White House Asked Dubai Ports to Pull Out  —  Stunning Defeat for Bush, but Republicans in Congress Promise to Put It Behind Them  —  March 10, 2006 — The White House asked Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, to give up its management stake in U.S. ports …

Former Bush Aide Charged in Felony Theft  —  Claude Allen had recently resigned as White House domestic-policy adviser.  —  When Claude Allen, President Bush's longtime domestic-policy adviser, resigned suddenly on Feb. 9, it baffled administration critics and fans.

Retired Supreme Court Justice hits attacks on courts and warns of dictatorship  —  RAW STORY  —  Via NPR.  Rush transcript by RAW STORY.  Listen to the audio report here.  —  Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O'Connor no longer faces that obligation.

Gale Norton resigns from Cabinet  —  Washington - Gale Norton resigned today after serving more than five years as secretary of the Interior and overseeing a dramatic expansion of drilling, logging and development on the public lands of the West.  —  But the former Colorado attorney general …

The Kurd Card  —  Lost amid the news of all the bloodletting in Iraq is an important political development: The Kurds have switched sides.  In the first parliament after the first set of elections, they allied themselves with the Shiite slate to produce the current Shiite-dominated government led by Ibrahim al-Jafari.

Elizabeth Dole is a racist  —  Check out FancyFord.com, a racist attack site created by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to oppose Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., who's running for Senate in Tennessee.  —  What's the message behind this site?  The line of white women on the front page …

Bush's Approval Rating Falls to New Low  —  WASHINGTON - More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

Anti-Castro Sign at Ballgame Causes Stir  —  1cbeabdc2ba6@news.ap.org While Cuba played the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, a spectator in the stands raised a sign saying: "Down with Fidel," sparking an international incident that escalated Friday with the velocity of a major league fastball.

'Washington Post' To Cut 80 Newsroom Jobs, Sources Say  —  NEW YORK The Washington Post plans to cut at least 80 newsroom jobs through attrition and buyouts, according to sources at the paper who said editors began giving staffers the bad news on Thursday in meetings and continued today.

VIEW: Colonisation of Palestine precludes peace— Jimmy Carter  —  This is obvious to most Israelis, who also view this as a distortion of their moral and religious values  —  For more than a quarter century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the United States and the international community.

'Silent Tort Reform' Is Overriding States' Powers  —  SUPPORTERS and detractors call it the "silent tort reform" movement, and it has quietly and quickly been gaining ground.  —  Across Washington, federal agencies that supervise everything from auto safety to medicine labeling have waged …

Racially charged e-mail stirs outrage  —  Rep. Welker cites his 'poor judgment' in forwarding essay  —  A Loveland lawmaker has been blasted by his colleagues for e-mailing an essay written by someone else that accused "welfare-pampered blacks" of waiting for the government to save them from Hurricane Katrina.

Some Sunnis Targeting al-Qaida in Iraq  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.  The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned on and were killing foreign al-Qaida fighters, their one-time allies.

U.S. firms are few for operating ports  —  Congress may want American companies to operate the U.S. ports that Dubai has agreed to unload, but good luck finding them.  —  There's only a handfull of home-grown outfits big enough to take over the six port operations that state-owned DP World has agreed to …