom.” [...] [...]

Western Union quietly went out of the telegram business last week. After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams. On the company’s web site, if you click on “Telegrams” in the left-side navigation bar, you’re taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible: “Effective January [...]

David Ignatius is shocked to learn that the United States and France hold high level diplomatic exchanges, trying to work toward common goals. Once every five or six weeks, a French presidential adviser named Maurice Gourdault-Montagne flies to Washington to meet with his American counterpart, national security adviser Stephen Hadley. They spend several hours coordinating [...]

Dan Milbank has an amusing look at the dilemma facing Samuel Alito at his first State of the Union Address as a Supreme Court Justice: when to clap. At times, Alito followed the lead of the other three justices who sat with him in the front row. When Bush said “We love our freedom, and [...]

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has called on Palestine’s new Hamas-led government to recognize Israel. Two top Egyptian officials called on Hamas to recognize Israel, disarm and honor past peace deals Wednesday, a new sign Arab governments are pushing the militant group to moderate after its surprise election victory. “Nobody will talk to them before they [...]

Coleen Rowley, the former FBI agent lauded for her “whistle blowing” well after 9/11, has a post on her campaign blog comparing her opponent, 25-year Marine vet John Kline, to Colonel Klink of “Hogan’s Heroes” infamy. She compounded this juvenile act with a photoshopped image of Kline in a Nazi officer’s uniform. That photo is [...]

Steve Bainbridge argues, persuasively, that the Gang of 14 was a success: “There were 14 more votes for cloture than for confirmation, proving that the deal was able to prevent a filibuster of a qualified but controversial candidate.” Still, Michelle Malkin points out, correctly, that Alito was only able to be nominated because conservatives rallied [...]

Brian at Iowa Voice is out of work and out of money. He’d appreciate any help you could give him.

Mark Jaquith is doing some major changes to the back end that should improve the site’s performance considerably. It might be a bit wonky for the next day or two, though. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Michael Rogers at BlogActive, which bills itself as “Real Truth, Direct Action,” threatened last night to “out” a married Republican Senator as homosexual if he voted to confirm Judge Alito. Tomorrow you will decide if your political position is worth more than doing what is right for others like you. For others like you, Mr. [...]

Senator Tom Coburn spoke with a number of bloggers via a noon conference call to update us on the status of his efforts to reduce pork barrel spending. Coburn was quite informative and genial, speaking as he was to a friendly audience. He is clearly passionate about the issue of earmarks and has basically staked [...]

The United States Senate has confirmed Samuel Alito as the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor. The vote was 58-42, largely along party lines. The Senate confirmed Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Tuesday by a vote of 58-42, a day after an attempt by some [...]

Coretta Scott King has died. AP reports, “Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband’s assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young said Tuesday morning. She was 78.” That’s a pretty good summary of her legacy. She was a [...]

A female former postal employee shot seven people before killing herself, CNN reports. A female former employee opened fire at a 24-hour postal service sorting facility in Goleta, California, killing six people and critically wounding another, before turning the gun on herself, authorities said early Tuesday. “That’s what we believe,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim [...]

Successful CEOs are as indispensable to their companies as Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks are to their teams. By Elan Journo As millions of Americans watch the Seattle Seahawks take on the Pittsburgh Steelers, every minute of the game will be scrutinized, with slow-motion replays and a torrent of statistics. But, amid the cheers and groans, don̢۪t [...]

The Senated ended the one-day Massachusetts filibuster of Samuel Alito by an embarrasing 75-25 margin (60 would have done it). But not before Senator Teddy Kennedy showed that he is still crazy after all these years.

Orin Kerr offers some sage advice that is worth repeating in full: Do you occassionally think that a VC blogger has missed the boat? Do you sometimes feel that a post is based on a factual error or a misreading of the law, and has therefore reached a wrong conclusion? Do you want to leave [...]

Karl Rove has agents everywhere; Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are privately bristling over Howard Dean̢۪s management of the Democratic National Committee and have made those sentiments clear after new fundraising numbers showed he has spent nearly all the committee̢۪s cash and has little left to support their efforts to gain seats this cycle, ROLL [...]

The LAT is publishing, as if it were hot of the presses, news that Army promotion rates skyrocket during wartime. Mark Mazzetti, who is a solid defense reporter and should not be shocked by this, reports: Struggling to retain enough officers to lead its forces, the Army has begun to dramatically increase the number of [...]

Judging from my referral logs, a lot of people are interested in news about Jessica McClure getting married. “Baby Jessica,” whose dramatic rescue from an abandoned Texas well was televised across the country 18 years ago, got married in a private ceremony, People magazine reported on its Web site. Crews struggled for 58 hours to [...]

Apparently, some members of the “All-American” 82nd Airborne Division have part time jobs as porn stars. Gay porn stars, to be specific: Army officials are investigating allegations that members of the celebrated 82nd Airborne Division appear on a gay pornography Web site, a spokeswoman said Friday. Authorities at Fort Bragg have begun an inquiry into [...]

A Maryland judge has allowed the use of her state’s anti-spam laws against a New York spammer. Those annoying e-mails offering home financing deals or other offers can violate Maryland law, even if they’re sent from out of state, a state appeals court has ruled. Court of Special Appeals Judge Sally D. Adkins sided with [...]

