Critics Want Dutch Lawmaker Deported  —  AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch legislator who has championed the rights of Muslim women, is returning from a book tour to a firestorm for lying on her asylum application when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage.

Hey Democrats, Why Win?  —  DEMOCRATS are all but breaking out the Champagne.  Republicans are divided and disheartened; President Bush's poll numbers seem to be in free fall.  Many Democrats are talking not only about victory in November but about what they will do once Congress is in their hands.

SNL: If Al Gore were President  —  SNL: If Al Gore were President  —  "Saturday Night Live," opened their show tonight with Al Gore addressing the nation as if he was the President of the United States.  Gore was focused and quite funny in this entertaining spoof of the current administration and their long range of failures.

McCain Reconnects With Liberty University  —  Senator May Have an Eye Toward 2008 as He Reaches Out to Religious Conservatives  —  LYNCHBURG, Va., May 13 — Six years after labeling the Rev. Jerry Falwell one of the political "agents of intolerance," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) …

Frank Rich in 'NYT' Defends Newspapers, Rips 'Treason' in Washington  —  NEW YORK In his Sunday opinion column for The New York Times, Frank Rich, who returned from book leave just last week, shook off the cobwebs to launch a vigorous defense of newspapers — and an attack on the real "traitors," including top officials.

To connect the dots, you have to see the dots  —  Here are two news stories from the end of last week.  The first one you may have heard about.  As "The Today Show's" Matt Lauer put it:  —  "Does the government have your number?  This morning a shocking new report that the National Security Agency …

Report: Mentally ill troops forced into combat  —  Military not following own rules on deployment, paper says  —  HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) — U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness …

BACK FROM IRAQ  —  Bad stuff happened in Iraq, stuff Adam Reuter doesn't want to talk about.  Not with his friends, not with the line cooks in the burger joint where he worked when he first came home or the tenants in the apartment complex he manages now.  —  He doesn't even want to talk …

Despite Political Pressure to Scale Back, Logistics Are Pinning Down U.S. in Iraq  —  WASHINGTON, May 13 — Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld regularly says he wants major troop withdrawals from Iraq, if possible this year.  But he rarely mentions the daunting challenges beyond …

Jail riots follow Brazil attacks  —  Riots have broken out in 18 prisons in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo after a wave of attacks on the streets left at least 30 people dead.  —  State officials said the riots were organised by the same criminal faction - the First Command of the Capital (PCC) - that carried out the attacks.

Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress  —  Friends Say McCarthy Learned of Denials About Detainees' Treatment  —  A senior CIA official, meeting with Senate staff in a secure room of the Capitol last June, promised repeatedly that the agency did not violate or seek to violate …

ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT — Drezner, McArdle, even Bainbridge — so I'll take the Atrios/Drum "are you a liberal" test, too.  The questions (in bold) and my answers appear below:  —  1) Repeal the estate tax repeal: I've never cared much about the Estate Tax, one way or another.  Score me a weak no.

Laura Bush doesn't believe bad polls  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Laura Bush said on Sunday she does not believe opinion polls showing her husband's approval ratings at record low levels.  —  Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Laura Bush said she did not think people were losing confidence …

Avian Flu Wanes in Asian Nations It First Hit Hard  —  Even as it crops up in the far corners of Europe and Africa, the virulent bird flu that raised fears of a human pandemic has been largely snuffed out in the parts of Southeast Asia where it claimed its first and most numerous victims.

Bush's Upcoming Speech On Illegal Immigration  —  On Monday at 8 PM EST, President Bush is scheduled to give a major address on illegal immigration, undoubtedly because he's hoping to stop the alarming drop in his approval rating that his soft stance on "undocumented workers" has led to over the past few weeks.