Backup Strategy Missing For Iraq  —  Outside Experts, Not White House, Discuss Options  —  During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq.

'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'  —  Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings.  He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all.  He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well.

Basra Raid Finds Dozens Detained by Iraq Spy Unit  —  Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, and British officials said they discovered about 30 prisoners, some showing signs of torture.

Could 650,000 Iraqis really have died because of the invasion?  —  The statistics made headlines all over the world when they were published in The Lancet in October last year.  More than 650,000 Iraqis - one in 40 of the population - had died as a result of the American-led invasion in 2003.

Terrorists Take Recruitment Efforts Online  —  Scott Pelley On The Use Of The Internet To Recruit Jihadists  —  (CBS) Recently the Bush administration acknowledged that al Qaeda is reorganized and gaining strength.  As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, that's been possible …

CPAC: The Unauthorized Documentary  —  See seven minutes of raw, unexpurgated right-wing action courtesy of VideoNation:  —  Michelle Malkin goes unhinged and launches a hysterical tirade into the lens of my camera.  I ask Ann "John Edwards is a Faggot" Coulter why she isn't the same person on Sunday morning as on Saturday night.

Senator Sought Dismissal of New Mexico Prosecutor  —  Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, said Sunday that he had urged the Justice Department to dismiss the state's top federal prosecutor, who in December was one of eight United States attorneys ousted from their jobs.

Edwards Sends Video to 70,000 Iowans  —  John Edwards is mailing DVDs to more than 70,000 Iowa households this week, an aide said, introducing the audience of likely caucus-goers to his plan for universal health care with a combination of passion, wonkiness, and implicit comparison with his rivals.

Antiwar Caucus Wants to Be Heard Now  —  About a dozen members of the Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus gathered on a sunny day last summer on the terrace outside the Capitol for a news conference.  The only problem: no reporters showed up.  —  The members of the group …

Bloomberg: The Waiting Game  —  His billions allow Mayor Mike to enter the '08 race late.  —  NYC-Style Showdown?  Although he has not announced plans to run for president, New York City Mayor Bloomberg (speaking with a fellow commuter on the subway) has considered running as an independent in 2008

Obama and Clinton Mark Civil Rights Struggle  —  Evoking the passions and rivalries of the civil rights era, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton made deeply personal appeals to voters in the sanctuaries of black churches here today and then joined former President Bill Clinton …

Is Israel Falling Apart?  —  Mr. Wahrman is Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and Director of the Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the Indiana University History Department (adjunct in English, Jewish Studies, Cultural Studies).  —  Foreign observers of Israel tend to focus so intently …

Rebellious Diplomat Finds Work as Envoy of the Voiceless  —  GUILT is not a word that most diplomats would choose to sum up their careers, but Carne Ross uses just that as he looks back at much of his work over 15 years.  Guilt, frustration and anger.  —  Until about two years ago …

Coulter under fire for anti-gay slur … WASHINGTON (CNN) — Prominent politicians from both parties and a gay-rights group on Saturday condemned right-wing commentator Ann Coulter for her reference Friday to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."

GENERATION TRAP....If you haven't been following the ongoing brawl between Time columnist Joe Klein and the liberal blogosphere, it's probably too late to bring you completely up to speed.  Let's just say that the blogosphere thinks Klein is a wanker and Klein returns the compliment in full.

New Orleans sues US army corps for $77bn over Katrina  —  New Orleans has filed a claim for $77bn (£40bn) in damages against the US army corps of engineers for building levees incapable of withstanding Hurricane Katrina, leading to the devastation of large parts of the city.