A President All Alone  —  Two weeks earlier on Capitol Hill, there was a groundswell of Republican demands — public and private — that President Bush pardon Scooter Libby.  Last week, as Alberto Gonzales came under withering Democratic fire, there were no public GOP declarations …

Iran Feels Pinch As Major Banks Curtail Business  —  More than 40 major international banks and financial institutions have either cut off or cut back business with the Iranian government or private sector as a result of a quiet campaign launched by the Treasury and State departments last September …

24% Consider Al Gore Global Warming Expert  —  Former Vice President Al Gore (D) received a warm welcome on Capitol Hill last week for his testimony on the environment and Global Warming.  However, while he is now an Academy Award winner and celebrity activist, just 24% of Americans consider Gore an expert on Global Warming.

GSA Chief Is Accused of Playing Politics  —  Doan Denies 'Improper' Use of Agency for GOP  —  Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier …

Earmark Cover-Up  —  The Congressional Research Service is helping its masters hide wasteful spending.  —  Nothing highlighted Congress's spending problem in last year's election more than earmarks, the special projects like Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" that members drop …

Hulk Hogan of legal world volunteers to go up against imams  —  I wrote last week about the "flying imams"' federal lawsuit, which sets a new low in efforts to intimidate passengers concerned about air travel safety.  Buried in Paragraph 21 of the imams' complaint is a legal landmine …

Wallpaper 03/26/07  —  The Black Horse pub, in Hampshire  —  Oustanding food.  Don't remember the beer—in those days (ie. when this pic was taken, in 1999), I hadn't yet developed a taste for decent bitter, so I might just have ordered the mass-produced stuff like John Smith or Courage.

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human  —  Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.  —  The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect …

The Washington Back Channel  —  I. So there I sat, watching the United States government in all its majesty dragging into court the American press (in all its piety), forcing reporters to betray confidences, rifling their files and notebooks, making them swear to their confused memories …

Gore's Faith Is Bad Science  —  Al Gore likes to present himself as a tribune of science, warning the world of imminent danger.  But he is more like an Old Testament prophet, calling on us to bewail our wrongful conduct and to go and sin no more.  —  He starts off with the science.

A Fresh Face Vows to Revive the G.O.P.  —  Amid the sea of square jaws and swept-back gray hair in Congress, Representative Adam H. Putnam, a tousled redhead whose cherubic appearance still causes Capitol police to stop him occasionally, appears a bit out of place.

N.Y. Mayor Is Eyeing '08, Observers Say  —  New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, has told friends more than once that his definition of good financial planning is making sure the check to the undertaker bounces when it's finally time to go.

Hagel says Bush too dismissive of Congress on Iraq  —  Source: Reuters  —  President George W. Bush should stop being dismissive of opposition in Congress to the Iraq war and it is time that lawmakers set boundaries for U.S. involvement, a Republican senator said on Sunday.