Biden says avoid planes, subways; puts out clarifying statement  —  Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.”

Donors demand refund from Specter  —  Political switch gets expensive as lawmaker's support shrinks  —  Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party is prompting his campaign donors large and small to demand their money back, including several Republican senators whose political …

A Chrysler Creditor Finds Himself Torn  —  Geoffrey Gwin is wrestling with the knowledge that the retirement plans of some 80,000 Americans may rest in his hands.  —  “I am in turmoil,” says Mr. Gwin, principal of the Group G Capital Partners LLC hedge funds in New York.

Condi Rice Pulls A Nixon: When the President Does It, That Means It is Not Illegal  —  Condoleezza Rice was recently speaking at Stanford when students asked her an excellent question on waterboarding and torture.  They have her answer on tape and it isn't pretty.  Condi Rice absolutely pulls a Nixon.

Obama and Churchill  —  Obama followed Bush last night in using Winston Churchill as his example of a war president:  —  “I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens …

Palin and the bear  —  Coming soon to a cable TV station near you: TLC just released a YouTube video of a recent interview with Sarah Palin that has an unfortunate image of the Governor relaxing on a bear rug in her office.  Seriously:  —  I've defended Sarah Palin after recent media criticism.

Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild  —  Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.  —  As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked …

Bunning poised to retire  —  Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, the most endangered Republican up for reelection in 2010, appears headed for retirement after giving his leading GOP rival the blessing to prepare to run for his seat next year.  —  Bunning's retirement would be a huge victory …

Win By Losing?  —  Via Ed Kilgore, Ed Rogers from the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations makes the point that it's basically never good to lose a Senator: … I do think it's always worth considering an alternative.  I think it's very possible that Democrats could “gain so much power” …

New GOP ad: Do you feel safer?  —  House Republicans are using images of the Pentagon burning on 9/11 and President Obama's “bow” to the Saudi leader in a video that accuses the president of making America less safe in his first 100 days.  —  The video is part of a new offensive by Republicans …

Elizabeth Edwards write about husband's affair in book … Campaign cad John Edwards' cheating ways made his wife, Elizabeth, sick to her stomach - literally.  —  After the former presidential hopeful confessed his betrayal, Elizabeth Edwards writes in her new book, “I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up.”

The Threat Of Christianism  —  “There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs.  There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being.  But like any powerful weapon …

Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana  —  ABC News-Washington Post Poll: 49 Percent Support Gay Marriage, New High  —  Support for gay marriage, legalizing illegal immigrants and decriminalizing marijuana all are at new highs.

Your Year in Wiretaps  —  Marc Ambinder notes that the federal government's annual wiretap report—that's Title III criminal wiretaps, not the foreign intel surveillance covered by FISA— is out, and the headline figure is that there was a 16 percent decline in wiretap orders over the previous year.

“Lie to Me” Tops Obama News Conference  —  Just In: FOX, the only one of the Big Four networks that did not carry Pres. Obama's news conference last night, finished first in the 8pmET hour with a new episode of “Lie to Me.”  The drama averaged 7.9 million Total Viewers, according to Nielsen overnights.

Gates Hints That Detainees May Be Held on U.S. Soil  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested on Thursday that as many as 100 detainees at the prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba would end up housed on American soil.  —  At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee …

ARE SODA TAXES...POPULAR?  —  Till now, I've been of the opinion that arguing in favor of raising revenue by taxing unwanted behaviors is little more than a quixotic argument.  Good for a blog post, maybe, but nothing beyond that.  Then I heard that the prospect of sin taxes was actually emerging …

Pew: Church-Goers Like Torture More  —  They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them …