White House aide Louis Caldera loses job over Manhattan flyover fiasco involving Air Force One  —  WASHINGTON - The White House aide who authorized the controversial Air Force One photo-op flight last week around the Statue of Liberty is out of a job.  —  President Obama has accepted …

CBS announcer: Any U.S. soldier would shoot Pelosi, strangle Reid  —  CBS Sports commentator David Feherty drew criticism Friday for suggesting any U.S. soldier would murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) if given the chance.

Steele on judges with ‘empathy’: 'I'll give you empathy.  Empathize right on your behind!'  —  Last week, when Supreme Court Justice David Souter said that he intended to retire, President Obama said that in naming a replacement, he would not only “seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind …

Someone at Best Western gets it  —  If this ad doesn't present a story worth telling, nothing does:  —  With props to Bob McCarty.

Barack Obama to walk in footsteps of uncle who helped free Buchenwald  —  Tom Baldwin in Washington, and Roger Boyes in Berlin  —  President Obama is preparing to follow in the footsteps of his great-uncle, Charlie, with a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany when he returns to Europe this summer.

A Mind-Meld Q&A With Leonard Nimoy  —  Leonard Nimoy is an author whose poetry collections include “A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life,” a photographer whose monographs include “Shekhina” and the director of seven films including “Three Men and a Baby.”

Sessions flip-flops: Gay Supreme Court nominee would be a ‘big concern.’  —  Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) made headlines when he said he was open to a gay Supreme Court nominee.  “I don't think a person who acknowledges that they have gay tendencies …

Obama sends handwritten letter to gay soldier ousted from the military promising to repeal DADT.  —  In January, Sandy Tsao, an army officer based out of St. Louis, MO, told her superiors that she is gay — a violation of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law.  Tsao then wrote to President Obama …

IF IT'S SUNDAY.... Just yesterday, Dick Cheney explained his belief that it's time for some of the older establishment Republican voices to exit the stage.  “I think periodically we have to go through one these sessions.  It helps clear away some of the underbrush,” the former vice president said …

Geithner Bets U.S. Can Avoid Japan Trap on Banks  —  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is betting that U.S. banks can do something their Japanese counterparts were unable to accomplish in that country's “lost decade” of the 1990s: earn their way out of trouble.

Alan Keyes among 22 arrested at Notre Dame  —  Former Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes and 21 other protesters were arrested this morning when they refused to leave the Notre Dame campus during a protest of President Obama's upcoming commencement address there, authorities said.

Obama drama  —  Nets take a stand against primetime pre-emptions  —  By and large, they personally forked out for his campaign, they voted for him, and they know he is capable of boosting TV ratings just by making an appearance.  —  But executives at the Big Four broadcast networks …

Palin “Supports” Prejean, Dad Claims  —  Carrie Prejean and Sarah Palin go together like lipstick and pigs.  —  So says Prejean's father, at least, who tells E! News in an exclusive interview that the Alaska governor has already been in touch with his lightning-rod spawn.

Tran launches Congressional campaign... in wrong district  —  After years of will-he or won't-he speculation, Assemblyman Van Tran officially launched his quest to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez at a press conference this afternoon at a Little Saigon office building in Westminster.

CAN LOCAL BLOGGERS REPLACE LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE?  —  “Not only is it going to be intrinsically difficult to ever find a viable revenue model for paying a reporter to cover the zoning board if people don't want to read about the zoning board,” writes Matt Yglesias, “[but] I'm not actually sure …

A Pacific Warning  —  Australia prepares for U.S. decline.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Since World War II, U.S. military dominance has underpinned the Asia-Pacific region's prosperity and relative peace.  So it's cause for concern when one of America's closest allies sees …

Democrats Do Best Among Generation Y and Baby Boomers  —  Republicans do better among Generation X  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Although Democrats currently enjoy a party identification advantage over Republicans among Americans at every age between 18 to 85, the Democrats' greatest advantages come among …

Cue the world's smallest violin.  Again  —  The Hollywood Reporter goes big today with a long article about how entertainment execs at the nets hate pre-empting their schedules for Obama's primetime pressers.  About how the nets are losing millions of dollars in ad revenue, although actually …

MoveOn moves against Specter  —  One of the nation's largest liberal advocacy organizations, MoveOn.org , is resisting efforts to clear the Democratic primary field for Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter.  —  The political arm of MoveOn flexed its muscle Friday by releasing …

Sources: Senators weigh 3 government health plans  —  WASHINGTON - Senators are considering three different designs for a new government health insurance plan that middle-income Americans could buy into for the first time, congressional officials said Friday.

Governor Clintonism?  —  The Virginia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, held at Richmond's sprawl of a convention center on a mild Saturday night in February, was particularly festive this year.  The Democratic Party is enjoying a resurgence in Virginia …