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 …

White House Apologizes for Air Force Flyover  —  A reader, Jim Brown, took this photograph from 10 Exchange Place in Jersey City, looking toward 77 Hudson Street and the Statue of Liberty.  In the photo, the plane appears closer than it actually was.  —  Updated, 5 p.m. |

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 …

Pakistani Intelligence: Osama Is Dead  —  As Pakistan wrestles with the Taliban takeover of large swaths of its territory and the encroachment on Islamabad, its Inter-Services Intelligence agency tells us that Osama bin Laden is dead. … If you can't trust the ISI to give you accurate information …

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 …

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.

Cantor, Obama let sparks fly  —  House Republican Whip Eric Cantor returned from spring break determined to shed the “Dr. No” tag Democrats have hung around his neck — only to find himself in a face-to-face argument with the president over who started this year's rift with the House GOP.

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 …

Gallup: Majority Thinks Torture Justified, But Wants Probe Anyway!  —  That Gallup poll we've been waiting for has just been released, and it finds a slim majority favor a probe into Bush-era torture (click to enlarge):  —  So 51% favor a government investigation of the use of “harsh interrogation techniques,” and only 42% oppose one.

Bush's Promise On Torture  —  From al Arabiya, after Abu Ghraib:  —  It's important for people to understand that in a democracy, there will be a full investigation.  In other words, we want to know the truth.  In our country, when there's an allegation of abuse ... there will be a full investigation …

Defending the Bush lawyers  —  As the sides take form on coming interrogation investigations, the Federalist Society appears to be stepping into the vacuum to defend former Bush administration officials.  —  The lawyers' group, which was a pipeline for judges in the Bush White House …

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 …

Fox News' ‘Tea Party’ hysteria really did whip up the far-right nutcases  —  In spite of all that voluminous airspace on Fox News that was devoted to promoting and then reporting on the ‘Tea Parties’ on April 15, I'll be willing to wager that they won't ever include this in their reports:

The Republican Shrinkage Problem  —  The new Washington Post/ABC news poll has all sorts of intriguing numbers in it but when you are looking for clues as to where the two parties stand politically there is only one number to remember: 21.  —  That's the percent of people in the Post/ABC survey …

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.

Obama more popular than his policies, poll shows  —  CNN Deputy Political Director  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new national poll suggests that President Obama is personally more popular than his policies.  —  The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Monday, also indicates that 63 percent …

The Kill Ratio  —  I was aware that declining rates of “intimate” homicide have been a significant, though oft-overlooked, component of the declining murder rate in the United States.  Now I see at sociological images that there's an interesting gender twist to this: