Iraq's Maliki Forms Cabinet, With Two Posts to Fill (Update1)  —  May 20 (Bloomberg) — Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki announced his cabinet today after more than five months of negotiations during which he and his coalition partners failed to agree on an interior or defense minister.

Why I Spoke Up  —  When I was selected as a student speaker for the New School commencement about two months ago I had no idea that I'd end up on CNN and in Maureen Dowd's column in the New York Times, among other places, when it was all over.  One day after the big event I'm still reeling …

DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?  —  Pat yourselves on the backs, you tolerant liberal bastards.  —  This is hardly  —  the first  —  time  —  liberals  —  have  —  made Asian whore ping-pong ball jokes about me.  —  But Wonkette has now mainstreamed it.  And I'm sick of it.

FOURTH REICH  —  IRAN LAW LABELS JEWS  —  May 20, 2006 — Concerned U.S. officials and Jewish groups yesterday demanded answers from Iran after a shocking report that Tehran's radical leaders passed a Nazi-style law requiring Jews and Christians to wear identifying badges.

Religious Liberals Gain New Visibility  —  The religious left is back.  —  Long overshadowed by the Christian right, religious liberals across a wide swath of denominations are engaged today in their most intensive bout of political organizing and alliance-building since the civil rights …

In House Races, More G.O.P. Seats Look Vulnerable  —  James Votruba, left, president of Northern Kentucky University, and President Bush appearing Friday with Representative Geoff Davis, a Republican of Kentucky, who once seemed headed for an easy victory.  But he and others in the party now appear to be facing stronger challenges.

North American Union to Replace USA?  —  President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada.  This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders policy.

USC's Topless Professor … Like countless women with digital cameras and a bit of moxie, Dr. Diana York Blaine has three topless photos of herself on photo site Flickr, along with 147 other, more pedestrian, shots.  The first, taken at Burning Man, shows the 44-year-old jumping in the air topless …

How to Lose the House  —  PRESIDENT BUSH AND REPUBLICANS are staring political disaster in the face on immigration.  The problem isn't that they might enact a bill allowing illegal immigrants living in America to earn their way to citizenship, inviting foreign workers to come here …

Big Love at the Expo Center  —  I've had some stranger nights covering politics, but not many.  I have never seen a group of people as elated to lose 2-1 as the Ned Lamont supporters nor a winning side as lifeless and frozen-faced as the Lieberman crowd when Friday night's votes were counted.

For soldiers, gratitude and praise from an Iraqi mayor  —  COLORADO SPRINGS - An Iraqi mayor stood before troops lined up on the lawn at Fort Carson on Friday morning and said only two words in English.  —  But those two words brought the crowd to its feet.  —  "Thank you."

Seeking United Latin America, Venezuela's Chávez Is a Divider  —  BOGOTÁ, Colombia, May 19 — As Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, insinuates himself deeper in the politics of his region, something of a backlash is building among his neighbors.

U.S. Should Close Prison in Cuba, U.N. Panel Says  —  UNITED NATIONS, May 19 — An important United Nations panel roundly criticized the United States on Friday for its treatment of terrorism suspects, and called for shutting down the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

THE STRANGE CASE OF KHALED EL-MASRI....Back on New Year's Eve of 2003, a German citizen named Khaled El-Masri had a fight with his wife and decided to blow off steam by getting on a bus and going to Macedonia.  Unfortunately for him, his name was similar to that of an associate of a 9/11 hijacker …

Inside Iraq's hidden war  —  As a new 'national unity' government prepares to take power in Baghdad, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports from behind the lines of a vicious sectarian conflict rapidly spiralling towards civil war  —  Some men hold paper tissues under their noses; others wrap their kuffiya ends around their mouths.