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 …

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.

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.

Nominee's Criminal Rulings Tilt to Right of Souter  —  WASHINGTON — While Judge Sonia Sotomayor stands in the liberal mainstream on many issues, her record suggests that the Supreme Court nominee could sometimes rule with the top court's conservatives on questions of criminal justice.

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 …

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 …

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.

FRUM BLOGS THE PRESIDENT'S CAIRO SPEECH  —  The president's Cairo speech: worse than feared.  Let's itemize the ways.  —  President Obama likes to position himself as an intermediary, explaining two conflicting parties each to the other.  He did so in his race speech in Philadelphia …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

Go now Gordon, Purnell urges as he quits cabinet  —  • Minister tells PM to quit and give Labour ‘fighting chance’  —  • Purnell's move sparks furious reaction from Number 10  —  • Rebels say 75 MPs support email calling for new leader  —  James Purnell, the work …

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.

McCarthy Won't Challenge Gillibrand in New York Senate Primary  —  Rep. Carolyn McCarthy will not challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a Democratic primary.  McCarthy, a thorn in Gillibrand's side of late, had said she would take on the newly appointed senator in 2010 if no one else did.