Open Thread.

“The debate in Washington is not whether to cut or to spend,” said a senior administration official on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity to brief reporters on the budget in advance of Mr. Obama’s Monday announcement of the spending plan. “We both agree we should cut. The question is how we cut and what we cut.” - NYTimes

Today Paul Krugman writes that the appropriate slogan for the GOP budget slashing plans is Eating The Future:

Sorry, I've been caught up in the Grammy's. Here's an open thread for other topics.

Lady Gaga arrived in an egg. The Grammys may be worth watching just for her. Update: She was pretty awesome. I loved the choreography.

Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, Florence and the Machine (and one other) open with a tribute to Aretha Franklin.

If you're watching, here's a place to share your thoughts.

Your client is charged with a crime considered so awful that the entire country hates him. He becomes the new poster child for "the worst of the worst." How do you gain his trust to be able to provide an effective defense? This new profile of Judy Clarke, defending Jared Loughner, in the New York Times, provides some clues.

Daily Kos has been offline while it migrates to the new DKos 4. The migration is huge, and although it started at 9 am PT, it's still going on. What's taking so long?

Why is it taking so long to import the DK3 db into DK4? 939,000+ stories, 300,000+ registered users and over 40 million comments.

In the meantime, there's a twitter feed with some pretty funny explanations -- it's at #whydkosislate.

Since it will probably go live after I'm asleep, let me just say now, Welcome, DKos 4. Blog readers don't like change, so there will be grumblers, but if you've been following the migration news the past few months, it's evident that a huge amount of thought and planning (and probably cost) went into this new release. I'm hoping its a big success.

Mick Jagger will perform at the Grammy's tomorrow night for the first time. He and Raphael Saadiq will do a tribute to Solomon Burke, who died in October, 2010 at age 70.

The clip above has Burke and the Stones performing together, and also has their comments about him. Here's the Stones performing the same song in 1965.

Also performing tomorrow night: Bob Dylan and Barbara Streisand (not together.)

And of course, there will be Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Katie Perry, Eminem, Jay Z and many more.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Is it college football season yet? Rough week. More blogging next week.

Open Thread.

The Wall St. Journal reports President Obama's budget, to be released on Monday, won't include changes to social security:

"The president believes that we should strengthen the program without putting at risk current retirees or slashing benefits for future generations, and he believes we can only achieve this goal by working together—Democrats and Republicans—to find a bipartisan solution," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage.

Joan at Daily Kos has more.

Look what's happening out in the streets
Got a revolution, got to revolution
Hey I'm dancing down the streets
Got a revolution got to revolution

...Hey now it's time for you and me
Got a revolution, Got to revolution
Come on now we're marching to the sea
Got a revolution, got to revolution
Who will take it from you?
We will and who are we?
we are volunteers...

See, Euphoria in Cairo: The Tyrant is Gone and Mubarak's Resignation a Triumph for "People-Power."

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's the end of another busy work week.

Jack Abramoff's lobbying partner Michael Scanlon has been sentenced to twenty months and ordered to repay $20 million.

Obama will be making a live statement on Egypt at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he is resigning and handing power to the military. A spokesman said:

"In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country," he said.

"May God help everybody."

Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi is the top military commander. As for Mubarak, he has left Cairo for his home in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.