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.”

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 …

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.

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.

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

Ailing Banks Need $75 Billion, U.S. Says  —  WASHINGTON — After subjecting the nation's biggest banks to the most public scrutiny in decades, federal regulators ordered 10 of them on Thursday to raise a total of $75 billion in extra capital and gave the rest a clean bill of health.

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.

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.

The Keep Terrorists Out of America Act  —  It's a great name for a bill, and it will make great fodder for 2010 campaign ads — who wants to be the guy who voted against keeping terrorists out of America?  The bill was announced at a press conference this morning with the ranking members of each House committee present.

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 …

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.

Obama does his Bush impression  —  The “lasting commitment” Washington war-time summit/photo-op between United States President Barack Obama and the AfPak twins, “Af” President Hamid Karzai and “Pak” President Asif Ali Zardari was far from being an urgent meeting to discuss ways to prevent the end of civilization as we know it.

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 …

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 …

Cheese war ends.  Everyone wins.  —  Our long international nightmare is over.  The U.S. and EU have reached an agreement to end the world's most entertaining trade dispute, which began with George W. Bush's lame-duck decision to raise import duties on Roquefort cheese: