In “The March of Folly,” Barbara Tuchman asked, “Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?” Her assessment of self-deception — “acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts” — captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform.

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.

via Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen - If Democrats ignore health-care polls, midterms will be costly - washingtonpost.com.

Documents released today by Judicial Watch reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN), as well as the Obama administration’s decision to shut down a criminal investigation into these matters.

via » Obama Spiked ACORN Investigation: Judicial Watch Releases FBI Documents - Big Government.

Street clashes broke out between rioting youths and police in central Athens today as tens of thousands demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government.

Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.

The violence spread after the end of the march to a nearby square, where police faced off with stone-throwing anarchists and suffocating clouds of tear gas sent patrons scurrying from open-air cafes.

via Greek riots: Up to 60,000 people take to streets to protest against government | Mail Online.

Anyone who’s a briefing junkie (there are more than you think) can tell you that the back third of the daily pressers are often the source of fireworks like this. As AURN’s April Ryan tries to ask Gibbs if the CBC has the President’s ear, and if the President has an urban agenda, WorldNetDaily’s Lester Kinsolving tries to fight his way in to ask if the President approves of what he calls the CBC’s “racial segregation.”

via Robert Gibbs, Barack Obama Grilled On Congressional Black Caucus | Mediaite.

While the rest of America was stunned to hear that a suburban Pennsylvania woman allegedly used the Internet identity of Jihad Jane and tried to join militant jihadists, for a group of ‘Net vigilantes it was old news.

In fact, at least one of the Web sleuths claims to have alerted the feds to Colleen LaRose’s alleged efforts to raise money and recruit fighters for Islamic terrorists and to carry out her own jihad.

via Internet Monitors Tracked ‘Jihad Jane’ Colleen LaRose for Three Years - ABC News.

“Game on,” says Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, to National Review Online. “The Democrats are moving on reconciliation. They are revving up their machine, even though they don’t yet have the votes to pass the Senate bill in the House. This is their do-or-die moment. They know can’t let their members go home for Easter with this hanging out there.”

via Ryan: ‘This Is Their Do-or-Die Moment’ - Robert Costa - The Corner on National Review Online.

Email messages obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the climate dataset of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) was considered — by the top climate scientists within NASA itself — to be inferior to the data maintained by the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU).

The NASA scientists also felt that NASA GISS data was inferior to the National Climate Data Center Global Historical Climate Network (NCDC GHCN) database.

via Pajamas Media » Climategate Stunner: NASA Heads Knew NASA Data Was Poor, Then Used Data from CRU.

It’s hard to see the awkwardness of Biden’s visit so far having a broader political impact. But it does contribute to the impression, fair or unfair, that President Obama is presiding over an era of diminished American influence, in which allies and rivals alike feel comfortable thumbing their noses at a White House focused above all else on its domestic priorities.

via Biden’s Disastrous Israel Trip - The Daily Beast.

House Republicans approved a conference-wide moratorium on earmarks on Thursday, one day after a House committee enacted a ban on for-profit earmarks.

The Republicans’ moratorium is more extensive than the House Appropriations Committee’s ban in that it applies to all earmarks for all members of the caucus.

via House GOP votes to ban all earmarks - The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

RONALD REAGAN liked to say that there was no limit to what a man could accomplish if he didn’t mind who got the credit. The transformation of Iraq from a hellish tyranny into a functioning democracy will be recorded as a signal accomplishment of George W. Bush’s presidency, and he probably doesn’t mind in the least that the Obama administration would like to take the credit.

This week’s parliamentary elections in Iraq brought 12 million voters to the polls - a remarkable 62 percent turnout, notwithstanding a wave of Election Day bombings that killed 38 people.

via Mission accomplished, indeed - The Boston Globe.

Some New York City chefs and restaurant owners are taking aim at a bill introduced in the New York Legislature that, if passed, would ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking.

“No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises,” the bill, A. 10129 , states in part.

via Chefs Call Proposed New York Salt Ban ‘Absurd’.

Loudoun ranks as the richest county in the United States, immediately followed by Fairfax and Howard counties, while Montgomery, traditionally one of the wealthiest, is now 10th.

Forbes magazine ranked eight other Washington-area counties in its list of the nation’s 25 wealthiest counties, far more than any other area in the country. The rankings are based on 2008 median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

via 6 of the 10 richest counties in U.S. are in DC area | Washington Examiner.

The U.S. Senate Wednesday approved a $149 billion package of jobless aid and tax breaks as Democrats continued efforts to bring down the 9.7 percent unemployment rate before the November congressional elections.

The measure, which passed by a vote of 62 to 36, now heads to the House, where many Democrats have pushed for more aggressive job-creation measures.

If this one works like the others, we are screwed.

via Senate Passes $149B Package of Jobless Aid, Tax Breaks; Bill Heads to House - FOXBusiness.com.

The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed.

Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.

Fingers crossed.

via FOXNews.com - Senate Health Care Bill Dead on Arrival, Pro-Life House Democrats Say.

Two Republican senators on Wednesday called on President Obama to stop attacking the Supreme Court, lending support to Chief Justice John Roberts, who took umbrage at the president’s criticism of the court’s controversial campaign finance decision during his State of the Union address.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch told Fox News that he agrees with Roberts, who said Tuesday that Obama’s address was “very troubling” and that the annual State of the Union speech has “degenerated into a political pep rally.”

“Look, it was a political pep rally,” Hatch said. “I guess I’m tired of it myself, just bouncing up and down at whatever strikes you as interesting.

“But the president was wrong on the law, he was wrong on the facts and I thought it was unseemly for him to criticize the Supreme Court while they’re sitting there,” he said.

via FOXNews.com - 2 Republican Senators Call on Obama to Stop ‘Attacks’ on Supreme Court.