1M Immigrants Skip Work for Demonstration  —  LOS ANGELES (AP) - More than 1 million mostly Hispanic immigrants and their supporters skipped work and took to the streets Monday, flexing their economic muscle in a nationwide boycott that succeeded in slowing or shutting many farms, factories, markets and restaurants.

Poll: Gas Prices, Iraq Weigh Down Bush  —  (CBS) With gas prices sky-high and no end of the Iraq war in sight, President George W. Bush's approval rating hits an all-time low in a new CBS News poll.  —  Only 33 percent approve of his job performance, Mr. Bush's lowest approval rating yet in CBS News polls.

MSNBC confirms: Outed CIA agent was working on Iran  —  On Chris Matthews' Hardball Monday evening, just moments ago, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster confirmed what RAW STORY first reported in February: that outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed.

Hostile Commentary and Net Neutrality  —  Reading lots of comments on my last post, I guess my point got made: the culture and discourse of the Internet is not what you would teach kids at the dinner table — unless you kept a bar of soap handy.  —  On net neutrality, I feel like screaming "puh-leeeze."

Ideals Collide as Vatican Rethinks Condom Ban  —  ROME, May 1 — Even at the Vatican, not all sacred beliefs are absolute: Thou shalt not kill, but war can be just.  Now, behind the quiet walls, a clash is shaping up involving two poles of near certainty: the church's long-held ban on condoms and its advocacy of human life.

Republicans Drop a Tax Plan After Businesses Protest  —  WASHINGTON, May 1 — Senate Republicans on Monday hurriedly abandoned a broad tax proposal opposed by the oil industry and business leaders, another sign of their struggle to come up with an acceptable political and legislative answer to high gasoline prices.

Arrogance defined by McCain  —  The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner  —  WASHINGTON - James Madison, the prime mover behind the U.S. Constitution, and his colleagues among the Founders rightly feared arrogant men like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., so they limited the central government to a few, well-defined powers.

SOMETHING MISSING?:  —  I attended the Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C., yesterday.  It was quite well-executed, and at turns very moving.  (Unlike most progressive rallies these days—an antiwar rally I saw in 2004, for example, was inundated with signs against Israel, globalization …

THE PICTURES YOU WON'T SEE  —  Compare the NYTimes' white-washed May Day photo section with these candid shots of yesterday's National Day to Hate the Yanquis:  —  Protest Warrior Chicago exposed ugly, American flag-trashing advocates...  And a Che-approved, border-sabotaging message...

U.S.: Ramadi battle kills 100-plus insurgents  —  Iraq president eyes deal for armed groups to join political process  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — U.S. and Iraqi troops killed more than 100 insurgents last week in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a U.S. Army officer said Monday.

White Guilt and the Western Past  —  Why is America so delicate with the enemy?  —  There is something rather odd in the way America has come to fight its wars since World War II.  —  For one thing, it is now unimaginable that we would use anything approaching the full measure of our military power …

ABOUT SATURDAY NIGHT...:  —  I'm a big Stephen Colbert fan, a huge Bush detractor, and I think the White House press corps has been out to lunch for much of the last five years.  (Though, unlike many in the blogosphere, I don't think that's because White House reporters are lazy or stupid.)