Tension Over Press Leaks  —  Government Has a Right to Keep Secrets — but Also a Duty to Be More Open  —  Two events in the past week have thrown the spotlight on the troubled relationship between the Bush administration and the news media, raising questions that are worrisome on both sides of the divide.

The Jesus cartoons  —  Another American university tackles free speech, and everyone involved embarrasses themselves — except the conservatives.  A parable for our times.  —  World Net Daily broke the news yesterday that a far-left student newspaper at the University of Oregon — called …

United 93  —  The filmmakers got it right.  —  The calendar says it's April 25, 2006.  At noon, my wife, Peggy, and I are walking around Battery Park—near the Tribeca area—in New York.  It is our first time.  The flowers are blooming; kids are fishing; people boarding the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

AN ATTACK ON THE ROTC  —  The anti-military punks are at it again.  Reader Nora.  A. e-mailed me photos of vandalism yesterday at UNC-Chapel Hill's ROTC armory taken by her son, an ROTC cadet on campus:  —  This has got to stop.  (Hat tip: Sister Toldjah) Via the Raleigh News and Observer:

MSNBC reports Rove believes he is in legal jeopardy  —  Karl Rove has described his three and a half hour meeting with a grand jury as grueling, and is more worried about being prosecuted than ever, MSNBC is reporting.  —  RAW STORY has also learned that an MSNBC report tonight will reveal …

Silencing The Squeaky Wheels  —  The CIA has imposed new and tighter restrictions on the books, articles, and opinion pieces published by former employees who are still contractors with the intelligence agency.  According to several former CIA officials affected by the new policy …

Kennedy faces fight on Cape Wind  —  Key lawmakers oppose his bid to block project  —  WASHINGTON — As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy's bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project …

Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks  —  Under proposal, every U.S. taxpayer would get one  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

Exxon Quarterly Profit 5th Highest Ever  —  Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, reported Thursday the fifth highest quarterly profit for any public company in history, posting gains from higher oil prices that were likely to stoke the furor over outsized oil company earnings.

Prosecutors May Widen Congressional-Bribe Case  —  Cunningham Is Suspected  —  Of Asking for Prostitutes;  —  Were Others Involved?  —  Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes …

Anatomy of the "thought" process of Bush defenders  —  (updated below with Glenn Reynolds & Hugh Hewitt book figures - updated again)  —  As much as anything else, Bush defenders are characterized by an increasingly absolutist refusal to recognize any facts which conflict with their political desires …

Breaking: Wyden Leading Filibuster on Oil Tax Breaks  —  Senator Wyden is currently holding the floor in filibuster, in order to gain a vote on his amendment to eliminate royalty relief (ie subsidies) for oil companies whenever the price of a barrel exceeds [$50] $55.

Pin Prick  —  Senator George Allen is the only person in Virginia who wears cowboy boots.  It's a warm and bright spring day in the swampy southeastern Virginia town of Wakefield, site of the annual Virginia political fest known as Shad Planking.  Once a whites-only event where state Democrats picked …

Religion may hinder Romney in '08  —  Mitt Romney, in his last nine months as governor of Massachusetts, was in Washington Tuesday to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an early stage of his 2008 presidential campaign.  To a growing number of Republican activists, he looks like the party's best bet.

Going a Short Way to Make a Point  —  Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.  —  Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.  —  "Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president …

Joe Klein's Turnip Day  —  Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid, by Joe Klein.  Doubleday, 256 pages, $23.95.  —  Joe Klein is the flower of American political journalism, a sharp raconteur who shows traces of the gonzo style that was in vogue …