Check this out — the offices of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are denying a Washington Post story today saying that Congressional Democrats have backed down to the White House by offering to remove Iraq withdrawal language from the now-vetoed Iraq bill.  —  Pelosi just went before the Democratic caucus …

Hate Crimes and Double Standards  —  There are, I think, two coherent positions on hate crime laws.  The first is opposition to the entire concept, its chilling effect on free speech, its undermining of the notion of equality under the law, and so on.  That's my position.

Rice meets with Syrian foreign minister … SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syria's foreign minister Thursday in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years.  —  The meeting came hours after the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq …

The Times Names Public Editor  —  The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain's coverage that questioned the Bush administration's case for the Iraq war.

May 3, 2007 - Obama Runs Best Against GOP Front-Runner Giuliani Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Clinton Still Leads Dem Primary Race  —  Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has a slight 44 - 41 percent lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in a possible 2008 presidential face-off …

Comey Details U.S. Attorney Firings  —  If there was one major revelation during the hearing today, it was that James Comey had been involved in the firing of two U.S. attorneys when he was deputy attorney general.  —  But these firings were worlds away from the firing of the eight U.S. attorneys last December.

Virgin Atlantic Loose Change update: Axed Update: Audio added Update: Virgin Atlantic statement added  —  Folks, we made a difference.  After our post about Virgin Atlantic airing the 9-11 conspiracy film Loose Change 2 as in-flight entertainment last night, the producer …

D.C. Law Firm Suspends Woman Who Worked as Escort  —  Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood Report:  —  A legal secretary at one of Washington's most prominent and well-connected law firms, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, has been suspended after telling her bosses she secretly worked …

Lawmakers wants VA to explain bonuses  —  WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders on Thursday demanded that the Veterans Affairs secretary explain hefty bonuses for senior department officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1 billion short and jeopardized veterans' health care.

ECONOMIC UPDATE....Productivity figures dropped precipitously last year, but the team at Goldman Sachs says they can explain it: … Well, look: anytime any aggregate growth figure is low you can always point to its weakest component and say that things look a lot better if you just exclude it.

From the Senate: Hillary Statement on Deauthorizing the War  —  Washington, DC — In remarks on the Senate floor, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that she and Senator Robert Byrd will introduce legislation to end authority for the war in Iraq.  The legislation will propose October 11 …

The Politico: Exhibit A for our broken political press  —  This week, the Bush administration sought vastly increased powers to spy on the telephone conversations of Americans, and then threatened to begin spying again illegally and without warrants.  It was revealed that Condoleezza Rice …