Student Government Asks Reporters to Leave by Monday  —  You've seen the news coverage from Blacksburg, complete with prominent network anchors reporting from the scene.  —  And now, the student government at Virginia Tech is asking for all of that to end.

Furor over author Ayaan Hirsi Ali's visit stirs debate on religious freedom  —  Say what you want about your religion.  —  Go ahead, say anything that comes into your mind — even if you don't agree with your minister, your priest, your rabbi.  Even if you think you're right and they've got it all wrong …

Let's be realistic about reality  —  Within hours of the Virginia Tech massacre, the New York Times had identified the problem: ''What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.''

Iraq PM asks for halt to Baghdad wall  —  Source: Reuters  —  Iraq's prime minister said on Sunday he had urged the U.S. military to halt work on a wall separating a Baghdad Sunni enclave from nearby Shi'ite areas after sharp criticism from some residents.

Newt Gingrich blames "Liberalism" for VA Tech massacre  —  Leave it to Newt to spread some love to the left this morning.  It's all the evil—liberals that caused this horrific tragedy.  I guess I could say that Newt influenced Timothy McVeigh...  Download (3380) |  Play (4319) Download (1544) |

Video: O'Donnell on VTech shootings — wrong on the facts, wrong on the law  —  First he identifies Cho's weapons as automatic, i.e., capable of firing repeatedly so long as the trigger is held down.  Wrong: both were semi-automatics, requiring a fresh trigger pull for each shot.

Rep. Millender-McDonald dies  —  Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), 68, who'd taken leave from Congress after being diagnosed with cancer, died Sunday, a congressional source said.  —  House Clerk Lorraine Miller has secured Millender-McDonald's office and is to oversee the office until an election can be held to replace her.

The politics of saying 'genocide'  —  More than 90 years after the Armenian genocide, the U.S. is deadlocked in a humiliating linguistic debate.  —  ON TUESDAY, President Bush will be obliged, by law, to wrap his double-talking mouth around one of the most curiously persistent debates in modern geopolitics …

Spitzer Plans to Introduce Gay Marriage Bill  —  Gov. Eliot Spitzer will introduce a bill in the coming weeks to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, his spokeswoman said Friday, a move that would propel New York to the forefront of one of the most contentious issues in politics.

Democrats Getting Paid  —  Last spring, with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, I wrote an item saying that for corporations and federal contractors looking for favors in Washington, it was hardly even worth buying a Democrat anymore.  But the November 2006 Democratic victory changed all that.

82-Year-Old Ex-Beauty Queen Stops Intruder by Shooting Out Tires  —  WAYNESBURG, Ky. — Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder.  —  Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man …

Harry Reid and a 'lost' cause  —  Senator forced to backpedal on remarks  —  The Democratic strategy to use the ongoing violence in Iraq to their political advantage in the run-up to the 2008 elections requires some skill and nuance.  But it's growing harder to believe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …

Paul Krugman: A Hostage Situation  —  There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge.  You can pretend that it's a normal political dispute.  Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation …

The Problem With Alberto  —  After a day of testimony that showed Alberto Gonzales to be so self-contradictory, so conveniently vacant and - at times - so simply risible that even radio listeners could feel the disgust that permeated the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room …

"The cost of doing business"  —  A 2005 video still shows covered bodies in the town of Haditha, western Anbar province, Iraq.  A U.S. Army general concluded the Marine Corps chain of command in Iraq ignored 'obvious' signs of 'serious misconduct' in the slayings of two dozen civilians in Haditha …

WHO NEEDS A PLAN?:  —  This month's National Journal has a piece looking at the nuts and bolts of withdrawal from Iraq—what it would entail, who would stay behind, etc.  Most of the piece just recaps the battles in Washington over funding and the like, but these two paragraphs are unnerving: