Parsing the Polls: No Room For Compromise on Iraq  —  President Bush's veto of the Iraq funding bill returns the debate over the war to square one.  —  The question for Democratic congressional leaders and the White House is how far is each side willing to push the fight over legislating …

Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death  —  The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned.  The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction …

Obama blows into MySpace  —  This seems like it was bound to happen with Obama's top-down campaign structure as it grows by leaps and bounds.  With much of that energy coming from a bottom up movement that's responsible for that growth, the campaign moves in to take control of the decentralized action.

Study of N.B.A. Sees Racial Bias in Calling Fouls  —  An academic study of the National Basketball Association, whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial bias found in other parts of American society has existed on the basketball court as well.

BANANA REPUBLICANISM, CONT'D....Quote of the day, from Thomas Sowell: … Now that's a comforting, conservative thought, isn't it?  I wonder what Buckley thinks of NRO publishing stuff like this?  —  (And in case you're wondering, there's no further context.  That's the whole quote.

Administration Pulls Back on Surveillance Agreement  —  Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.

PERSONAL SIDE: Desert island necessities  —  John McCain (news, bio, voting record)'s answer was both practical and deeply personal when he was asked in the 2000 presidential campaign what item he'd most like to have if he were stranded on a desert island: "SPF 45 sunblock."

U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons  —  Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, showed the potential for disaffected young men to be lured as terrorists, a threat that British officials said they would have to contend with for a generation.

Is Rice engaging in 'bad behavior'?  —  I can't wait to hear the noise machine blather endlessly about how Condoleezza Rice is undermining U.S. policy by chatting with Syrian officials.  (thanks to L.J. for the tip) … Ah yes, the Pelosi meeting.  As I recall, when the Speaker …

Digg Surrenders to Mob  —  To say what happened today on Digg was a "user revolt" is an understatement.  The Digg team deleted a story that linked to the decryption key for HD DVDs after receiving a take down demand and all hell broke loose.  More stories appeared and were deleted, and users posting the stories were suspended.

Imus won't go quietly  —  The talk show host has hired a top First Amendment lawyer, and an unusual clause in his contract could give him a $40 million payday, writes Fortune's Tim Arango.  —  NEW YORK (Fortune) — Don Imus, the tousled and acerbic radio host whose racial remarks engendered …

Lawful incest may be on its way  —  WHEN THE BBC invited me onto one of its talk shows recently to talk about the day's hot topic — legalizing adult incest — I thought of Rick Santorum.  —  Back in 2003, as the Supreme Court was preparing to rule in Lawrence v. Texas …

After the Veto  —  The ink on the President's veto is barely dry, and already, a lot of Washington insiders - including some Democrats — are saying Congress should just give in to the President.  Never mind how hard people have pushed to bring Congress to this point, when we are finally standing …

Back in the Days of 'Mission Accomplished': How One Paper Covered Bush Declaration Four Years Ago  —  NEW YORK Today marks the fourth anniversary of President Bush's jet landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and his speech declaring major fighting in Iraq over, all in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner.

The right's explicit and candid rejection of "the rule of law"  —  (updated below)  —  The Wall St. Journal online has today published a lengthy and truly astonishing article by Harvard Government Professor Harvey Mansfield, which expressly argues that the power of the President is greater than "the rule of law."