Bauer Replaces McClellan as Press Secretary  —  What better way to reign in the White House Press Corps than to install Jack Bauer as Press Secretary?  Let's see if David Gregory has the guts to ask Jack Bauer about "sloppy seconds".  Imagine Jack Bauer trying to sit still while Helen Thomas goes on one of her diatribes.

The Worst President in History?  —  One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush  —  George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace.  Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around …

ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Key Evidence Supports Alibi in Potential Rape Defense for One Indicted Duke Player  —  Reade Seligmann Was At Party, But Has An Alibi and Taxi Driver Witness and a Call to Girlfriend  —  April 19, 2006 — On Monday, they were indicted for allegedly raping and kidnapping a 27-year-old woman at an off-campus party.

CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs  —  President Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did, senior intelligence officials said.  —  The new Open Source Center (OSC) …

Trying To Get Muckraker's Papers, Did FBI Trick Widow?  —  This morning's newspapers are ablaze with the outrageous news that the FBI was trying to get its hands on over 200 boxes of files once belonging to legendary investigative journalist Jack Anderson.  —  What the papers didn't report …

Hamiltonian Democrats  —  It's come to this: The chief project to restate Democratic economics for our time was unveiled a couple of weeks ago, and it's named after the father of American conservatism, Alexander Hamilton.  —  Necessarily, the authors of the Hamilton Project preface …

Yahoo ! implicated in third cyberdissident trial  —  US company's collaboration with Chinese courts highlighted in Jiang Lijun case  —  Reporters Without Borders has obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 …

Bravo  —  And bravo again.  —  Whether you care for Michelle Malkin's political positions or not, this crusade to try to intimidate her and her family—a crusade being waged by mostly anonymous cowards who no person in the blogosphere, left OR right, should encourage or countenance—is both disgraceful and, in the long run, dangerous.

Tilting at Windmills  —  To my eye, they are lovely: Graceful, delicate, white against green grass and a blue sky.  Last summer my children and I stopped specially to watch a group of them, wheels turning in the breeze.  —  But to those who dislike them, the modern wind turbine is worse than ugly.

U.S. Records Drastic Decline in Death Rate  —  ATLANTA - In what appears to be an amazing success for American medicine, preliminary government figures released Wednesday showed that the annual number of deaths in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004 — the biggest decline in nearly 70 years.

Party in Search of a Notion  —  From our May issue: The opportunity before the Democrats is far bigger than a few House and Senate seats if they can recognize — and seize — this unique historical moment.  —  The Democrats are feeling upbeat these days, and why not?

A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy  —  IN its March 23rd issue the London Review of Books, a respected British journal, published an essay titled "The Israel Lobby."  The authors are two distinguished American academics (Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago) …

Kill us, but you won't enslave us.  —  Last week we stopped writing for a while and we apologized to our readers saying that we lost a close friend but we didn't want to give more details as we were overwhelmed by an exceptional situation and a huge shock.  We also were afraid from writing …

Wombs for Rent, Cheap  —  Surrogate mothers in India are a bargain for foreigners, and the women reap a bonanza.  But some observers say they pay a price.  —  ANAND, India — As temp jobs go, Saroj Mehli has landed what she feels is a pretty sweet deal.  It's a nine-month gig …

Gulp!  Try $4.50!  —  Brooklyn gas station floors it  —  With pump prices rising fast, a gas station under the Brooklyn Bridge took a quantum leap into outrageousness - charging a jaw-dropping $4.50 a gallon!  —  That's what the Gulf Station on Old Fulton St. in Brooklyn Heights …