Voices From Iraq 2007: Ebbing Hope in a Landscape of Loss  —  National Survey of Iraq  —  A new national survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq: widespread violence, torn lives, displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever starker sectarian chasm …

Tony Snow 'Defensive' On Iraq Anniversary, Tells CNN's Ed Henry To 'Zip It'  —  President Bush will address the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion in a speech today at the White House.  —  During this morning's press gaggle, Tony Snow told reporters that Bush will use the speech to attack …

Republicans and U.S. attorneys — then and now  —  The fundamental difference between (a) a new administration replacing all U.S. attorneys (as multiple Presidents have done — including Clinton, Reagan and even Bush 41) and (b) cherry-picking ones for firing in the middle of an administration, has been amply documented.

In hospital  —  As earlier mentioned in the comments section, my mother is in the hospital.  The doctor says that right now they're just making her comfortable.  She's sedated, with painkillers among other things.  Lungs collapsed so right now we just want to make sure she has dignity and is not in pain.

Pelosi calls for new attorney general  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) added her voice to the growing chorus of discontent over the Justice Department's firing of eight federal prosecutors, saying today, "I believe we need a new attorney general.''  —  In a meeting with The Chicago …

Soldier: Taunts lead to shooting of student  —  Spc. Craig Perkins' uniform made him a target in Baghdad — and, he believes, again in an apartment complex near Clarkston.  —  Perkins, who returned last summer after almost a year's duty in Iraq, shot a man outside his apartment March 9 …

John McCain Rips the Club For Growth  —  John McCain has taken some hits for not attending certain conservative events.  With CPAC, he says it was a simple schedueling conflict.  But he will not be speaking at the upcoming conservative Club For Growth meeting either.  Why not?

Military Is Ill-Prepared For Other Conflicts  —  Four years after the invasion of Iraq, the high and growing demand for U.S. troops there and in Afghanistan has left ground forces in the United States short of the training, personnel and equipment that would be vital to fight …

Study finds one-third in D.C. illiterate  —  WASHINGTON - About one-third of the people living in the national's capital are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally, according to a report on the District of Columbia.  —  Adults are considered functionally illiterate …

Obama the 'Magic Negro'  —  The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.  —  AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president.

A New Power Rises in Iraq  —  ERBIL, IRAQ - What a difference a year makes.  —  Fourteen months ago I flew to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, from Beirut, Lebanon, on the dubiously named Flying Carpet Airlines.  Flying Carpet's entire fleet is one small noisy plane with propellers, cramped seats, and thin cabin pressure.

Presidential candidate bungles speech in Miami  —  People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami.  —  But when he mistakenly associated Fidel …

"I haven't opened up a law review in years.  No one speaks of them.  No one relies on them."  —  So says Second Circuit Judge Dennis G. Jacobs, quoted by Adam Liptak.  (TimesSelect.)  Liptak: … Many law professors seem to think they are under no obligation to say anything useful or to say anything well.

News media and politics: an uneasy union  —  Some prominent journalists have mates who work for a presidential candidate.  They approach this potential conflict in different ways.  —  Some of America's most prominent political journalists are, quite literally, wedded to the 2008 presidential race …

The Blame-America-First Crowd  —  "They always blame America first."  That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, describing the "San Francisco Democrats" in 1984.  But it could be said about a lot of Americans, especially highly educated Americans, today.  —  In their assessment of what is going on in the world …