03/02/06 FOX Poll: Most Oppose Port Deal; Republicans Lose Ground  —  NEW YORK — Most Americans oppose allowing a Dubai company to run some U.S. ports, even as a majority understands the U.S. would continue to control port security, according to a new FOX News poll.

New Video Shows Blanco Saying Levees Safe  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to a new video obtained …

Cartoonist's Daughter Hunted by 12 Jihadists  —  Update: I have now posted the transcript of the interview with Jens Rohde at the bottom of this post.  —  Update: See below for comments from the Police Intelligence Service  —  Hmmm.. It seems that all I had to do to get back to blogging was getting my indignation recharged.

Senate Approves Patriot Act Renewal  —  WASHINGTON - The Senate on Thursday gave its blessing to the renewal of the USA Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections designed to strike a better balance between civil liberties and the government's power to root out terrorists.

Teacher on leave after comments  —  District cites policy requiring balanced views in classroom  —  An Overland High School geography teacher was put on leave Wednesday while Cherry Creek Schools investigates whether he violated district policy that requires balanced viewpoints in the classroom.

What Bush Was Told About Iraq  —  Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq …

The President's Indian Fantasy  —  The rash nukes pledge is typical of Bush's strategic shortsightedness.  —  It takes a great strategic mind, something like a chess master's, to think three or four moves ahead in plotting international diplomacy.  It would be nice if the Bush administration, now and then, could think one move ahead.

We Can't Force Democracy  —  Creating Normality Is the Real Mideast Challenge  —  The whiff of incipient anarchy in Iraq in recent days has provided a prospect so terrifying as to concentrate the minds of Republicans and Democrats, Iraq's sectarian political factions, and even the media.

Soviets 'ordered Pope shooting'  —  An Italian parliamentary commission has concluded that the former Soviet Union was behind the 1981 assassination attempt on the late Pope John Paul II.  —  The head of the commission, Paolo Guzzanti, said it was sure beyond "reasonable doubt" that Soviet leaders ordered the shooting.

Times Diversity Report: "A Newspaper at Risk"  —  After a 10-month study, the New York Times Diversity Council issued its confidential internal report yesterday.  The 39-page document, made available to staffers, describes The Times as "a newspaper at risk" on diversity matters and says the paper is …

Iraqi WMD Mystery Solved  —  Frontpage Interview's guest today is Ryan Mauro, who spoke at the recent 2006 International Intelligence Summit on Iraq.  He is the 19-year old author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq and founder of WorldThreats.com.