Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda  —  Party Plans Probes Of Administration If It Wins the House  —  Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage …

In a Dentist Shortage, British (Ouch) Do It Themselves  —  George Glasper, 81, at the Dental Access Center in Rochdale.  It gives emergency care but is always swamped.  —  ROCHDALE, England, May 2 — "I snapped it out myself," said William Kelly, 43, describing his most recent dental procedure …

Israel foils plot to kill Palestinian president  —  A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence.  —  Hamas's military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said.

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing  —  EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq's unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country's top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.  —  Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until …

Pollster Suggests Bush Moves Might Be Too Little, Too Late  —  The recent White House shake-up was an attempt to jump-start the administration and boost President Bush's rock-bottom approval ratings, but have those efforts come too late to salvage the presidency?  A prominent GOP pollster thinks that may be the case.

Poll: More Drivers Feel Pinch at the Pump  —  WASHINGTON - High pump prices are pinching the pocketbooks of seven in 10 Americans, a financial hardship that more middle- and higher-income drivers say they are beginning to feel, an AP-Ipsos poll found.  —  With gasoline prices topping $3 …

Hands Off  —  There is a strange post by Eugene Volokh about "involuntary sexual arousal and touching" here, at the Volokh Conspiracy.  It elicited a very strong negative reaction from Belle Waring, which is posted here, at Crooked Timber.  Volokh's theory seems to be that people …

Iraqis, British Troops Spar After Crash  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq — A British military helicopter apparently was hit by a missile Saturday and crashed in Basra, triggering a confrontation in which jubilant Iraqis pelted British troops with stones, hurled firebombs and shouted slogans in support of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric.

Islamic scholars to issue pro-Hamas fatwa  —  DOHA (AFP) - Islamic scholars are to meet in Doha next week to draw up a fatwa, or religious edict, obliging the Muslim faithful to help the internationally isolated Palestinian government headed by Hamas.  —  Influential cleric Yussef al-Qardawi …

If Ray McGovern Speaks 'Truth to Power' Why the Lie About WMD?  —  While CNN was propping up Ray McGovern as the new "Cindy Sheehan with facial hair", Ray was spewing out anti-Semitic drivel over at MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson.  —  Ray McGovern delivers mock indictments through a fence to guards at the White House.

More Questions Surface in the Wake of a Congressman's Bribery Case  —  WASHINGTON, May 6 — A federal investigation into one congressman's bribe-taking last year has produced a second round of inquiries into the actions of officials at the C.I.A. and the Homeland Security Department and of members …

Late Nite FDL: "Personnel is Policy:" It's Time for Regime Change  —  It's time for regime change in Washington.  —  In 1961, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower said: … Eisenhower's famous warning is as salient today as ever, but it is incomplete.  We live in a media age unlike any Eisenhower ever contemplated.

With Smear Scandal, France Near Paralysis  —  PARIS — When French criminal investigators finish their probe of the smear, who was smeared and who did the smearing may be little more than a footnote.  —  A burgeoning political scandal of alleged dirty tricks involving the cabinet's …

Lawmakers Want More Data on Contracting Out Intelligence  —  Congress is taking its first steps to oversee the Defense Department's rapidly growing activities in the foreign and domestic intelligence fields, focusing also on the growing practice of contracting out intelligence analysis to former military personnel.

Targeted Killings Surge in Baghdad  —  Nearly 4,000 civilian deaths, many of them Sunni Arabs slain execution-style, were recorded in the first three months of the year.  —  BAGHDAD — More Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad during the first three months of this year than at any time since …

Chavez Wants Vote on Governing Until '31  —  CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years.  —  Speaking at a stadium packed with supporters in central Lara state …

Blasts at 2 Chinese Internet Cafes Kill 2  —  BEIJING — Explosions rocked two Internet cafes in central China, killing two people, injuring four and leaving the premises spattered with blood and broken glass, a local official and state media said Saturday.  —  Authorities refused to say if bombs …

Libby Loses Bid for Documents in CIA Case  —  WASHINGTON - A federal judge refused on Friday to give I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby access to a wide range of information from several government agencies, saying he would not allow the former White House aide's trial in the CIA leak case to become a debate over the war in Iraq.