Nancy Pelosi

After arriving at the capitol building in DC earlier today, Brad Pitt ditched his sunglasses and showed of those baby blues to discuss the Make It Right Campaign. Even Nancy Pelosi couldn't resist flashing him a smile as they walked and talked together. Once inside, Brad expressed his gratitude for the recognition of his project, saying, "I just want to say thank you to the speaker for opening up her doors for us to come in and discuss the rebuilding effort, the current rebuilding effort going on in New Orleans and how we can expand this idea of affordability and sustainability because we think we have a model that works." Brad's campaign has already made huge strides in the past few years, and his handsome smirk is only helping him spread awareness about the cause.

Lots more of Brad in Washington if you just read more

Barack Obama isn't the only person with a housing plan. Brad Pitt is set to meet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to talk about his Make It Right Project. Brad will have Nancy's ear tomorrow afternoon, to share details of the project he launched in 2007 with the intention of building affordable and environmentally safe homes for residents of New Orleans' Ninth Ward who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina.

Brad's bringing the flashing camera's along; the headline making duo (Brad and Nancy, that is) will meet after and pose for some pictures in the Capitol Building. Are you happy politicians want to hear more about Brad's idea for New Orleans?

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• Rachel Maddow goes gaga over Nancy Pelosi's enthusiasm during Obama's speech. — Townhall
• Secretary Geithner "deeply offended by the quality of judgments" coming from banks. — Huffington Post
• Obama declares war on churches and conservative institutions? — RedState
• Obama's approval rating for handling the economic crisis leapt 17 percent after the speech among those who watched. – The Raw Story
• Have you been eating more soup to save money? — SavvySugar
• Pat Buchanan's sister lays into fellow Republicans at CPAC for not standing up for conservative values. — Wonkette

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has shared some criticism with Rachel Maddow about both the Bush and Obama administrations. According to Salon, Pelosi told Maddow, during an interview to be aired tonight, that she favors criminal prosecutions for the Bush administration and not just a fact-finding truth commission.

Senator Leahy has a proposal, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is a good idea. What I have some concern about though is it has immunity. And I think that some of the issues involved here, like the services part, politicizing of the Justice Department, and the rest, they have criminal ramifications, and I don't think we should be giving them immunity.

An enthusiastic Rachel Maddow herself shared some highlights from the yet-to-be aired interview with Andrea Mitchell earlier today. Fresh from her meeting with the speaker, and still on the Amtrak train, Rachel said that Nancy expressed concern about Obama's rumored plan to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq after combat troops leave. You can hear Rachel break it down in the above video.

They may be in control of the White House and Congress, but I anticipate some back and forth among the big players in the Democratic Party. As for the keeping criminal prosecution on the the table, I'd like to know what you all think!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the inclusion of hundreds of millions of dollars for family planning services in the stimulus bill yesterday, by arguing that birth control will help the economy. On ABC's This Week Pelosi said:

The family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education, and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those — one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

While Pelosi's comments could come off as characterizing children born to poor families as nothing more than a burden on the government, there could be some logic to her argument. Unplanned pregnancies can level significant financial burdens on parents, who may turn to the government for assistance if they do not have the means. By increasing access to contraception, lower-income families would have the freedom to plan their families just like those with access to contraception. Still, others point out that population growth typically helps economic growth, and in places like Japan, the government actually encourages citizens to have more kid-producing sex.

Do you think Nancy Pelosi's argument that birth control can help the economy is far-fetched?

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• The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Treasury Department has no mechanisms to comply with the $700 billion bailout plan restrictions. Speaker Pelosi called the report evidence that the Treasury Department's actions are not accountable to the American taxpayer. — AP
• Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss reclaimed his Senate seat after winning yesterday's Georgia runoff. The Democrats will not have a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority. — AP
• US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan to cooperate fully in bringing the Mumbai attackers to justice. While in Delhi she said Pakistan has a "special responsibility to do so." — BBC News



• Harvard's endowment, the largest in the US, has taken at 22 percent hit in the last four months. It has lost $8 billion. — AP
• Passengers flying out of Los Angeles had to wait nine hours on the ground before take off because the smaller airport did not the staff to process exciting passengers. The original flight would have taken less than five hours. — LA Times

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