White House near decision to close Guantanamo  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

A Visit to Fatah's Torture Chamber  —  A building formerly occupied by Fatah's intelligence service in Gaza was long notorious for torture and execution.  Now Hamas is in control — and is letting former inmates visit the chamber of horrors.  —  The cells are small, perhaps six feet by six feet …

IMMIGRATION A NET PLUS?  OF COURSE.  BUT...  Yesterday, the President's Council of Economic Advisers released a report titled "Immigration's Economic Impact."  The report was intended to support the administration's case for comprehensive immigration reform that would create a guest worker program …

Freefall  —  The president's approval ratings just scored a staggering 26 percent in the Newsweek poll. 23 percent approve of the handling of Iraq.  A broader look at a range of polls is no more comforting.  Pollster.com's average is now below 30 percent for the first time.

The Hillary Dilemma  —  Despite the breathless media reports about every jot and tittle of the Democratic contest for President, not all that much has changed in the last year.  Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has consistently been the frontrunner in national surveys, sometimes by narrow spreads and frequently by sizeable margins.

Breaking: Senate votes to raise fuel standards.  —  "The Senate voted Thursday to increase fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon for cars and SUVs, the first significant boost demanded of automakers in nearly 20 years." … UPDATE: Feinstein has released a statement on the vote …

The Inside Story Of What's Happening With The Immigration Bill: Part 3  —  Yesterday, a GOP aide, who is one of my sources in the Senate, gave me the rundown on what's currently happening with the Senate immigration bill (You can see my two previous reports from this source here and here).

CIA to Air Decades of Its Dirty Laundry  —  Assassination Attempts Among Abuses Detailed  —  The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency's worst illegal abuses — the so-called "family jewels" documenting a quarter-century …

IRAQ: Hundreds flee homes as Turkish forces battle Kurdish fighters  —  Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds have been forced to flee their homes after up to 30,000 Turkish soldiers massed on the Iraqi-Turkish border and launched attacks against Kurdish fighters, Iraqi border police say.

The 'Fairness Doctrine' Myth: Right Wing Falsely Claims Progressives Want To Resurrect Mandatory Balance  —  Yesterday, the Center for American Progress and Free Press released a detailed statistical analysis confirming that talk radio is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.

Partisan bickering erupts over website  —  A website, of all things, has inflamed partisan bickering in the evolving U.S. attorneys scandal.  —  Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee charged their Democratic counterparts Thursday with violating chamber rules by launching a website …

Cheney in Dispute on Oversight of His Office  —  For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office's handling of classified information, and when the office in charge of overseeing classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president's office suggested …

The Man Who Knows Too Little  —  WHAT RUDY GIULIANI'S GREEDY DECISION TO QUIT THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REVEALS ABOUT HIS CANDIDACY.  —  If you don't read Newsday, you might not know (I didn't until this week) that Rudy Giuliani was an original member of the Iraq Study Group …

Investors' Suits Face Higher Bar, Justices Rule  —  The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a blow to investors who want to sue companies and executives because of suspected fraud, setting a higher standard for class-action lawsuits to go forward.  —  The decision was the second one this week …

House Republican wants to restrict Pelosi's travel  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be permitted to use State Department funds to travel to nations that are known to have sponsored terrorism if a Republican amendment to appropriations legislation passes the House on Thursday.

Australia to Ban Alcohol for Aborigines  —  Australia's prime minister announced plans Thursday to ban pornography and alcohol for Aborigines in northern areas and tighten control over their welfare benefits to fight child sex abuse among them.  —  Some Aboriginal leaders rejected the plan …