Obama: Tax more income for Soc Sec  —  WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama said Sunday that if elected he will push to increase the amount of income that is taxed to provide monthly Social Security benefits.  —  Obama and other Democratic presidential candidates previously have signaled support for this idea.

Armitage on the Leak  —  Richard Armitage appeared on CNN today, discussing Pakistan but also addressing his role as the original leaker in the CIA leak affair.  He took the blame for leaking Valerie Plame Wilson's identity, but he also gave us a bit more evidence to show that …

Al Qaeda fighters, ex-insurgents clash  —  18 killed in battle north of Baghdad  —  Members of an armed group of local residents passed US soldiers in Baghdad's mostly Sunni Azamiyah neighborhood.  Such residents helped US and Iraqi forces patrol the streets yesterday.  (Khalid Mohammed/associated press)

Innocent mistakes  —  So there's a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon's Southern strategy.  When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that …

FORMER CONTROVERSIAL CONGRESSMAN CHARGED WITH DWI  —  DN Capitol Bureau Chief Joe Mahoney reports:  —  Former Rep. John Sweeney was charged with aggravated DWI when he was pulled over by State Police early this morning on the Northway with a 23-year-old woman in his car, police told the Daily News.

While Pakistan Burns  —  If you think Musharraf's wrong to free jailed Taliban members while he busts dissidents, wait until you hear who's back on the loose.  —  Pakistani lawyers, human-rights activists and opposition-party members can scarcely ignore the irony of their situation …

Intel official: Expect less privacy  —  WASHINGTON - As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.  —  Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr …

Official oil cleanup ramps up, frustrated volunteers turned away  —  (11-10) 16:02 PST SAN FRANCISCO —  Emergency officials more than doubled the number of ships and cleanup workers attacking the massive oil spill throughout the Bay Area - while hundreds of frustrated citizens who tried …

White House frustrated with Brown over Iran  —  By Tim Shipman in Washington and Philip Sherwell in New York  —  The Bush administration is losing patience with Gordon Brown over Iran, with senior American diplomats frustrated by his reluctance to declare bluntly that the Islamic state must never be allowed nuclear weapons.

Former president parachutes into library re-opening  —  COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Former Prsident George H.W. Bush celebrated the grand reopening of his presidential museum on Saturday with a surprise skydive.  —  It was the former president's sixth skydive and his first since 2004, when he jumped to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Gifts of Thanks for the Troops  —  BAGHDAD — As the veterans of World War II pass too quickly into history, their ranks are being replaced by a new "greatest generation."  The war on terrorism is creating veterans at a rate not seen in decades.  —  Yet the military is much smaller …

Celebrating America and what makes her so great  —  Senator Zell Miller, who I quoted Friday, said it best at the 2004 Republican National Convention:  —  "Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier.

All Soldiers Fade Away  —  Most everyone knows the pivotal quote from General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."  The note he chose to end on in 1951 was modestly triumphant, the perfect close to the career of a consummate soldier.