Executive Order: Responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security with Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to help the Federal Government coordinate …

TX-28 Postmortem, Part II: Qualitative and Strategy  —  Well, it looks like our first primary challenge against an incumbent Democrat didn't work out.  To my knowledge, there haven't been any official concession yet, but no matter what happens, I would like to point out that Republicans still …

Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain'  —  VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program.  America's ambassador to the United Nations said Iran's comments reflected the menace it poses.

Enough of the D.C. Dems  —  Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party.  I don't know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating …

Hardball for the left, softball for the right: Conservatives dominate on Hardball … Since its CNBC debut as Politics with Chris Matthews in 1996*, MSNBC's long-running Hardball with Chris Matthews has consistently attracted criticism from the right wing.  For example, in January 2006 …

3 College Students Arrested in Alabama Church Fires  —  Three college students from the prosperous suburbs south of Birmingham, two of them 19 and one 20, were arrested today in the burning of nine Baptist churches in rural Alabama last month that federal officials say was a prank that spun out of control.

Giving Yale the finger  —  Since the New York Times and Wall Street Journal broke the news about the admission of Taliban official Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi to a special student program at Yale, we've received numerous emails from outraged Yale Alumni.  One email stood out from the rest …

Retirement Fund Tapped to Avoid National Debt Limit  —  The Treasury Department has started drawing from the civil service pension fund to avoid hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit.  The move to tap the pension fund follows last month's decision to suspend investments in a retirement savings plan held by government employees.

Oscar Winner Hits Angry Chord  —  'Pimp' Song Denounced for Exploiting Negative Stereotypes  —  When Christine Smith heard the song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" announced as the Oscar winner for best original song on Sunday night's telecast, she almost fell off the sofa in her Arlington living room.

Thinking Things Through  —  Speaking of abortion, Digby has linked to this amazing video from At Center Network of anti-abortion protesters being asked whether women who have abortions should go to jail.  Since it's only available in Real format and it'll eat into their bandwidth, I've taken the liberty of uploading the vid to YouTube.

Fight Looms on Lawmakers' Use of Corporate Jets  —  WASHINGTON, March 7 — Senator Barack Obama flew at least nine times on corporate jets last year, traveling to fund-raisers in New York and San Francisco, home to Chicago and to Rosa Parks's funeral in Detroit.

DeLay Beats 3 Rivals in Texas G.O.P. Primary  —  HOUSTON, March 7 — Representative Tom DeLay survived a challenge to his renomination for Congress Tuesday night, outpacing three Republican primary rivals seeking to capitalize on the criminal charges and ethics citations against him.

Jeers and Heckling Greet Annan At Staff Meeting at United Nations  —  UNITED NATIONS - U.N. staffers heckled and booed Secretary-General Annan yesterday in a raucous meeting after he presented a "management reform" plan that includes cutting jobs for New Yorkers employed at Turtle Bay.

'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for April 16  —  Read the complete transcript to Friday's show  —  Guests: William Cohen, Jon Meacham, Pat Toomey, Andrew Greeley  —  CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Al Jazeera TV plays video of a U.S. soldier held hostage in Iraq.

Delivering the Conservative Line on 'Monologues'  —  Monique Stuart was a teenager when Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" first appeared off-off-Broadway a decade ago.  —  But by the time the 24-year-old saw the play in her senior year of college, she'd already made up her mind that it wasn't worth much.