A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates that 7 in 10 Americans believe that the Democrats' loss of their 60 seat supermajority in the Senate is a positive move for the country.

Forty-five percent of people questioned in the poll said Democratic control of Congress is a good thing, with 48 percent disagreeing. The margin is within the survey's sampling error. But the results are a shift from last June, when 50 percent felt that Democratic control of both chambers of Congress was good and 41 percent felt it was bad for the country.

Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.

The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known when he lived in the capital in the late 1960s -- stands in central Jakarta's Menteng Park, a short walk from the US president's former elementary school.

Members of the "Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Menteng Park" group on Facebook say Obama has done nothing for Indonesia.

I'm delighted by Obama's freeze. Not because it will make much difference in the federal budget, as has been ably pointed out by many in this space. But because Obama has given away important intellectual and political ground. It's not true that politicians can really "say anything." Spin has to have some connection to reality and a politician's case has to cohere. What Obama has just done is blow a huge hole in the argument for his own governance over the last year. If the economy is still weak but we can freeze discretionary spending anyway, it's much harder for him to argue that massive government spending is the predicate for economic growth in defense of the stimulus. And if the deficit is such a threat that he needs to swing around to supporting a spending freeze, it's much harder for him to continue to push for a new $1 trillion entitlement. He can try to square all this -- stimulus spending was necessary in the dire conditions of 2009, but less so now; the new $1 trillion health-care entitlement is actually a deficit-reduction measure -- but it's going to be very difficult. That's why I think the Krugman's and the Klein's are right to be dismayed by this, even if the actual dollar amount is small. It represents an important tilting of the political playing field to the right on these issues.

(newser)The last surviving member of Bonanza's original cast has died of cancer at age 81. Pernell Roberts, who played the eldest Cartwright brother, left the show at the height of its popularity in 1965 to return to the stage after feuding with producers. He went on to star in M*A*SH spinoff Trapper John MD for seven seasons starting in 1979.

The Georgia-born Korean war vet was a vocal supporter of the civil rights movement and marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, the New York Daily News reports. Roberts, whose only child died in a motorcycle accident in 1989, is survived by his fourth wife, Eleanor Criswell.

The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, the son of Shreveport-based acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan, was not with them. It was not immediately known if he had already been released on the $10,000 bail set for each suspect.

Bill Flanagan's office confirmed his son was among those arrested, but declined further comment.

What's the lesson? That however much you may consider the KGB tactics of Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt heroic, you shouldnt bug peoples offices?

A judge permitted the disclosure for the first time Tuesday that the artist known for his Barack Obama "HOPE" image is under criminal investigation, though details of the probe were not divulged.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein mentioned the grand jury probe in a handwritten note denying a request by a lawyer for artist Shepard Fairey that a hearing relating to a copyright lawsuit they brought against The Associated Press be closed.

Fairey sued the AP last February, asking a judge to declare that Fairey's artwork does not infringe any copyrights held by the AP. A month later, the AP countersued, saying the uncredited, uncompensated use of one of the news cooperative's photos violated copyright laws and signaled a threat to journalism.

The U.S. Attorney's office had a grand jury begin an investigation after Fairey said he erred about which AP photo he used as the basis for "HOPE" and had submitted false images and deleted other images to conceal his mistake.

Meir Feder, a lawyer for Fairey, asked for secrecy in a letter to the judge, arguing that a public hearing "would risk compromising the confidential nature of the criminal investigation."

At the hearing, which was open to the public, Feder asked for a six-month delay in the civil case. He said Fairey had been instructed by his criminal lawyer to invoke the Fifth Amendment if asked questions at a deposition.

Hellerstein denied the request, noting that "this whole thing's going to be wrapped up by the end of spring."