Mancow Waterboarded, Admits It's Torture  —  “It is way worse than I thought it would be”  —  Shock jocks shock.  —  And so it went Friday morning when WLS radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller decided to subject himself to the controversial practice of waterboarding live on his show.

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths  —  WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.  —  In his address to the American Enterprise Institute …

Kaine calls on LU to reconsider Democratic club ban  —  Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. made his first public comments today about the university's suspension of the campus Democratic party club.  —  “That club still has the right to exist,” Falwell said, although it cannot use the university's name in its activities.

Sobbing Kindergarteners Snubbed for Steelers?  —  Kids locked out of White House; officials say they were too late  —  Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip.

Steele: Obama ‘Was Not Vetted Because The Press Fell In Love With The Black Man Running For The Office’  —  Apparently unable to learn from egregious mistakes from the recent past, RNC Chairman Michael Steele once again took to the radio airwaves today as a guest host for Bill Bennett.

Bush: It's ‘liberating’ to be out of office  —  He gets warm welcome from group of graduating N.M. high school students  —  ARTESIA, N.M. - It was a humbling moment for the former commander in chief: President George W. Bush was walking former first dog Barney in his new Dallas neighborhood …

NEPOTISM REIGNS.... Mid-day yesterday, I noticed that Mark Halperin had a headline that read, “Round 2: Liz Cheney vs Axe.”  Round 1, apparently, was President Obama and former Vice President Cheney, and Round 2's “Axe” refers to David Axelrod, Senior White House Advisor to the president.

Labs Contest  —  Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge  —  What it Is  —  Apps for America is a special contest we're putting on this year to celebrate the release of Data.gov!  We're doing it alongside Google, O'Reilly Media, and TechWeb and the winners will be announced …

Jesse Ventura Challenges Hannity On Waterboarding: “I'll Get Him To Say Obama Is The Greatest President”  —  Jesse Ventura, the former Minnesota governor and presidential candidate, vows that if he waterboarded Sean Hannity, he'd get the right-wing Fox News host to say that “Barack Obama is the greatest president.”

The Newburgh Four — And The Goverment Mole Who Betrayed Them  —  We're starting to get a rich picture of the four hapless Jihadis who were arrested Wednesday night for plotting to bomb two New York synagogues, as well as the FBI informant who deceived them.

Blue Double Cross  —  That didn't take long.  Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform — and the double-crossing is already well under way.  Indeed, it's now clear that even as they met …

Mayor quits job for gay illegal immigrant he loves  —  It was, simply put, the most stunning abdication since King Edward VIII in 1936 gave up the British throne for Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American socialite.  —  Only two weeks after being elected to serve his fourth term …

“I don't know why your husband doesn't put a gun to his temple.”  —  En route to pick up a tux for a wedding I'm attending this weekend, I flipped on the radio in my mother's car, found it tuned to the AM dial, and heard a host so petulant that he is an outlier even on talk radio.

Media Fawns Over Newt, Ignores Other Former Congressional Leaders  —  Steve Benen observes that these days Newt Gingrich is everywhere you look: … It's a really strange situation.  If were an editor looking for an op-ed from a conservative point of view about the California budget crisis …

Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil  —  With Sleuthing and Satellite Images, Mr. Melvin Fills the Blanks on a Secretive Nation's Map  —  SEOUL — In the propaganda blitz that followed North Korea's missile launch last month, the country's state media released photos of leader Kim Jong Il visiting …

Pelosi: Nothing more to say on her CIA allegation … WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she won't talk any more about her charge that the CIA lied in 2002 about using waterboarding on terrorism suspects.  —  “I have made the statement that I'm going to make on this …

Facts and myths about Obama's preventive detention proposal  —  [Updated below - Update II (Interview with ACLU) - Update III - Update IV - Update V ]  —  In the wake of Obama's speech yesterday, there are vast numbers of new converts who now support indefinite “preventive detention.”

“Out of the loop” Joe Biden says decision to shut Guantanamo was “like opening Pandora's Box”  —  Thank goodness for Vice President Joe Biden.  In one of the few amusing parts of the Wanda Sykes comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, she said: “God forbid that Joe Biden falls …

White House Reporter Protects Cheney, Accuses Gibbs Of Taking “Swipe”  —  One of the odder things we've seen from some members of the White House press corps this year is a kind of zealous over-protectiveness of the previous administration — Dick Cheney, in particular.

U.S. Jobless Rate May Soon Top Europe's  —  For many years, unemployment in the United States was lower than in Western Europe, a fact often cited by people who argued that the flexibility inherent in the American system — it is easier to both hire and fire workers than in many European countries — produced more jobs.

go to forum  —  Who does Matt Lewis look like?  —  This is apropos of nothing, but what celebrity does Matt look like?  Its really bugging me since I cannot put my finger on it.  —  Re: Who does Matt Lewis look like?  —  Gabby Hayes  —  Some notes to Matt

OBAMA TO APOLOGIZE TO GERMANY FOR WWII?  —  The latest inconceivable Obamaction is yet another unbecoming apology in Europe, this time in Germany for WWII.  John Rosenthal suggests, “As bizarre as it may seem, President Obama's impending trip to Dresden suggests that German revisionists have a friend in the White House”.

Outrage at Serbia ‘beating’ video  —  A young patient appears to be beaten repeatedly with a shovel (Video courtesy of Vreme magazine)  —  Officials in Serbia are investigating a rehabilitation centre affiliated to the Orthodox Church where drug addicts have allegedly been filmed being beaten.

Women are unhappier than ever.  —  According to a new study.  —  That's what we get for being more in touch with how we feel — we notice it, we admit it to ourselves and others.  And we get attention because of it.  If men were/are sad, who would know?  Who would care?

President Above-It-All  —  EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate.  For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext 246.  —  Put Barack Obama in front of a teleprompter …