Thou Shall Not Mock Obama's Mustard  —  My post the other day, MSNBC Hides Obama's Dijon Mustard (aka Dijongate), has hit a nerve unlike anything else I have written.  —  The post concerned the lunch trip of Obama and Biden to a burger shop to get a “Hell Burger.”

Obama To Fire His First Gay Arabic Linguist  —  Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, received notice today that the military is about to fire him.  Why?  Because he came out of the closet as a gay man on national television.

Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. '02  —  ABC News' Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared …

More Sotomayor  —  Rosen responds to his critics.  —  I've just returned from London to find that my piece on Sonia Sotomayor has provoked an energetic response in the blogosphere.  —  RELATED CONTENT  —  Just (5/7/09): The Upside Of Nominating A Lesbian To The Court

Cheney: “Mistake” For GOP To “Moderate,” Glad That Detainees Were Waterboarded  —  Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration's use of waterboarding on Thursday, saying that, contrary to arguments made by Barack Obama, the techniques were a necessary last-resort measure to get information from detainees.

PA-Sen: Baseline poll  —  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/4-6.  Likely voters.  MoE 4%, 5% for primary oversamples.  —  First off, it's a good thing former Gov. Tom Ridge decided he had better things to do, because he was facing just as tough slow as a “moderate Republican” in a GOP primary as Specter would've.

Dodgers' Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games after failing drug test  —  The suspension, for using what a source says is a female fertility drug, will cost him $7.7 million.  Ramirez takes responsibility, while the Dodgers support the testing program and back their star slu

Presenting ... The GOP's New “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act”!  —  A House GOP staffer sends over a summary of the “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act,” which the GOP leadership plans to unveil later today at a press conference, in keeping with the stepped-up national security attacks on Obama I noted here yesterday.

Friedman Resigns as Chairman of New York Fed  —  Stephen Friedman, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, abruptly resigned on Thursday, days after questions arose about his ties to Goldman Sachs.  —  Mr. Friedman was chairman of the New York Fed at the same time he was a member of Goldman's board.

U.S. Releases Stress Test Results  —  WASHINGTON — Ten of the 19 largest U.S. financial institutions will be required to raise a combined $75 billion in capital, as the U.S. government for the first time divided healthy banks from those which may need help to weather a worsening economy.

Teenage Bomb Threat Suspect Was Internet Prank-Call Star  —  A 16-year-old North Carolina boy arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat against Purdue University had a secret identity as a superstar in an unusual online subculture — one dedicated to making prank phone calls for a live internet audience, his mother admitted Thursday.

Obama Tells Journalists To Stress “Significant” Nature Of Budget Cuts  —  In remarks on his administration's proposed $17 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget this morning, President Obama was somewhat on the defensive against charges that his cuts don't amount to much considering that next year's total budget amounts to $3.4 trillion.

Election 2010: Texas Republican Primary  —  Texas Governor's Primary A Toss-Up  —  Texas Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison find themselves essentially tied in an early look at their 2010 Primary battle.  —  The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey shows …

Newspaper Narcissism  —  Our pursuit of glory led us away from readers  —  American journalism is in trouble, and the problem is not just financial.  My profession is in distress because for more than a decade it has been chasing the false idols of fame and fortune.

Bids to Push States' Rights Falter in Face of Stimulus  —  BOISE, Idaho — Standing up for states' rights has not been easy this spring, even as many state lawmakers wince at the extended reach of the federal government.  With the recession sparing few corners of the country …

The GOP Doesn't Understand Sex  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Bristol Palin's new abstinence campaign shines a light on the Republican Party's unhealthy attitude about sex and desire.  —  The first time I ever heard about oral sex was during the Lewinsky scandal.

Naked in the Naked Public Square  —  We both worried when Miss California showed up at a press conference for our friends at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).  It was hard to believe the gay-marriage proponents would let this brave young woman get away with her free exercise of free speech without some serious retribution.

Republicans in Distress: Is the Party Over?  —  These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species.  They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter.

In Pakistan, ‘Great Rage, Great Fear’  —  Refugees Fleeing Swat Valley Tell of Taliban Crimes, Abuses  —  Hajji Karim and his extended family of 70 were camped in a dirt-floor stable 10 miles outside Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.  It was as far as they could get from the Swat Valley …