FISA: Call Your Wobbly FISA Senator  —  It's no secret, the Senate is getting ready to follow the House's lead and screw us on FISA, letting telecom criminals off the hook.  (For a real belly full of disgust, read this article on a preening Steny Hoyer in Politico.  Did he write it himself?)

The Bush Paradox  —  Let's go back and consider how the world looked in the winter of 2006-2007.  Iraq was in free fall, with horrific massacres and ethnic cleansing that sent a steady stream of bad news across the world media.  The American public delivered a stunning electoral judgment …

OBAMA/MCCAIN: ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL’ BENEFIT?  —  Yesterday, McCain admitted that his offshore drilling proposal would probably have mostly “psychological” benefits, NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy reports.  At a town hall in Fresno that primarily focused on energy issues, McCain was asked a question …

Report Sees Illegal Hiring Practices at Justice Department  —  WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials …

McCain's Core Advantage  —  In politics, we're having a Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr kind of year.  It was Karr, a French writer, who coined the phrase plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, which means, as Barack Obama has shown, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Retiring GOP reps frustrate leadership  —  House Republican leaders might be forgiven for thinking that retiring rank-and-file Republicans would soften the blow caused by their departures by casting some cost-free votes down the party line.  —  But they would be mistaken.

What's Wrong With the Kansas City Star?  —  A disgraceful contribution from their house cartoonist:

Dying Is Hard.  Comedy Is Harder.  —  THE honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about.  I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.  We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: “I feel safe for a while.

Ad showing men kissing pulled  —  Heinz has withdrawn its Deli Mayo TV ad that featured two men sharing a kiss and apologised to viewers after the advertising regulator received about 200 complaints that it was offensive and inappropriate.  —  The Heinz Deli Mayo ad has been pulled after less …

Seizing Laptops and Cameras Without Cause  —  A controversial customs practice creates a legal backlash  —  Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington …