White House: Iran's letter not a nuclear fix  —  Ahmadinejad reportedly offers Bush 'new ways out'  —  FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) — The White House acknowledged Monday that it had received a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but said the letter did not address the concerns over Iran's nuclear program.

Murdoch to host fundraiser for Hillary Clinton campaign  —  Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media mogul whose New York Post tabloid savaged Hillary Clinton's initial aspirations to become a US senator for New York, has agreed to host a political fundraiser for her re-election campaign.

Captured AQ Documents: "Every Year Is Worse Than The Previous Year"  —  CENTCOM announced today that they had captured al-Qaeda correspondence in Iraq that discusses the state of the insurgency, especially around Baghdad but also around the entire country.  Far from optimistic …

Rove prepares 20 judges  —  Presidential adviser Karl Rove and White House counsel Harriet Miers yesterday told conservative activists and Senate staff that the administration would soon send the names of more than 20 judicial nominees to Capitol Hill for confirmation.

CIA No. 3, facing bribe probe, quits  —  WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) — CIA Director Porter Goss' No. 3 man at the agency, facing investigation as part of a congressional bribe probe, quit Monday, an official said.  —  Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the CIA's executive director, announced his resignation …

MSNBC reporter: 'I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted'  —  Rush transcript from Countdown with Keith Olbermann / MSNBC.  —  MSNBC's Keith Olbermann: There are stories — possibly apocryphal — from the medieval courts of chancery in England, of lawsuits that took so long …

Moussaoui Fails in Bid to Withdraw 9/11 Guilty Plea  —  Facing transfer to the nation's toughest federal prison, Zacarias Moussaoui served up what may be his final legal surprise yesterday: The al-Qaeda conspirator said he was not involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot after all and wants a new trial to prove it.

After this bloody shambles, a question.  Is Tony Blair his own worst enemy?  —  IT IS said by some that David Bowie created his epic song Life On Mars by writing a series of rhyming couplets, chucking them all up in the air and organising the lyrics in the order that they landed.

Digital Lynch Mob  —  Two weeks ago I wrote about Al Gore's new movie on global warming.  I liked the film.  In response, I instantly got more than 1,000 e-mails, most of them praising Gore, some calling him the usual names and some concluding there was no such thing as global warming, if only because Gore said there was.

African Union Official Is Hacked to Death in Darfur  —  KALMA CAMP, Sudan, May 8 — An African Union official was hacked to death in this vast, squalid camp today after his post, manned by an unarmed team of eight civilian police officers, was overrun and looted by a mob of angry demonstrators.

Lesbians' brains respond differently from those of heterosexual women  —  WASHINGTON — Homosexuals' brains respond differently from those of straight men and women when exposed to sex hormones, but researchers now say the difference is less pronounced in lesbians than in gay men.

Fairfax Police Detective Killed, 2 Others Shot  —  A Fairfax County police detective was killed and two other officers were wounded this afternoon after a gunman opened fire in the parking lot during a shift change at the Sully District police station in Chantilly, law enforcement officials said.

A ratings downer for Fox News  —  Some recent ratings news no doubt gladdened the hearts of Fox News Channel haters.  —  First, Nielsen Media Research reported that Fox News' overall prime-time lineup dropped 17% last month compared with a year ago (MSNBC grew 16% during the same period, while CNN plummeted by 38%).

Nancy Pelosi, Super-Genius  —  The House minority leader answers the GOP's prayers.  —  Elizabeth Dole sounded desperate last week.  Trying to inspire dispirited Republicans, the head of the party's Senatorial Campaign Committee wrote a fund-raising letter urging the GOP faithful to rally …

Experts See a Strategy Behind CIA Shuffle  —  General May Help Intelligence Chief Rein In Rumsfeld and His Military Spy Plans  —  Gen. Michael V. Hayden isn't the first active-duty military officer tapped to lead the CIA — he is in fact the fifth — but many intelligence experts and officers …

We're the Decider  —  Drum provides the regular lament that there ain't enough wonk talk in the blogosphere.  There's more than he gives credit for - there's certainly a lot of reacting to the atrocity-in-Congress-of-the- day - and as Stoller points out it is to a great degree a waste of time.