Salem Communications buys Hot Air

The conservative blog Hot Air has been purchased by radio broadcaster Salem Communications, which adds the popular website to a stable that also includes Townhall.com and several right-leaning radio hosts.

In a statement obtained by POLITICO set to be released Thursday, Salem Vice President Jonathan Garthwaite explains that the purchase was made in hopes of creating one of the largest Web presences for conservative commentary.

Hot Air ranks as the seventh-largest conservative website over the past three months, according to rankings from the Web information company Alexa — though the rankings include Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and Drudge Report. Townhall, meanwhile, had the 12th-largest audience over the same time.

Hot Air was purchased from conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who launched the site in 2006. Bloggers Ed Morrissey and Allahpundit have been the site’s mainstays and have built a wide audience within the conservative blogosphere.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33090.html

Obama Administration: Report Shows Iran More Determined Than Ever to Build Nuclear Weapon

February 18, 2010 5:47 PM

Senior officials from the Obama administration called a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s nuclear program “disturbing,” and suggested Iran's leaders are more determined than ever to pursue a nuclear weapon.

"The fact that they have increased the level of non-cooperation indicated to me that unless we can mount the international pressure to stop it, that this program is heading more and more in the direction of seeking a weapons capability," a senior administration official. "The pattern of behaviors is one that I think is very disturbing.”

“There is less and less credibility to the Iranian statement that their program is peaceful and much stronger international recognition that we are facing a country that is seeking a nuclear weapons capability," the official said.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/02/obama-administration-report-shows-iran-more-determined-than-ever-to-build-nuclear-weapon.html

U.N. Watchdog Concerned Iran Is Working on Nuclear Weapon

Maher: Palin’s Job at Fox Equivalent to Talking to Her Down Syndrome Baby

How does one prepare for an upcoming appearance by Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame?  If you're Bill Maher, you follow up the Family Guy/Sarah Palin/Down Syndrome attack by doing an 'exclusive rant' for the Huffington Post which includes - you guessed it - a joke about Sarah Palin's son, Trig.

Maher appeals to his lower-intellect audience by stating:

"...while we were off, Sarah Palin agreed to do commentary at Fox News.  Which is actually very similar to her day job - talking to a baby with Down Syndrome."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2010/02/18/maher-palin-s-job-fox-equivalent-talking-her-down-syndrome-baby

By Jeffrey Rosen
Sunday, February 21, 2010; B01

He's too detached and cerebral. Too deferential to Congress. Too willing to compromise. And he's too much of a law professor and not enough of a commander in chief, as Sarah Palin recently admonished.

These are some of the qualities for which the president, rightly or wrongly, is criticized. They are also the qualities that make him well suited for another steady job on the federal payroll: Barack Obama, Supreme Court justice.

Think about it. Though Obama has struggled to find his footing in the White House, his education, temperament and experience make him ideally suited to lead the liberal wing of the court, especially at a time when a narrow conservative majority seems increasingly intent on challenging progressive economic reforms for the first time since the New Deal. Obama is clearly eager to take on the four truly conservative justices -- Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- as his State of the Union smackdown suggests. But as president, he's constrained by that pesky separation of powers. So what better way to engage the fight than to join the bench?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021803275_pf.html

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Eyes Western Land for National Monuments, Angering Some

By William La Jeunesse

 - FOXNews.com

More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval.

According to internal Department of Interior documents leaked to a Utah congressman and obtained exclusively by Fox News, the mostly public lands include Arizona deserts, California mountains, Montana prairies, New Mexico forests, Washington islands and the Great Basins of Nevada and Colorado -- totaling more than 13 million acres.

Sources say President Obama is likely to choose two or three sites from the list, depending on their size, conservation value and the development threat to each one's environment.

"Many nationally significant landscapes are worthy of inclusion in the NLCS (National Landscape Conservation System)," according to the draft report stamped NOT FOR RELEASE. "The areas listed below may be good candidates for National Monument designation and the Antiquities Act."

Presidential use of the Antiquities Act is highly controversial because the White House, with the stroke of a pen, can lock up thousands of square miles of federal lands used for timber, ranching, mining and energy development without local input or congressional approval. The Act is generally interpreted to commemorate or protect a specific historical landmark, not prohibit development or deprive local communities of jobs and tax revenues.

"Any federal action that could lead to limited access should be done in an open and public manner using extraordinary caution," said Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., upon seeing the leaked report. "The fact that this administration is already circulating internal memos to bypass Congress and the public process is troubling."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/18/obama-eyeing-millions-wild-acres-national-monuments/

Obama's federal government can weatherize your home for only $57,362 each

Fed bumps up rate banks pay for emergency loans

Fed raises rate banks pay for emergency loans; won't directly affect consumer borrowing costs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve decided Thursday to boost the rate banks pay for emergency loans. The action is part of a broader move to pull back the extraordinary aid it provided to fight the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s.

The move won't directly affect borrowing costs for millions of Americans. But with the worst of the financial crisis over, it brings the Fed's main crisis lending program closer to normal.

The Fed decided to bump up the so-called "discount" lending rate by one-quarter point to 0.75 percent. The increase takes effect Friday.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-bumps-up-rate-banks-pay-apf-4141548450.html?x=0&.v=3

Risking China’s Anger, Obama Meets With Dalai Lama

WASHINGTON — President Obama met on Thursday with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, for a low-profile meeting at the White House that nonetheless raised the hackles of China.

After the meeting with Mr. Obama, the Dalai Lama told reporters that the two men talked about democracy, freedom and human values. In a statement the White House said that Mr. Obama had expressed support for the preservation of Tibet’s “unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/world/asia/19prexy.html?hp