Americans offered 'aggressive patrols' in Iranian airspace  —  The US offered to take military action on behalf of the 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran, including buzzing Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions with warplanes, the Guardian has learned.

McCain to Stake Bid On Need to Win in Iraq  —  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a high-profile effort next week to convince Americans that the Iraq war is winnable, embracing the unpopular conflict with renewed vigor as he attempts to reignite his stalling bid for the presidency.

Deputies to a U.S. Attorney Step Down  —  Rachel K. Paulose's swearing in on March 9 as the United States attorney in Minneapolis stirred debate in local legal circles because of the ceremonial trappings, including a performance by a municipal choir and a Marine Corps color guard …

MEDIA BIAS: HOW IT WORKS  —  Sometimes media bias is blatant and grotesque; it can extend to flat misrepresentations, use of fake documents, etc.  Much more often, it is relatively subtle, as reporters push their version of a story in small ways, day after day.  Here is a textbook example, via Power Line News.

Democrats' Rise Has Pluses, Say G.O.P. Centrists  —  If the Democratic ascendance on Capitol Hill was supposed to usher in dark days for Republicans, it is hard to tell from talking to moderate ones like Mike Ferguson, who represents a suburban district in central New Jersey.

Blue America: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-08) — Released From Purgatory  —  [FDL is thrilled to welcome Rep. Jerry Nadler to chat with us this morning.  As with all Blue America chats, please stay on topic and be polite — any off-topic conversations should be taken to the prior thread.

FATHER'S COMPLAINT PROMPTS U.S. MILITARY TO CHANGE HOW IT BRINGS FALLEN SOLDIERS HOME  —  In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights …

Malpractice or Malice?  —  Yesterday the Washington Post reported on the declassification of a report by the Inspector General of the Defense Department as though it were a scoop, in an article headlined "Hussein's Prewar Ties to Al-Qaeda Discounted."  The casual reader would get the impression …

Lawyer: Fire was a 'prank'  —  Attorney for three students says burning of flag was not politically motivated  —  Three Yale students arrested for burning an American flag attached to a house were not politically motivated, their lawyer said Thursday.  —  The attorney, William Dow …

When a dilettante takes on Hizbullah  —  We can thank the US speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, for having informed Syrian President Bashar Assad, from Beirut, that "the road to solving Lebanon's problems passes through Damascus."  Now, of course, all we need to do is remind Pelosi …

A Tale of Two Scientific Consensuses  —  Look who's letting ideology overrule science.  —  Environmentalists constantly reference the scientific consensus that human activity is changing the global climate.  —  "You have the strongest consensus we have seen in the science community …