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Today’s Times

-        Pay-as-you-go plans are not just limited to wireless phone contracts. House Republicans on Friday proposed a plan to finance the government through April 8, only days after passing a stop-gap measure extending the March 4 deadline. “We can’t keep on running the government based on two-week extensions,” President Obama said at a news conference. “We’ve got a war in Afghanistan going on. We’ve got a wide range of issues facing the country on a day-to-day basis.” The measure would cut $6 billion from federal spending over the three-week period by eliminating or reducing 25 programs, the Times’s Carl Hulse reports.

-        President Obama addressed boisterous critics and the pained public on Friday as he defended his energy plan at a White House news conference. To the critics who claim he has pushed prices up by clamping down on domestic oil production, Mr. Obama had this to say: “any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn’t match up with reality.” Although he offered little immediate comfort to the public, he sought to reassure them that global oil supplies were adequate and domestic oil production in 2010 was the highest in several years, the Times’s John Broder reports.

-        Though absent, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, was on trial during Congressional hearings on radicalization in the American Islamic community. CAIR’s accusations from Republican lawmakers ran the radical gamut – they were accused of everything from stifling debate to being a full on terrorist organization.  A representative from the group was not invited to testify at the hearing, but submitted 30 pages of written testimony – including a list of dozens of CAIR statements dating back to 1997 condemning terrorist attacks around the world, The Times’s Scott Shane reports.

-        President Obama is defending the conditions in a Marine Corps jail for Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, despite comments from the top State Department spokesman calling the treatment “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” After being accused of leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks, Manning has been jailed and forced to sleep without clothing.  Mr. Obama said Friday that he had been assured that such measures were justified and for Manning’s own safety, the Times’s Scott Shane reports.

- The “Don’t Tread on Me” sentiment of the Revolutionary War era lives on as conservatives, libertarians and others stand up to defend their right to use the light bulbs of their choice. The Times’s Ed Wyatt reports on efforts to repeal a 2007 law, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, that would impose strict new efficiency standards on light bulbs.

Around the Web

-        One of the many ripple effects of the massive earthquake in Japan was felt in Washington yesterday, as Democrats seized the opportunity to say “I told you so” to Republicans who proposed budget cuts to the National Weather Service. In February, House Republicans approved a budget resolution that would cut $410 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Senator John Rockefeller, Democrat from West Virginia, said that the catastrophe in Japan was “a cruel wake-up call” to anyone trying to cut the NOAA’s budget, Politico reports.

-        TwitterLeaks: Twitter will be forced to release the personal account information for three people associated with Wikileaks, a federal court judge ruled on Friday. Lawyers representing the three people argued for the court to overturn the order, Politico reports.  

Weekly Addresses

-        President Obama pleged to continue the work of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in this week’s Women’s History Month themed address. Eleanor Roosevelt’s leading the commission to look at the status of American women in 1961 inspired him to do the same with hopes of spurring action toward a more equal society. “It’s been almost fifty years since the Roosevelt commission published its findings – and there have been few similar efforts by the government in the decades that followed,” he said. “That’s why, last week, here at the White House, we released a new comprehensive report on the status of women in the spirit on the one that was released half a century ago.”  

-        Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, delivered her party’s weekly address focused primarly on rising gas prices. The goals, she outlined, would “protect America from international conflicts, create thousands of new jobs, reduce the budget deficit and help bring energy prices back down to earth.” Ms. Murkowski proposed ending the moratorium on new development in the Gulf of Mexico and parts of the Rocky Mountain West with hopes that American oil production would provide more jobs, money and security.

Happenings around Washington

- – On Saturday night, President Obama will attend his first Gridiron Dinner since moving into the White House. Besides remarks from Mr. Obama, the event at the Renaissance Hotel will feature entertainment by Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services.

-        The Embassy of the State of Kuwait will partner with the group No Greater Love on Sunday to host the 20th Annual Remembrance Ceremony. They will honor those who lost their lives in the 1991 Gulf War.

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In Today’s Times:

–The Times’s Thom Shanker and David Sanger take note of the rift widening between the Obama administration and some members of Congress over what the United States should do in Libya after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the military has no plans for now to intervene and warned that imposing a no-flight zone over the country would be unwise.

–With the Senate’s passage Wednesday of a measure to fund the federal government until March 18, lawmakers have averted a once-imminent shutdown. Now, President Obama is calling for Democrats and Republicans to use the next two weeks to bridge their differences to produce a longer-term budget, Carl Hulse writes.

–The Army added 22 additional charges on Wednesday to its case against a soldier accused of providing secret documents to the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks. Charlie Savage discusses the charges and what they say about the government case against Pfc. Bradley Manning.

–Protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church can continue picketing at military funerals after the Supreme Court ruled 8-to-1 on Wednesday that “hurtful speech” was protected by the First Amendment. Adam Liptak reports on the decision, which he says is the latest in a series of muscular First Amendment rulings from the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

– Fox News has suspended two paid contributors, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who are both weighing presidential bids. Brian Stelter writes that while the channel’s move seems pre-emptive — Mr. Gingrich is expected to signal his intentions on Thursday — it still leaves Fox with three other potential candidates: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and John Bolton. But those three, according to Fox, have not shown serious intentions to set up presidential exploratory committees.

