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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

They Mean It  —  It's pretty clear that the assault on women's reproductive rights is in full swing.  I suspect that many Republicans know that their legislative majority days may be numbered and they are trying to deliver for their constituents before they lose their perch.  —  This one's a twofer.

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: FEBRUARY 2006  —  Nonfarm payroll employment grew by 243,000 in February, and the unemploy-  —  ment rate was little changed at 4.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics  —  of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  Job gains occurred in con-

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.

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.

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.

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.

'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.

ROOTS PROJECT: Pennsylvania  —  (Last updated: Friday March 10 @ 11:30 am Penna. time)  —  The Roots Project  —  The Roots Project is a coordinated effort by national and local bloggers to develop the netroots in each state, and convert them into what I call "netboots" …

Pentagon admits errors in spying on protesters  —  NBC: Official says peaceful demonstrators' names erased from database  —  The Department of Defense admitted in a letter obtained by NBC News on Thursday that it had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators to a database of possible domestic terrorist threats.

'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 …