U.S. Report to Fault F.B.I. on Subpoenas  —  The Justice Department's inspector general has prepared a scathing report criticizing how the F.B.I. uses a form of administrative subpoena to obtain thousands of telephone, business and financial records without prior judicial approval.

US sends spies into Pakistan to kill bin Laden  —  By Toby Harnden in Washington and Thomas Coghlan in Helmand  —  America is stepping up its hunt for Osama bin Laden by dispatching additional CIA operatives and paramilitary officers to Pakistan to kill or capture the al-Qa'eda leader.

Another Hollywood star steps forward for GOP  —  Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) is contacting powerbrokers in the Republican Party to build support for a 2008 presidential campaign by his one-time protégé, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.).

Gingrich had affair during Clinton probe  —  WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

Fitzgerald's Folly  —  There are lies and there are memory lapses.  Bill Clinton denied under oath having sex with Monica Lewinsky.  Unless you're Wilt Chamberlain, sex is not the kind of thing you forget easily.  Sandy Berger denied stuffing classified documents in his pants …

Hagel expected to declare '08 bid  —  Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, the Senate Republican most outspoken in opposition to President Bush's March 2003 decision to invade Iraq, is expected to announce Monday that he will make a bid for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

New U.S. Commander in Iraq Won't Rule Out Need for Added Troops  —  The new American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned Thursday that American troops here faced a long road ahead and left open the possibility of calling in even more soldiers as he described the difficult task of calming the country.

Good News Bad News  —  Hope lost, hope maintained, dreams and longing on International Women's Day in Baghdad.  —  It's time for the news:  —  Bad news, Dem Cong war plan still calls for surrender.  Good news, they probably won't be able to agree on this either.  "Son of Slow-Bleed" if you will.

Candidate Clinton, Embracing the Trite and the True  —  Are you in it to win?  Would you regard civil rights as the gift that keeps on giving?  Do you believe in the American Dream, stupid?  —  If you answered yes to any of the above, you might consider supporting Hillary Clinton …

Dick Cheney in Twilight  —  George Bush's sense of humor has always run more to frat-house gag than art-house irony, so he may not have appreciated the poetic justice any more than the legal justice on display in the Libby verdict.  —  Or, to be more precise, the Cheney verdict.

THE BATTLE EPIC 300.  —  If 300, the new battle epic based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, had been made in Germany in the mid-1930s, it would be studied today alongside The Eternal Jew as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war.

Shadegg Introduces Bill Requiring Congress to Cite Constitutional Authority  —  Shadegg- "The Enumerated Powers Act would hold Congress accountable for its actions."  —  Yesterday, Congressman John Shadegg reintroduced the Enumerated Powers Act, a bill that highlights the importance …

Congress's Ratings Climb as Activist Agenda Gains  —  CONGRESS REBOUNDS in public esteem but has far to go.  —  Approval of U.S. lawmakers' performance rises to 31%, doubled since October, yet 53% disapprove in latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll (see the results).