Texas A&M is angry that the Seattle Seahawks refer to their fans as “the 12th man” in advertising promotions. The Seattle Seahawks are facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, but they have an off-the-field battle brewing with Texas A&M. School officials are upset with the Seahawks’ use of the “12th Man” theme to [...]

Canada’s new conservative prime minister, expected to improve relations with the United States, started off on an acrimonious note, escalating a fight over the Northern Passage. Stephen Harper, elected Monday as prime minister, warned the United States on Thursday to back off from its challenge of Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters that are fast thawing [...]

A new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll reveals that Americans believe Iran is the most dangerous threat to American security, knocking North Korea out of the top spot. Americans think Iran is the country that poses the greatest immediate danger to the United States today, taking over the number one spot from North Korea. A FOX [...]

Andrew Sullivan awards the aptly named Yglesias Award to Brad DeLong‘s courageous slap-down of James Wolcott. Wolcott: “Compared to [George W.] Bush, [Clinton] looks like a competent, responsible, functioning adult.” DeLong: “I think Wolcott pushes things to far: I certainly wouldn’t call Clinton a ‘competent, responsible, functioning adult.’ In policy matters, yes. In personal matters… [...]

My latest piece for TCS Daily, “How Wal-Mart Is Like Academia,” is up. It’s an extended version of yesterday’s post on the subject.

John McCain and Tom Coburn have pledged to challenge every single instance of earmarking. Republicans John McCain and Tom Coburn say they’re putting their colleagues on notice: They will challenge special projects that senators insert into spending bills until the practice stops. McCain, of Arizona, and Coburn, of Oklahoma, say recent congressional scandals stem from [...]

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NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni goes undercover as a waiter at a posh Manhattan restaurant. It turns out that a lot of people are jerks and that being a waiter is a demanding, lousy job. Who knew?

The Star tabloid is reporting that Jennifer Love Hewitt is considering posing nude for Playboy magazine in order to arouse the interests of casting directors and thrust her career toward edgier roles. Star is behind a subscription wall but the Post-Chronicle is among several sources with this excerpt: Jennifer has received some really big-bucks offers [...]

Despite exit polls showing that the ruling Fatah terrorist group/political party achieved a plurality of votes in yesterday’s parliamentary elections, terrorist group Hamas won a majority. The current government resigned abruptly before even waiting for the official results to come in. In a stunning development ahead of official election results, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie [...]

ESPN’s Greg Garber has an interesting look at the JumboTron, those gigantic television monitors that grace most sporting venues. As the screens have gotten bigger and the picture better, they are good for much more than hawking souvenirs and showing scores and replays. They can actually influence games. It was, to the naked eye, a [...]

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When I saw the headline, “Hatch Guilty of Failing to Pay Taxes,” I naturally presumed that Utah’s Orrin Hatch was in some trouble. It turns out to be the naked hairy guy from the first season of “Survivor.” Richard Hatch, who won $1 million in the first season of “Survivor,” was found guilty Wednesday of [...]

While there were indications that Hamas would oust the longtime leaders of the Palestinian movement, it appears that Fatah won a plurality in today’s parliamentary elections. Amid tight security and a sea of green and yellow flags, Palestinians turned out in record numbers Wednesday for their first parliamentary election in a decade and exit polls [...]

Rick Santorum’s Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, Jr., announced yesterday that Samuel Alito should be confirmed. For weeks, Republicans have called Casey “Silent Bob” and pressed him to say whether he supports Alito’s confirmation. Casey and Alito have a family connection because Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia, [...]

Ezra Klein has been bought out by L.A. Weekly, joining the growing (but still incredibly small) ranks of bloggers going pro. Congrats to him. * Related: Andrew Sullivan Blog Moving to TIME Matthew Yglesias Takes the Boeing* Beltway Traffic Jam (Howard Bashman has gone all Kevin Drum on us) CalPundit Goes to Washington Political Animal

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Congressman Jack Kingston, who represent’s Georgia’s First CD and is vice-chairman of the House Republican Conference sent a letter out earlier today arguing that, “We need to get back to our basic priorities, to the issues that our constituents want us to address. We need priority-based leadership.” Attached to this letter was an outline of [...]

Kate McMillan: But, for the record – Ed Morrissey did not “bring down the Canadian government”, as some have described it. His role was important, but [...] it was NDP leader Jack Layton who “brought down” the Canadian government, not Ed. Quite right. Bloggers, especially hard working ones with a lot of readers, can mobilize [...]

As expected, the Judiciary Committee sent Samuel Alito’s nomination to the full Senate on a party-line vote. The Judiciary Committee favorably recommended Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate on a party-line vote Tuesday, ensuring prospects the conservative jurist will join the high court bench. All 10 Republicans voted for Alito, while all [...]

Dominic Basulto argues that, if it forces companies to publish CEO pay as a single dollar figure, it may have the ironic effect of escalating executive compensation. [B]y attempting to quantify CEO compensation (including hard-to-value items like retirement benefits, severance packages, deferred compensation, perquisites and stock option grants) with a single number, the SEC may [...]

Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus report on yesterday’s speeches defending the administration’s controversial surveillance program. Former NSA director General Michael Hayden’s was the more informative of the two. A senior U.S. intelligence official offered a wide-ranging and detailed defense of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program yesterday, kicking off a White House campaign aimed [...]