Etch-a-Sketch: Limbaugh Edition  —  Good morning.  —  Today, let us try a new game in which I, the Sketchwriter, get you, the Sketchreader, to do my work for me while I go to the gym, eat lunch and listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio.  I call this Etch-a-Sketch.

U.S. Replaces Commander in Afghanistan in War Overhaul  —  WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is replacing the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, less than a year after he took over, marking a major overhaul in military leadership of a war that has presented President Obama with a worsening national security challenge.

White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney  —  There's a big piece of news about Dick Cheney and torture buried toward the end of this big Washington Post piece about the torture wars.  —  Specifically: The White House has decided to declassify and release …

Sheikh attacks Israel, pope walks out  —  Article's topics: Sheikh Tamimi, Benedict XVI  —  Chief Islamic Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, launched a poisonous verbal attack at Israel at a Monday night gathering attended by Pope Benedict XVI.

“You don't need banks and bondholders to make cars”?  —  The WSJ's “USA Inc” series continues today with detail on how the US got secured lenders to abandon their fight to get paid more than 30% of their claims, as against giving more than half the company to unsecured workers.

The President's silly health care announcement  —  The President spoke about health care in the cross-hall today, flanked by the heads of several major health lobbying groups ("trade associations," in Washington vernacular):  — hospitals — the American Hospital Association ("AHA");

Romney camp hits back at Steele for Mormonism comments  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - In an unusual move for the person tasked with being his party's top cheerleader, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is shining a light on the political vulnerabilities of one of the GOP's top figures …

Pelosi: Torture protest improper in '03  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned in early 2003 that the Bush administration was waterboarding terror detainees but didn't protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels, a confidant of the San Francisco Democrat said Monday.

Pageant Double Standard?  Steamy Photos of Miss Rhode Island Won't Threaten Her Crown  —  While racy photos of Miss California Carrie Prejean could cost the outspoken first runner up in the Miss USA pageant her crown, pageant officials don't seem to care about even steamier photos of Miss Rhode Island that appeared in a men's magazine.

The Edwards 2008 What-If  —  The publication of a new book by Elizabeth Edwards, and especially the revelation that she advised her husband against running in 2008, has created a lot of “what if” speculation about how the race might have been different.  Two weeks ago, for example …

Biden insults President Obama's dog at Syracuse  —  It was as though Vice President Biden time-warped back to last fall.  Because on Sunday he was in full campaign attack mode.  —  Oh, it was an idyllic setting.  Nobody saw it coming.  The vice president had just finished delivering …

Jon Stewart to Make History Special  —  ‘The Naturalized’ highlights the network's most ambitious programming slate  —  Jon Stewart, who knows a thing or two about irony, will create a two-hour special on a perfect target—the U.S. naturalization process—for History Channel, to air in the fourth quarter.

Why Iran Freed Roxana Saberi  —  An Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, who was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison in April on charges of spying for Washington, was released Monday after an appeals court reduced the sentence.  —  Iran has detained several Western journalists …

Here comes California's May 19 Rebellion  —  California voters head to the polls next week with predictions of doom echoing in their ears if they decline to endorse the massive tax hikes prescribed for them by big Democratic majorities in the statehouse, Arnold and a handful of now ruined-politically Republican legislators.

Limbaugh agrees with Sessions: Obama's ‘objective is unemployment.’  —  Earlier today, ThinkProgress highlighted NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions' (R-TX) claim that President Obama is intentionally trying to “'diminish employment and diminish stock prices' as part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to consolidate power.”