Experts: Unclassified Report 'Pure Pablum,' Hides Truth  —  Brian Ross Reports:  —  Intelligence analysts and the former White House counterterror official describe as "pure pablum" the unclassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate released today on terror threats to the United States.

AP Poll: GOP pick is 'none of the above'  —  WASHINGTON - And the leading Republican presidential candidate is ... none of the above.  —  The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to back top-tier hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson …

The Salon Interview: Elizabeth Edwards  —  On her confrontation with Ann Coulter, why she backs gay marriage — and why Edwards is a better choice for women than Hillary Clinton.  —  Elizabeth Edwards listens to her husband speak at a campaign event in Concord, N.H., April 2, 2007.

Suicide bombing at Islamabad courthouse kills 13  —  Over 50 wounded in attack where ousted Chief Justice was scheduled to speak; government still negotiation with Taliban in North Waziristan  —  The suicide attacks that have plagued the Northwest Frontier Province have shifted to the heart of Pakistan in the capital of Islamabad.

Novak: Women's 'venom' toward Bush is 'so vicious.'  —  Appearing on Hugh Hewitt's radio show yesterday, conservative pundit Robert Novak claimed that "women, particularly," are making our current political discourse more "vicious":

The Messianic Maniac  —  It's more disturbing in a way than MoDo's fantasies or Frank Rich's tragedies.  After four years of mounting, centrifugal chaos in a country he invaded on false pretenses, with no plan for victory, Bush is still "empowered" by a sense of religious mission and the aphrodisiac of the appearance of power.

FBI: Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande  —  Brian Ross Reports:  —  The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

Bush office is anti-Muslim, group says  —  A Muslim civil rights group today blamed Bush administration policies for promoting "Islamophobia" and said the "war on terror" won't stop terrorists.  —  "The new perception is that the United States has entered a war with Islam itself," …

Cigarmakers in a panic … Eric Newman punches the numbers on his calculator and gapes at the results one more time.  —  It's no mathematical error: The federal government has proposed raising taxes on premium cigars, the kind Newman's family has been rolling for decades in Ybor City, by as much as 20,000 percent.

The Politico sewer  —  The Politico today is prominently touting on its front page another vapid, petty, and inane "news story" — the type of story which has, in just a few short months, become its hallmark: … Impressively, they followed up their Romney scoop with a hard-hitting …

Blogosphere Responds To O'Reilly's Baseless Attacks On The Netroots  —  Last night on The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly dedicated a segment to disingenuously attacking the upcoming YearlyKos convention, its namesake DailyKos, and one of the event's sponsors, JetBlue.

A look inside the war rooms on the war  —  Leaders are instructing Democratic lawmakers to blitz their states with anti-Bush messages as the Senate gears up for an all-night debate on Iraq withdrawal, according to an internal memo provided to The Politico by a Democratic official.

Myths and Realities of the George Bush Presidency … Near the end of his shows, humorist Mort Sahl used to ask, "Is there anyone I haven't offended yet?"  These days, I find myself asking the same question about President Bush.  Economic libertarians gripe about high government spending.