GOP Know-Nothings Fought Pandemic Preparedness  —  When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill …

Swine Flu: Is Matt Drudge a National Hero?  —  Over the weekend, you probably read something about Swine Flu, the new deadly porcine super-epidemic that's going to kill us all.  But, depending on where you get your news, you saw very different types of coverage.

Pelosi playing defense on torture  —  Nancy Pelosi didn't cry foul when the Bush administration briefed her on “enhanced interrogation” of terror suspects in 2002, but her team was locked and loaded to counter hypocrisy charges when the “torture” memos were released last week.

Money for Nothing  —  On July 15, 2007, The New York Times published an article with the headline “The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age.”  The most prominently featured of the “new titans” was Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup, who insisted that he and his peers …

Thain Fires Back at Bank of America  —  John Thain figured seven months ago that he was just one rung down the corporate ladder from becoming chief executive of the largest consumer bank in the U.S. Now, he is trying to climb back from the professional disaster that followed.

New FAS-FAX Shows (More) Steep Circulation Losses  —  NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning the spring figures for the six months ending March 31, 2009, showing that country's largest metros continue to shed daily and Sunday circulation, now at a record rate.

Shortage of Doctors Proves Obstacle to Obama Goals  —  WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops  —  CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don't Believe in God?  You Are Not Alone,” the group's 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman's living room to grapple with the fallout.

Conde Nast Closing ‘Portfolio’  —  For nearly two years I've been covering the media industry's bad news on this blog, including some that's hit very close to home.  Now it hits closer still: Condé Nast Portfolio is closing.  —  Our editor in chief, Joanne Lipman, just broke the news to staff …

Obama gets ahead of prompter  —  President Obama's speech at the National Academy of Sciences Monday morning hit a brief snag when Obama got ahead of his script.  —  Laying his plan for a President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Obama began to name the members of PCAST listed …

The Media Elite's Secret Dinners  —  Last Tuesday evening, Rahm Emanuel quietly slipped into an eighth-floor office at the Watergate.  —  As white-jacketed waiters poured red and white wine and served a three-course salmon and risotto dinner, the White House chief of staff spent two hours chatting …

Obama team reverses union transparency  —  Finance reporting rules deemed too onerous for labor leaders  —  The Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to make government more transparent, is rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation.

Just Imagine: The First 100 Days of John McCain  —  If things had gone differently.....  John McCain, the oldest first-term president in history, is proving as rambunctious and pugnacious as the youngest one, Teddy Roosevelt.  Of course, Teddy probably would have sent the Marines to Venezuela …

Say Yes.  What Are You Waiting For?  —  Spring is here, that glorious season when young men's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love, as the poet Tennyson once suggested.  “Lightly” is right.  —  The average age of American men marrying for the first time is now 28.

Fractured media no match for Obama  —  The Obama White House has watched the disintegration of the old media order and drawn a simple conclusion - the president's popularity is the dominant entity in the cluttered, chaotic modern media environment.  —  In separate interviews this week …

Obama move alarms Israel supporters  —  The administration seeks changes that would permit aid to Palestinians even if officials backed by Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group, become part of a unified Palestinian government.  —  Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration …

GOP BASE OPPOSES PROGRESS.... It's hard to say whether Republican Party leaders on the Hill or in the RNC have any genuine interest in moving the party back towards the political mainstream, but in some ways, it doesn't really matter.  Even if GOP leaders saw the utility of moderating the party, the Republican base wouldn't allow it.

Homeland Security misfires  —  PARTISAN turmoil that lingered after this month's tea party protests reignited recently, when the Department of Homeland Security issued a report to federal and local law enforcement officials on right-wing extremism.  The report detailed current economic …

‘We Could Have Done This the Right Way’  —  How Ali Soufan, an FBI agent, got Abu Zubaydah to talk without torture.  —  The arguments at the CIA safe house were loud and intense in the spring of 2002.  Inside, a high-value terror suspect, Abu Zubaydah, was handcuffed to a gurney.

U.S. Seeks to Assure Arabs on Iran  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is dispatching its point man on Iran, Dennis Ross, to the Middle East this week in an effort to win greater Arab support for Washington's engagement strategy toward Tehran, U.S. officials said.

The Editor's Desk  —  From the magazine issue dated May 4, 2009  —  The question is not as the extremes on either side would have it.  Today, eight years after the attacks of September 11 and three months into a new presidential administration, should the country in some way look back to review …