Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama  —  (CNSNews.com) - Following a testy exchange during today's briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control …

Taliban capture U.S. soldier  —  KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — A U.S. soldier has been captured by militants in Afghanistan, the U.S. military and the Taliban said Thursday.  —  The unidentified soldier has been missing since Tuesday.  U.S. forces are exhausting all resources to find the soldier, the military said.

Palin E-mails Show Infighting With Staff  —  Exclusive: Spat Over Todd Palin's Membership In Secessionist Party Was Major Distraction On Critical Day In '08 Campaign … Internal campaign e-mails exchanged three weeks before Election Day offer a rare look at just how frustrated …

House of Pain: GOP's Class of '94  —  The sex scandals that have tarnished Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) don't appear to have much in common.  Yet there is one thread that binds them together: Both Ensign and Sanford were members of the famed Republican House class of 1994, as well as its latest casualties.

WashPost sells access, $25,000+  —  For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors.

Fox hosts on Franken victory: “in denial”; Franken and nation crazy; Coleman originally won  —  SUMMARY: Several Fox News hosts have expressed bewilderment, disappointment, and denial about Al Franken's victory in the Minnesota Senate race.  —  After Norm Coleman conceded the 2008 Minnesota Senate race …

39 trips for Sanford with no security in '09  —  EXCLUSIVE: Governor's secret trip prompts scrutiny  —  Gov. Mark Sanford left the Governor's Mansion without a security escort, 38 times in 2008.  In the first six months of this year, he left the mansion without security, 39 times.

467,000 Jobs Lost in June; Unemployment Reaches 9.5%  —  The pace of job losses quickened in June after slowing just a month earlier, casting a shadow over the Obama administration's attempts to stanch months of stark declines in the labor market.  —  The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month …

Time for an Israeli Strike?  —  With Iran's hard-line mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unmistakably back in control, Israel's decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever.  —  Iran's nuclear threat was never …

Karl Malden, Actor Who Played the Uncommon Everyman, Dies at 97  —  Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning character actor who for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun authenticity to roles in theater, film and television, from “A Streetcar Named Desire” to …

Black Reporters on the Beat of Michelle Obama  —  While Michelle Obama was meeting with doctors and patients at the Upper Cardozo Health Center, nearly two dozen journalists stood behind a white rope in a small room upstairs, most finally growing so tired during the hour-long wait that they sat on the floor.

Let the Usurpers Writhe  —  TEHRAN — Think of normalized relations with the United States as the big prize.  Who gets to deliver it?  One thing is certain: Iran's ruthless usurpers are determined to ensure reformists are never in a position to claim the breakthrough.

U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny  —  The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.  —  Nuns were the often-unsung workers who helped build …

Michelle Malkin Reports on IG-Gate  —  Michelle Malkin's syndicated column today moves the story forward substantially with this: … Read the whole thing.  She gives me credit for pushing the story last week.  I had mentioned this at The American Spectator blog:

Times Square Tea Party Denounces Obama, Media, Imaginary Tax Rates, Etc.  —  They had another one of those Tea Party things this evening, this time right next to the Times Square subway station on Broadway.  The anti-Obama pep rally occupied part of the street and part of the sidewalk …

Ant mega-colony takes over world  —  A queen and worker Argentine ant have many, many relatives  —  A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.  —  Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony …

A few victory laughs for Sen.-elect Franken  —  Al Franken is funny again.  —  The senator-elect alternated between jokes and emotion Wednesday in a victory rally that was, as he acknowledged, more than two years in the making.  —  “It was close,” Franken began, garnering a big laugh for his even bigger understatement.

Just Go Be With Her!  —  In part two of his leave-no-rock-unturned interview with the Associated Press, Mark Sanford says that at least he will “be able to die knowing I had met my soul mate,” as David noted below.  And if that's not enough, he says that for all the grief his affair has caused …

Terror from the Right  —  75 plots, conspiracies and racist rampages since Oklahoma City … What follows is a detailed listing of major terrorist plots and racist rampages that have emerged from the American radical right in the years since Oklahoma City.