Why Al Qaeda Is Retreating From Iraq  —  April 30, 2006: Despite the many brickbats of the media, al Qaeda has been defeated in Iraq, and is now retreating to lick its wounds where it can.  If it can.  Just over four and a half years, al Qaeda has gone from being the dominant terrorist group …

Sharp Reaction to G.O.P. Plan on Gas Rebate  —  WASHINGTON, April 30 — The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.  —  Aides for several Republican …

With Calls for Boycott by Immigrants, Employers Gird for Unknown  —  Leading up to a new wave of immigration demonstrations around the country set for today, employers met with workers, posted letters on bulletin boards and in employee lunchrooms, and braced for the day ahead.

Powell Forces Rice to Defend Iraq Planning  —  WASHINGTON - Just back from Baghdad and eager to discuss promising developments, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice found herself knocked off message Sunday, forced to defend prewar planning and troop levels against an unlikely critic …

When guys on Capitol Hill look like Beavis, Butthead  —  So there I was, banging on the defenseless little television beside my desk.  So outrageous was the grotesque humor on the small screen that I thought the cleaning crew had flipped over to the Comedy Channel.

Bush challenges hundreds of laws  —  President cites powers of his office  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts …

Glenn Reynolds on Hiltzik's Sock Puppets: He Agrees With Me!  —  I have argued for a couple of weeks now that Michael Hiltzik's use of pseudonyms as sock puppets was embarrassing and silly, but not something that should get him disciplined by the Los Angeles Times — beyond, perhaps, a temporary suspension of his blog.

Blog Readers Unmasked  —  Think the people who while away their hours reading and commenting on political blogs are slovenly twenty-somethings with nothing better to do?  —  Think again, said a survey last week by Blogads, a company that many leading political blogs have used for ad placements.

Divisions Cast Aside in Cry for Darfur  —  Clutching signs that read "Never Again," thousands of protesters from across religious and political divides descended on the Mall yesterday along with celebrities and politicians to urge President Bush to take stronger measures to end the violence …

UN is like the Twilight Zone, says Bolton  —  In his first interview with a British newspaper, America's ambassador to the United Nations tells Alec Russell why it is in dire need of reform  —  John Bolton was in his element.  America's famously blunt UN ambassador and hundreds …

Back on the Stand  —  Rove's latest trip to the grand jury leaves his fate in the Plame leak case as mysterious as ever.  —  May 8, 2006 issue - It was August 2004, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was zeroing in on I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby as the leaker in the Valerie Plame case.

HARVARD LOVES A THUG  —  May 1, 2006 — HARVARD University has a bizarre idea of how to advance the education of its grads: Instruct them to bow down to North Ko rea's paranoid dictators and show proper "respect" for the Axis of Evil.  —  It's the ultimate in radical Stalinist chic …

FEATURE-Pakistani jihadi videos thrive on execution scenes  —  ISLAMABAD, April 30 (Reuters) - The movie salesman was selling jihad to the converted.  —  The buyers thronging his stall on the sidelines of a late-night rally in the Pakistani capital belonged to a crowd organised by a sectarian Sunni Muslim group.

The Rove Indictment Stories  —  During the past week TO has published 2 stories by Jason Leopold.  The first titled, "Target Letter Drives Rove Back to Grand Jury" and the second, "Fitzgerald to Seek Indictment of Rove".  —  As is often the case when a big story breaks, heads turn and questions are asked.

Billions wasted in Iraq, says US audit  —  A US congressional inspection team set up to monitor reconstruction in Iraq today publishes a scathing report of failures by contractors, mainly from the US, to carry out projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Bush team imposes thick veil of secrecy  —  WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration has dramatically accelerated the classification of information as "top secret" or "confidential," one office is refusing to report on its annual activity in classifying documents: the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

A Sage in Christendom  —  A personal tribute to Bernard Lewis.  —  Bernard Lewis came to the New World in the nick of time.  Fate—or, more appropriately, history—decreed his American journey and the direction it would take.  The historian, who will turn 90 in a handful of days …