ASU Stiffs Obama, Claims Too Inexperienced For Honorary Degree  —  TEMPE, ARIZONA - Universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers, particularly those who have reached the pinnacle of their career or achieved the top of their field.

Rove Calls Biden ‘Liar’ After VP Boasts of Scolding Bush  —  Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush.  —  FOXNews.com  —  Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a …

Did He Bow?  The Last Word  —  Some people think that President Obama's bow to King Abdullah was significant, not only because it was a naive breach of protocol, but because such signs of submission are taken seriously in the Arab world.  (In fact, Obama's bow received approving coverage in the Arab press.)

Post Reporter Says It's Not His Job to Check the Accuracy of People He's Quoting  —  You rarely see the kind of full-throated defense of journalism-as-stenography that The Washington Post's Paul Kane offers up here: … This is fairly simple.  What we want is that if you're …

C.I.A. to Close Secret Prisons for Terror Suspects  —  WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency said Thursday that it would decommission the secret overseas prisons where it subjected Al Qaeda prisoners to brutal interrogation methods, bringing to a symbolic close the most controversial …

Obama Reaches Out to ‘Moderate’ Pirate Community  —  After maintaining his silence for two days, President Obama will soon make his first public statement about the pirate attack upon an U.S.-flagged vessel off the Horn of Africa.  After several inquiries and a few well-placed bribes …

Fed Said to Order Banks to Stay Mum on ‘Stress Test’ Results  —  The U.S. Federal Reserve has told Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other banks to keep mum on the results of “stress tests” that will gauge their ability to weather the recession, people familiar with the matter said.

Special ops ‘itching’ to fight pirates, just waiting for Obama to say go  —  The Maersk Alabama was hijacked while delivering relief supplies to Kenya.  The ship's captain, Richard Phillips (inset), is reportedly still being held hostage.  —  WASHINGTON - U.S. military commanders …

Obama Offers Plan to Improve Care for Veterans  —  President Obama announced plans on Thursday to computerize the medical records of veterans into a unified system, a move that is expected to ease the now-cumbersome process that results in confusion, lost records and bureaucratic delays.

Ten Questions for Legal Advisor-Nominee Harold Hongju Koh  —  I have tried to stay quiet in the ongoing “Koh Wars” in the blogosphere, where Ed Whelan seems to be taking on the entire legal academic blogosphere himself and getting in a bad mood about it.  I am also conflicted.

Making Banking Boring  —  Thirty-plus years ago, when I was a graduate student in economics, only the least ambitious of my classmates sought careers in the financial world.  Even then, investment banks paid more than teaching or public service — but not that much more, and anyway, everyone knew that banking was, well, boring.

Aaron Sorkin: Come back to TV!  —  In case you haven't noticed, NBC is pulling out all the stops for Southland, John Wells' latest contribution to the cops-and-robbers genre.  And I'm certainly tuning in tonight — if only to see whether Wells still has the magic touch for creating shows that everyone wants to watch.

Sabotage attacks knock out phone service  —  (04-09) 17:16 PDT SAN JOSE — Vandals cut fiber-optic cable lines belonging to AT&T at two locations early today, knocking out phones and access to 911 emergency services to thousands of residential customers and businesses in southern Santa Clara County …

Schumer: ‘The Hard Right, Which Still Believes’ in ‘Traditional Values’...'All That Is Over.'  —  Thank you Jillian Bandes for posting on this.  —  Schumer also says this in the clip:  —  “I think President Obama has a pretty smart strategy.  He is going to talk bipartisanship to the American people.

Breeder regrets dog sale to Biden  —  EAST COVENTRY — It was a proud moment for Linda Brown when then-Vice President-elect Joe Biden selected her kennel to purchase his new German shepherd puppy.  —  That was in mid-December.  —  For Brown, that proud moment was short-lived.

AlQaeda terror plot to bomb Easter shoppers  —  An al-Qaeda cell was days away from carrying out an “Easter spectacular” of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, police believe.  —  Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west …

Bachus says there's 17 ‘socialists’ in House  —  Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the Financial Services Committee, told a hometown crowd in Alabama today he believes there are several socialists in the House.  —  Actually, he says there are exactly 17 socialists in the House …