Seven Indonesian Bird Flu Cases Linked to Patients (Update1)  —  May 23 (Bloomberg) — All seven people infected with bird flu in a cluster of Indonesian cases can be linked to other patients, according to disease trackers investigating possible human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus.

Bush-hatred a threat to national security  —  ENOUGH already!  It's harmful enough that ideological conflict and partisan politics are preventing this country from solving its long-term challenges on health care, fiscal policy and energy.  Now it's threatening our national survival.

Hastert tells President Bush FBI raid was unconstitutional  —  House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson's (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution.

Bin Laden: Moussaoui not linked to 9/11  —  CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden purportedly said in an audio tape Tuesday that neither Zacarias Moussaoui — the only person convicted in the U.S. for the Sept. 11 attacks — nor anyone held at Guantanamo had anything to do with the al-Qaida operation.

IDF arrests most-wanted Hamas bomb mastermind in West Bank  —  After an eight-year manhunt, Israeli security forces early Tuesday seized the Ramallah-area commander of Hamas' military wing, Israel's most wanted man in the West Bank.  —  Sheikh Ibrahim Hamed, 41, has been wanted since 1998 …

McCain calls for more nukes  —  'We've got to get over it,' senator says  —  May 23.  —  he United States needs to overcome its fear of nuclear power and embrace the technology as a way to wean itself from fossil fuels, Sen. John McCain told an audience in Manchester yesterday.  —  Nuclear power "is safe.

Exxon-Backed Pundit Compares Gore To Nazi Propagandist  —  Sterling Burnett is a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, an organization that has received over $390,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.  This afternoon on Fox, Burnett compared watching Al Gore's movie …

Katrina: What the Media Missed  —  Remember the dozens, maybe hundreds, of rapes, murders, stabbings and deaths resulting from official neglect at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina?  The ones that never happened, as even the national media later admitted?

Madonna concert review: 'Even the bouncers looked scared'  —  Video: Madonna rehearsing  —  Gallery: Pictures of Madonna in concert More: Madonna's mock crucifixion  —  Riding crop in hand, leather boots gripping her legs, equestrian-cum-bondage gear strapped across her body and, of course …

John Kerry's encore  —  JOHN KERRY may just be charting his path back to the future.  —  The man who cast a vote he now acknowledges was a mistake on the Iraq war resolution, and then spent two years awkwardly confronting the fallout as he ran for president, has finally come to a position where he seems comfortable.

Jesse Macbeth video goes viral (bumped)  —  Clarice Feldman marveled yesterday at how quickly nonsense gets debunked these days online.  Ah, Clarice: you haven't looked at the top of the Google Video charts lately, have you?  Despite the best efforts of some, nonsense thrives on the Internet.

Iran test-fires long-range missile  —  Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region, Israel Radio reported.  The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met …

Divisive In Any Language  —  Yes, let's talk about the English language and how important it is that immigrants and their children learn it.  —  And please permit me to be personal about an issue that is equally personal to the tens of millions of Americans who remember their immigrant roots.

Lieberman withdraws from MoveOn.org 'primary'  —  Lieberman Declines Invitation—Stand-in Sought / MoveOn.org Statement on Connecticut Online Primary for U.S. Senate  —  From a MoveOn.org press release to RAW STORY.  —  After initially agreeing, Senator Lieberman has declined our invitation …

Eye On White House  —  Dodd Building Foundation For Presidential Race  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said Monday he has "decided to do all the things that are necessary to prepare to seek the presidency in 2008."  —  The Connecticut Democrat will hire staff …

Blogs, Wiki, Google Bomb Used to Free Egyptian Activist  —  Last August, when I was working on a story for Online Journalism Review about activists using technology to organize protests in Egypt, I made the mistake of focusing too much on blogs.  One of the people I interviewed, Alaa Abd El Fattah …

2 in CIA to testify Libby lied on leak  —  WASHINGTON - Two top CIA officials will bolster prosecutors' charge that Vice President Cheney's chief aide lied to them, court papers show.  —  Prosecutors say disgraced Cheney chief of staff Lewis (Scooter) Libby learned CIA spy Valerie Plame's identity from …

The Politics of Scandal  —  Writes Mark Kleiman regarding the Rep. Jefferson situation: … The problem is, as I noted before in passing, the relative depth of a given scandal is not the most salient issue for determining its political impact.  —  The thing that the Jefferson scandal …

Former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen dies  —  Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr., a Texas patrician who made a sizable fortune in private business and an even bigger name in national government as a U.S. senator and Treasury secretary, has died, family members said today.  He was 85.