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.”

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.

Chrysler to file for bankruptcy  —  Some lenders refuse offer to reduce debt, leading to likely bankruptcy filing.  But Chrysler expected to remain in business and complete deal with Fiat.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Chrysler LLC is going to file for bankruptcy, an administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday.

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 …

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.

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” …

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 …

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 …

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.”

No Racial Gap Seen in '08 Vote Turnout  —  The long-standing gap between blacks and whites in voter participation evaporated in the presidential election last year, according to an analysis released Thursday.  Black, Hispanic and Asian voters made up nearly a quarter of the electorate, setting a record.

“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 …

Calling Spades  —  Let me precede what I am about to say by noting that I've written some of what follows before.  But I think it bears repeating, and so with that in mind, I offer this:  —  Yesterday somebody asked if I'd comment on the following passage from Byron York:

GOP's Big Names Try to Forge New Agenda  —  Looking to rebrand a struggling Republican Party, a group of party heavyweights including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) are launching a new group that will hold town halls around the country and look to produce GOP ideas on issues like education and health care.

Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress  —  Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we're facing …

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 …