Letter Shows Iran's President Seeking Bond  —  UNITED NATIONS - With his 18-page letter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered President Bush a history lesson, philosophy lecture and religious sermon laced with references to Jesus Christ.  —  The document gives rare insight …

Bush's Public Approval at New Low Point  —  Americans have a bleaker view of the country's direction than at any time in more than two decades, and sharp disapproval of President Bush's handling of gasoline prices has combined with intensified unhappiness about Iraq to create a grim political environment …

GOP Reaches Deal on Tax Cuts  —  $70 Billion Measure Would Extend Breaks  —  House and Senate Republican negotiators reached a final agreement yesterday on a five-year, nearly $70 billion tax package that extends President Bush's deep cuts to tax rates on dividends and capital gains …

A Tale of Two Judges  —  New skirmishes in the judicial nomination wars are brewing.  But their merits aren't the same.  —  SENATE REPUBLICAN leaders have decided to reignite the judicial nomination wars.  The reason is politics.  Majority Leader Bill Frist's strategy, with elections coming …

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: "I Really Wonder What You Are Doing Here at Harvard"  —  After listening to Ayaan Hirsi Ali's talk at Harvard JFK's School of Government this afternoon, I went up to shake her hand and let her know much I admired her.  She is physically a slight woman.  How can it be that such a small woman is so feared?

The Year of the Black Republican?  —  GOP Targets Democratic Constituency in 3 High-Profile Races  —  COLUMBUS, Ohio — When J. Kenneth Blackwell took the stage here on May 2 to claim the Republican nomination for governor, he became something more than his party's standard-bearer in a bellwether state.

DHS: DENY, HEDGE, SPIN  —  The Customs and Border Protection agency at DHS has issued a statement, much-ballyhooed by blind Bush supporters, which calls the Inland Valley Bulletin's story on the Border Patrol/Minutemen/Mexican government "inaccurate."  Let's examine the full bluster:

Protein Wisdom or Dutch Courage?  —  I'm sensing a wee bit of a projection epidemic going on these days.  Richard Cohen talks about a "they" who supported the war as if he wasn't one of them, Debbie "adios, motherf**kers" Howell wants to lecture liberal bloggers on civil discourse …

Study: 7 of 10 Journalists Surveyed Accused of Bias in Past Year  —  NEW YORK More than half of newspaper journalists in a recent survey believe an unethical or unprofessional incident occurred in their newsroom within the past five years, while seven out of 10 said they had been accused …

CUBA ON UN RIGHTS BOARD  —  Cuba has secured a spot on the new United Nations human rights council, the board that replaced a previous one, which was intended to keep countries like Zimbabwe and Burma off these boards.  —  Cuba is the biggest human rights violator in the hemisphere.

Ex-NSA Chief Assails Bush Taps  —  NEW YORK — Former National Security Agency director Bobby Ray Inman lashed out at the Bush administration Monday night over its continued use of warrantless domestic wiretaps, making him one of the highest-ranking former intelligence officials to criticize the program in public, analysts say.

Iraq War Is Drawing Less Support Than Vietnam Did at Same Stage  —  May 9 (Bloomberg) — Three years into major combat in Vietnam, 28,500 U.S. service members had perished, millions of families were anxious about the military draft and antiwar protests had spread to dozens of college campuses.