Positive Initial Reaction to Sotomayor Nomination  —  Americans believe intellect, experience most important in Obama's choice  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' first reactions to the news of President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court are decidedly …

Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings  —  Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans.  What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere …

Abu Ghraib abuse photos ‘show rape’  —  Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.  —  At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another …

National security adviser downplays N. Korea threat  —  President Obama's national security adviser on Wednesday said that North Korea's recent nuclear detonation and missile tests are not “an imminent threat” to the safety and security of the United States.

Obama Rings Up Cash Among the Stars  —  BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The state budget may be severely overdrawn, but the California political A.T.M. seems to be working just fine.  —  President Obama arrived at a back-to-back fund-raising dinner and concert on Wednesday night and raised $4 million for the Democratic National Committee.

Bush v. Gore Foes Join to Fight Gay Marriage Ban  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The David and Ted show is back in business.  —  Eight and a half years after their epic partisan battle over the fate of the 2000 presidential election, the lawyers David Boies and Theodore B. Olson appeared on the same team …

The Peter Principle  —  We hang together or hang separately. … All of us, every single person regardless of political persuasion who reads this, have a tendency to deny our friends and fellow travelers at times.  All of us.  —  Peter, under pressure and fear, denied Christ not just once, but three times.

Video: O'Reilly smears Hot Air  —  Ah, there's nothing like yanking a comment out of context and using it to smear the entire site, even though neither Ed nor I have ever referred to Obama as “Hussein.”  Bonus points to O'R for referring to the comment in question as a “blog posting” even though it's anything but.

New Investor Worry: Treasury Selloff Spiking Interest Rates  —  The stock market is watching the bond market, wary a spike in interest rates will derail a fragile economic recovery and snuff the market's rally.  —  Stocks tumbled Wednesday, but the real drama was in Treasurys and mortgages.

Shhhh.  Newspaper publishers are quietly holding a very, very important conclave today.  Will you soon be paying for online content?  —  Here's a story the newspaper industry's upper echelon apparently kept from its anxious newsrooms: A discreet Thursday meeting in Chicago about their future.

Please uncover your face.  It's our custom  —  Why are women's faces concealed in East London but not in Damascus?  —  Funny to return from Lebanon, Syria and Turkey - where women go unveiled - and return to Britain, the land of the full hijab.  I see more women with their faces covered in Tower Hamlets than I did in Damascus.

Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures, 30-Year Rates Increase  —  Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures rose to records in the first quarter and home-loan rates jumped to the highest since March as the government's effort to revive the housing market lost momentum.

Specter Tops Toomey By 9 Pts.  In Pennsylvania Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; New Democratic Senator Has Big Primary Lead  —  Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, the likely Republican challenger in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race, has gained some ground and now trails newly-converted Democratic …

For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’  —  There is so much hugging at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., that students have broken down the hugs by type:  —  There is the basic friend hug, probably the most popular, and the bear hug, of course.