Cheney hits Obama again: ‘Devastating’ economic policies  —  (CNN) — President Barack Obama's expansion of the federal government into the financial sector is likely to have “devastating” effects in the long term, former Vice President Dick Cheney said in his latest salvo directed at the new White House administration.

Obama v. the Justice Department  —  Blogs and Stories  —  The Daily Beast has learned that department lawyers are “incensed” at the White House for waging a frontal assault on their independence to prosecute over torture.  —  On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel …

House GOP want to oust Napolitano  —  House Republicans are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired in the wake of a controversial department memo that has sparked indignant battle cries from conservatives and some veterans.

Pelosi Now Remembers Harman Wiretap  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged today that she had indeed been briefed about a wiretap that recorded conversations involving Representative Jane Harman, contradicting a statement she made on Tuesday when she said she didn't remember being advised of such surveillance.

Matt Drudge — Nowhere Man?  —  (Photo by Jenny Zeiner for Washington Post)  —  Loyal Fix readers know that we follow the movements of one Matt Drudge — and his eponymous Web site — quite closely.  —  Why?  Because, despite any number of critics across the media sphere …

ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh  —  Police in Uniform Join In as Victim Is Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted, Run Over by SUV  —  A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates shows a member of the country's royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips …

MoveOn Torture Ad Highlights Cheney For Investigation  —  MoveOn.org is set to launch an aggressive new ad campaign calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the use of torture during the Bush administration and even raising the specter of targeting former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Torture: Who Was In The Key Meetings?  —  This newly declassified history comes courtesy of Sen. Jay Rockefeller and the Senate intelligence committee.  It includes a bit of information about the post 2005 Office of Legal Counsel memoranda and provides independent confirmation for the disclosure …

Earth Day Philly Style  —  Environmentalist Loved Planet, Murdered Girlfriend  —  Today is Earth Day, a holiday created to honor the planet and to raise the consciousness of man's effect on the environment.  Philadelphia has a very strong tie to this day.

‘COLONELS IN MIRRORED SUNGLASSES’.... I can appreciate why Karl Rove is upset about recent revelations about Bush administration torture policies.  After all, who wants their friends and colleagues to end up looking like war criminals?  Rove has a specific job to do: make Bush and his team look better …

Levi Johnston's shockingly candid answers to CNN's Larry King  —  Well, once again Larry King's bookers have got the big get — Levi Johnston is scheduled to be on the CNN show tonight, unless his pickup breaks down in Saskatchewan.  —  It's billed as an “exclusive” — at least for this week.

Who's More Popular Than Republicans These Days?  —  Yes, stealing this blatantly off of a liberal website, but it explains why the White House is so confident and has so much breathing room: As Chris Bowers writes: “A new CNN poll has found that Venezuela — an anti-American, socialist-block forming …

Democrats Consider Bypassing G.O.P. on Health Care Plan  —  WASHINGTON — With solid majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats are tempted to use their political muscle to speed passage of health care legislation with minimal concessions to the Republican minority.

Ivy Leaguer ‘infiltrates’ Falwell's university  —  PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Kevin Roose managed to blend in during his single semester at Liberty University, attending lectures on the myth of evolution and the sin of homosexuality, and joining fellow students on a mission trip to evangelize partyers on spring break.

Kerry aims to rescue newspapers  —  The “death of newspapers” has drawn powerful political interest.  —  Troubled by the possible shuttering of his hometown paper, Sen. John Kerry reached out to the Boston Globe on Tuesday, then called for Senate hearings to address the woes of the nation's print media.

Bonuses To New York Times Execs Under Fire  —  At a time when New York Times managers are forcing all employees to take a five percent pay cut, and demanding even larger sacrifices from the NYT-owned Boston Globe, top executives of the beleaguered newspaper received substantial bonus …

Pelosi Presses for ‘Truth Commission’  —  Greg Hitt reports on Congress.  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressed the case for creation of a special “truth commission” to investigate the interrogation of terror suspects during the Bush administration.  —  The California Democrat …

The Recount Will Go On: NY-20 Judge Says Residency Objections Will Be Heard ‘Case by Case’  —  <!—[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]—><!— [if gte mso 9]> <![endif]—><!— [if !mso]> <![endif]—>  —  ALBANY—The ballot-counting the race …

Court Debates Strip Search of Student  —  WASHINGTON — The United States Supreme Court spent an hour on Tuesday debating what middle school students are apt to put in their underwear and what should be done about it.  —  Justice Stephen G. Breyer, for instance, said it struck him as …

Fuzzy Math  —  According to an MIT study, cap and trade could cost the average household more than $3,900 per year.  —  It's just another inconvenient truth: If Americans want any of the government remedies that would supposedly save a planet allegedly imperiled by global warming, it's going to cost them.

High Unemployment States Have High Income Taxes or High Unionization or Both.  —  As the nation considers increasing marginal tax rates and facilitating greater union membership, I thought it might make sense to look at the states with the highest and lowest unemployment rates to see if there might be any relevant patterns.

Obama Urges Passage of Energy Legislation  —  NEWTON, Iowa - President Obama, declaring “a new era of energy exploration in America,” marked Earth Day by visiting a wind energy plant here and calling on Congress to pass comprehensive energy legislation, including a carbon cap-and-trade system to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

Dozens of Prisoners Held by CIA Still Missing, Fates Unknown  —  Last week, we pointed out that one of the newly released Bush-era memos inadvertently confirmed that the CIA held an al-Qaeda suspect named Hassan Ghul in a secret prison and subjected him to what Bush administration lawyers called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

As Housing Market Dips, More in U.S. Are Staying Put  —  Fewer Americans moved in 2008 than in any year since 1962, according to census data released Wednesday, and immigration from overseas was the lowest in more than a decade.  —  The Census Bureau reported that the annual rate …