Credit Card Industry Aims to Profit From Sterling Payers  —  Credit cards have long been a very good deal for people who pay their bills on time and in full.  Even as card companies imposed punitive fees and penalties on those late with their payments, the best customers racked up cash-back rewards …

Poll: Reid's re-election numbers don't add up  —  CARSON CITY — Nearly half of Nevadans have had enough of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the powerful Democrat heads into his re-election campaign, a new Las Vegas Review-Journal poll finds.  —  About a third of the state's voters …

The Republican Party turns a corner  —  The Republican Party finds itself the minority party in America for the first time in more than 15 years.  I'll be the first to admit it has taken some adjustment.  Republicans have engaged in some healthy soul-searching since Election Day …

AP source: Democrats won't fund Guantanamo closing  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's allies in the Senate will not provide funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison next January, a top Democratic official said Tuesday.  —  With debate looming on Obama's spending request to cover military …

CIA Officials Fear That New Rules May Hinder Interrogations  —  Intelligence Officials Privately Warn That New Rules May Hinder Their Interrogations  —  Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, the CIA is girding itself …

Source: “EIT” Term Wasn't In Use When Pelosi Was Briefed  —  Here's yet another reason (as if more were needed) to doubt that that CIA briefings document perfectly reflects what lawmakers were told about torture back in the early days of the war on terror.  —  Almost every briefing described …

Obama Avoids Test on Gays in Military  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has decided to accept an appeals-court ruling that could undermine the military's ban on service members found to be gay.  —  A federal appeals court in San Francisco last year ruled that the government must justify …

Having confessed to lifting copy, the New York Times' columnist almost sets things right. … - She responded promptly to the charge of plagiarism when confronted by the Huffington Post and Politico.  (Many plagiarists go into hiding or deny getting material from other sources.)

Netanyahu stands firm against demands from Obama  —  Israel stood firm against demands from Barack Obama on Monday to cease the construction of Jewish settlements and embrace the “two-state solution” to achieving peace in the Middle East.  —  Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister …

The Cheney Fallacy  —  Why Barack Obama is waging a more effective war on terror than George W. Bush.  —  Former Vice President Cheney says that President Obama's reversal of Bush-era terrorism policies endangers American security.  The Obama administration, he charges, has …

Obama Scored Big at Notre Dame  —  At least the president is forthright about his principles.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Seldom does dawn rise on an America where the morning's New York Times displays a more intuitive grasp of a story than the New York Post.

Jury Convicts Fund-Raiser Hsu  —  NEW YORK — Norman Hsu, a former top fund-raiser for the Democratic Party and convicted Ponzi scheme operator, was found guilty Tuesday of illegally funneling tens of thousands of dollars to candidates for federal office by pressuring investors to donate to his favored candidates.

DCorps: New Survey Reveals Obama Closing the Democrats Historical National Security Gap  —  Democracy Corps  —  Research Categories … Executive Summary  —  A new Democracy Corps poll released by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner today shows that after 100 days in office, President Barack Obama has …

I did not say Cheney killed Benazir: Hersh  —  LAHORE: US journalist Seymour Hersh on Monday contradicted news reports being published in South Asia that quote him as saying a “special death squad” made by former US vice president Dick Cheney had killed Benazir Bhutto.

U.S. to Check Immigration Status of People in Local Jails  —  Obama Administration's Enforcement Push Could Lead to Sharp Increase in Deportation Cases  —  The Obama administration is expanding a program initiated by President George W. Bush aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails.

Obama's $1,300 car tax  —  Nobody in the White House is going to call the president's “mileage and pollution” plan what it is.  —  It's a $1,300 car tax.  On the working class.  On the middle class.  On everyone who has responded to the government's consumption-mania incentives …

Palin camp eyed Clinton alliance  —  In an unusual attempt to forge an alliance between two of the most prominent families in American politics, John Coale, a Washington-area Democratic donor and onetime adviser to Sarah Palin, urged the conservative Alaska governor to use her political action committee …

Dan Brown's America  —  The movie treatment of his novel, “Angels and Demons,” is cleaning up at the box office this week.  The sequel to “The DaVinci Code,” due out in November, might bouy the publishing industry through the recession.  And if you want to understand the state of American religion …

CAIR: Sen. Specter Cancels Speech at Anti-Islam Event  —  The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has canceled a scheduled appearance at an “anti-Islam” conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by a right-wing think tank headed by Daniel Pipes …