– Big corporate players in Louisana are pouring money into a foundation set up by the wife of Gov. Bobby Jindal. Eric Lipton writes that a review by The New York Times found that the foundation had collected nearly $1 million in previously unreported pledges from major oil companies, insurers and other corporations in Louisiana involved in high-stakes regulatory issues.

Around the Web:
–As lawmakers look for ways to cut the deficit without drawing the ire of too many voters, they may want to heed the results of the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, which shows most Americans remain opposed to significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

– Rahm Emanuel, the mayor-elect of Chicago and the former White House chief of staff, appeared on a radio program with a man who had impersonated him on Twitter.

Happening in Washington:
–President Obama meets with his national security team at 10 a.m. to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan. Later he will meet with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico. In the evening, Mr. Obama will call the crews on the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station.

–Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton returns to Capitol Hill for another day of testimony, this time before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.

–The Senate Armed Services Committee takes up the nomination of Gen. Martin E. Dempsey to become the next Army chief of staff, replacing Gen. George W. Casey.

–Michelle Obama and the first lady of Mexico, Margarita Zavala, will read with children in the afternoon at the Oyster-Adams bilingual elementary school.

–The economic numbers start appearing at 8:30 a.m., when the Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims and measures of labor efficiency known as productivity and costs. At 10 a.m., Freddie Mac puts out weekly mortgage interest rates and the Institute of Supply Management releases its service sector index, which measures how industries other than manufacturing are faring.

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From Today’s Times:
- Forging ahead amid speculation about a government shutdown, House Republicans pushed to approve the largest spending cuts in recent history Friday. Time is running out before the government’s current funding plan expires, leaving just two weeks for Congress to come to an agreement — one week of which will be spent in recess. And The Times’s David M. Herszenhorn reports even a temporary agreement might be too difficult to reach in time.

- Tensions mounted on the House floor this week as the budget debate continued, amendment by amendment. The Times’s Jennifer Steinhauer describes the scene on Capitol Hill, where the rhetoric has intensified as representatives sparred until late in the night Thursday and again on Friday.

- Up in Wisconsin, the Democrats are still missing in action, protesting the governor’s efforts to bring public employees unions to heel, Monica Davey reports. And the unrest over Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut the bargaining rights and benefits of public workers is spreading to other states. Michael Cooper and Katharine Q. Seelye provide a survey of other states where unions and lawmakers are at odds.

- As violence spreads in Bahrain, The Times’s Mark Landler reports on how the United States overlooked signs of trouble in the Persian Gulf nation. The Obama and Bush administrations have been skeptical of accusations of human rights abuses against Bahrain, and now President Obama finds himself struggling once more to handle an unpopular and strategically critical ally.

- Health care providers who refuse to perform professional duties because of moral or religious convictions lost some of the protections granted to them by the Bush administration on Friday. Seeking to correct what it sees as an imbalance between the patient’s and the health care provider’s rights, the Obama administration reversed most of the rule that protects doctors who refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds, among other procedures, The Times’s Robert Pear reports.

Weekly Addresses

- Mr. Obama’s weekly address was similar to a trainer giving a pep talk to runners about a long marathon ahead: The race to out-educate the global competition. He spoke from Intel headquarters in Portland, Ore., where he lauded the tech company as an example of leadership in innovative math, science and technology training and education. He said that companies like Intel won’t have to look overseas for qualified employees if Americans rise to the educational challenge posed by international peers. “If we want to win the global competition for new jobs and industries, we’ve got to win the global competition to educate our people. That’s how we’ll ensure that the next Intel, the next Google or the next Microsoft is created in America, and hires American workers,” he said.

- The Republican address, delivered by Tom Price of Georgia, focused on the budget they will offer as an alternative to Mr. Obama’s proposal this week. He assured the public that the House majority is hard at work keeping its “Pledge to America” by working on a bill to cut spending by $100 billion over the last seven months of the current fiscal year. “As part of our focus on job growth, committees in the House are combing through job-crushing government regulations, and conducting rigorous oversight of how the government spends the people’s time and your money,” Representative Price said.

Around the Web:

- Soon, Republicans may be asking themselves how much they’re willing to pay to repeal the health care overhaul. The Congressional Budget Office says that reversing the bill would add $210 billion to the nation’s deficit over the next decade, Reuters reports.

- Frank Bailey, one of Sarah Palin’s closest advisers while she was governor of Alaska, is writing a tell-all memoir based on thousands of personal e-mails, The Associated Press reports. Tentatively titled “Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of our Tumultuous Years,” the book does not yet have a publisher.

- TV Guide: Martin Bashir, widely known for his interviews with Michael Jackson and Diana, Princess of Wales, will begin hosting his own show on MSNBC. The program will have its premiere on Feb. 28 at 3 p.m., says The Huffington Post.

- If Presidents’ Day sales featured mementos of past leaders, Ronald Reagan memorabilia would be the big seller this year. Nineteen percent of respondents to a Gallup Poll say Reagan was the greatest American president. This year’s win makes him number one on the list for the third time since Gallup started asking the “greatest president” question, reports Politics Daily.

Washington Happenings:
- Mount Vernon will transform from historical site to Presidents’ Day party hall when it hosts a “Surprise Birthday Party” for George Washington on today, tomorrow and Monday.

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