Max Blumenthal: Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of Obama's Cairo Address  —  Max Blumenthal writes: On the eve of President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, I stepped out onto the streets of Jerusalem with my friend Joseph Dana to interview young Israelis …

Liberal Writer Fired By AOL News For Reporting Vile Playboy List  —  AOL News has been bending over backwards lately to make sure that the do not cover the controversy surrounding Playboy.com writer Guy Cimbalo's vile attack on conservative women.  AOL News has taken some drastic steps …

Sotomayor Repeatedly Referenced ‘Wise Woman’ in Speeches  —  Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is greeted by Sen. Arlen Specter before a meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday.  (Getty)  —  Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor delivered multiple speeches between 1994 and 2003 in which she suggested …

Barack Obama's Israeli Settlements Canard  —  President Obama repeatedly insists that American foreign policy be conducted with modesty and humility.  Above all, there will be no more “dictating” to other countries.  We should “forge partnerships as opposed to simply dictating solutions,” he told the G-20 summit.

Race: Sotomayor And Obama Versus Voters  —  IT'S CLEAR THAT AMERICANS WANT RACIALLY PREFERENTIAL AFFIRMATIVE-ACTION PROGRAMS ABOLISHED.  —  Conservative critics of Judge Sonia Sotomayor may be digging themselves into a hole if they keep hurling the tired old “liberal activist” slogan at her.

Elizabeth Warren and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Utterly Misleading Bankruptcy Study  —  Elizabeth Warren has another study out showing that medical expenses contribute to more than half of all bankruptcies—indeed, this time, it's 70%, up from the 50% she found in 2001.

FDIC Pushes Purge at Citi  —  Bair Wants to Shake Up Management, Sought to Cut Rating of Bank's Health  —  WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is pushing for a shake-up of Citigroup Inc.'s top management, imperiling Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, people familiar with the matter said.

White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to appoint a “Special Master for Compensation” to ensure that companies receiving federal bailout funds are abiding by executive-pay guidelines, according to people familiar with the matter.

Palin: Government wants to ‘control the people’  —  (CNN) - Alaska governor Sarah Palin let loose Wednesday on the Obama administration for enacting fiscal policies that “fly in the face of principles” and “defy Economics 101.”  —  In a speech introducing Michael Reagan …

Job Losses Slow; Unemployment at 9.4%  —  The United States economy lost 345,000 jobs in May, the government reported on Friday, a sharp slowing in the pace of job losses that fueled hopes that the economy was on its way toward a recovery.  —  The recession continued to take a toll …

Rift With Germany Is Next on Diplomatic Agenda  —  DRESDEN, Germany — After mending fences with the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, President Obama might want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Employment Situation Summary  —  Technical information:  —  Household data: (202) 691-6378 USDL 09-0588  —  Establishment data: (202) 691-6555 Transmission of material in this release  —  http://www.bls.gov/ces/ is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EDT), Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, June 5, 2009.

Feds charge Countrywide execs  —  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was on a roll the past few weeks — President Barack Obama even gave him a very public shout-out for his work on a major credit card bill.  —  But the cloud of Countrywide is back.  —  The federal government charged Countrywide …

Cheney and Pelosi Have Poor Ratings in Common  —  Pelosi's ratings down, while Cheney's improved from record low  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Dick Cheney have little in common politically, but they receive almost identical image ratings from the American public.

Intel firestorm: GOP reveals briefing info  —  Republicans ignited a firestorm of controversy on Thursday by revealing some of what they had been told at a closed-door Intelligence Committee hearing on the interrogation of terrorism suspects.  —  Democrats immediately blasted the GOP lawmakers …

Doors that open, bars that close  —  None of the presidents who yesterday approved the readmission of our Island to the Organization of American States held public office in 1962 when the Cuban government was expelled from that organization.  However, the repeal of that resolution has found …

Bureaucrat scuffs dream of homeless shoe shiner  —  He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city.  When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie.

Re: The Good and Bad . . .  I agree with Marc on a few of his points, but not on others.  I too didn't like the passage he cites on Iran (although the nuclear passage was much worse).  The “on the other hand” after the Holocaust discussion was very unfortunate, although I don't think it means …

Keeping Them Honest  —  “I appreciate your efforts, and look forward to working with you so that the Congress can complete health care reform by October.”  So declared President Obama in a letter this week to Senators Max Baucus and Edward Kennedy.  The big health care push is officially on.

Olbermann's Mosquito Bites  —  I hear that Keith Olbermann declared on MSNBC Tuesday evening that I am “runner-up” for his “hypocrisy award” and also “a fraud.”  —  In case anyone takes Olbermann seriously, I identify below the false and misleading assertions of fact that he packed into his 60-second diatribe.

Behind the Scenes: A New Angle on History  —  Terril Jones had only shown the photograph to friends.  —  While working as a reporter in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he shot many photographs and recorded several hours of video.  It wasn't until weeks afterwards …

Sotomayor's whirlwind schedule takes a toll  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — It's the second day of a whirlwind Capitol Hill tour — and it looks like Judge Sonia Sotomayor is already having trouble keeping Senate lineup straight.  —  Asked to lay out her Wednesday itinerary, President Obama's Supreme …

The Power and the Story  —  The Obamas may have the smartest, most finely calibrated press operation in White House history, parceling out scoops (The New York Times), partisan talking points (the Huffington Post), and First Family tidbits (the celebrity mags) to a desperate media.

POST UPDATED BELOW  —  In an interview with me, Dem Rep Robert Wexler, a leading voice in Congress on Israeli-Arab affairs, made a fascinating point, arguing that one of the most important lines in Obama's Cairo speech was this one: … Wexler told me he thinks that Obama's promise to …

Barney Frank convinces GM CEO to keep his district's plant open  —  Rep Barney Frank (D-Mass.) won a stay of execution on Thursday for a General Motors plant in his district that the automaker had announced it would close.  —  No other lawmaker has managed to halt the GM ax.