Justices, 6-3, Sidestep Ruling on Padilla Case  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Jose Padilla, held as an enemy combatant without traditional legal rights for more than three years, sidestepping a challenge to Bush administration wartime detention powers.

2005 Koufax Awards —The Winners  —  I apologize for the delay in posting the winners.  We had a big turn out both in comments and in emails and a number of the categories had excruciatingly close races (one category had an exact tie, more on that below).  The voting was roughly evenly split between comments and email.

Capitol police ask for arrest warrant for McKinney  —  Black leaders say McKinney victim of racial profiling  —  WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill police on Monday asked a federal prosecutor to approve an arrest warrant for Rep. Cynthia McKinney for her role in a scuffle with a police officer last week, the prosecutor's office confirmed.

White House shake-up to continue?  —  Sources: Press spokesman, treasury chief may be next  —  CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) — Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John Snow could be next in a shake-up in the Bush administration, according to White House and GOP sources.

Right-wing Racism and the Moderate Voice  —  There's a discussion over at The Moderate Voice about whether the Jill Carroll affair damages the credibility of bloggers.  I find this discussion irritating, because it cuts to a basic problem with the nonpartisan new media blog pontificators …

Can the Shiite Center Hold?  —  The unanticipated consequences of "Iraqification."  —  The Shiites of Iraq who want representative government, and who look to the resolutely moderate Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for religious and political guidance, have endured Baathists, Sunni supremacists and holy warriors.

UT professor says death is imminent  —  AUSTIN — A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead.  —  Â"Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine,Â" Eric Pianka cautioned students and guests at St. EdwardÂ's University on Friday.

Ivory Tower Stonewall  —  A 9/11 survivor asks Yale to explain why it admitted the Taliban Man.  —  Katherine Bailey and her sister, Margaret Pothier, have a bone to pick with Yale President Richard Levin over his university's admission of a former Taliban official as a student.

Jury Finds Moussaoui Eligible for Execution  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 3 — A federal jury found today that Zacarias Moussaoui was responsible for at least some of the deaths that occurred in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, meaning that he could be subject to the death penalty.

Limbaugh called alleged Duke rape victim a "ho[ ]" … During the March 31 broadcast of his national syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh referred to the alleged victim of a rape by members of the Duke University lacrosse team as a "ho[]."  During an on-air discussion with a caller …

A Gadfly With Buzz  —  MSNBC's Olbermann, Exercising the Right  —  Night after night, President Bush is being kicked, punched, slapped, poked, stomped and otherwise disrespected in one small corner of the cable television world.  —  And Keith Olbermann doesn't deny it has been good for ratings.

The News Media  —  Let's say you were part of a group designing the news media from scratch.  Someone says that it would be a good idea to have competing news media — daily newspapers and weekly magazines, radio and television news programs.  Sounds like a good start.

Democrats' Narrow Vision  —  You can look at the Democrats' national security plan, released last week, as simply a political shield, akin to the upgraded body armor they promise for U.S. troops.  —  The party remains traumatized by the failure of biography to protect Vietnam veterans Max Cleland …

A Plan to End Child Poverty  —  Britain's Initiative Has Helped 700,000 Kids.  Why Don't We Have a Goal, Too?  —  For anyone interested in reducing child poverty, there was heartening bad news out of Britain last month.  In 1999 the Blair government introduced an initiative to end child poverty by 2020 …

Let's have good news from Iraq, please  —  Criticisms of a liberal media bias seem valid  —  Dennis Byrne, a Chicago-area writer and consultant  —  Is The New York Times going bi-polar, or what?  —  The nation's imperial paper recently said it wouldn't engage in off-the-record sit-downs …