Re: Exposing an Irresponsible Anonymous Blogger  —  Before returning to more important matters, let me offer a few thoughts on the mini-firestorm that my exposing of the blogger “publius” seems to have generated: 1.  Law professor John Blevins (aka publius) and others seem to assume that I owed …

Obamanomics: How Stupid Do They Think We Are?  —  Pretty stupid.  Watching Fox News Sunday, I caught a panel on which Obama economic advisor Austin Goolsbee conceded that the administration had previously predicted unemployment would top out at around 8%, that it was now up to 9.4% …

D.C. Couple's Disdain for U.S. Policies May Have Led to Alleged Spying for Cuba  —  Disdain for U.S. Policies May Have Led to Alleged Spying for Cuba  —  He was a courtly State Department intelligence analyst from a prominent family who loved to sail and peruse the London Review of Books.

France gets its Obama moment  —  PARIS (AP) — People gawked and cameras clicked as the Obamas cut a wide figure through the French capital even while confined to a presidential motorcade.  It was more personal for the few kept not so distant — the restaurant owner who “saw God,” the chauffeur reveling in a “magnificent mission.”

Hugging Republicans Until It Hurts  —  WASHINGTON — As Representative John M. McHugh of New York began planning his retirement from the House after being picked to be the new secretary of the Army, a chunk of Republican morale prepared to depart with him.  —  And that was just what Democrats had counted on.

Clinton: Obama Has Passed ‘3a.m.’ Test  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said President Barack Obama has “absolutely” answered questions she posed during the Democratic campaign about his lack of experience and ability to handle an international crisis.

Reliable Sources: For journalists, how close is too close?  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Author and former Newsweek journalist Richard Wolffe is refuting charges that he acted more like Barack Obama's campaign spokesman than as a journalist covering Obama's presidential campaign.

Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks  —  As she describes it, Beth Jacobson and her fellow loan officers at Wells Fargo Bank “rode the stagecoach from hell” for a decade, systematically singling out blacks in Baltimore and suburban Maryland for high-interest subprime mortgages.

ALL BUSINESS: Bond-market rout lifts mortgage cost  —  NEW YORK (AP) - The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market.  —  But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect.

TERRORISTS FREE TO KILL ONCE AGAIN AS THEY SLIP THE GRASP OF GITMO'S KID GLOVES  —  THE Pentagon now confirms that at least 74 former Guantanamo detainees have resumed terror ist activities after claiming they weren't terrorists.  —  Such recidivism points up an alarming intelligence failure.

Elections - BNP wins its first seat in European Parliament  —  The British National Party broke into the political mainstream last night when it won its first seat in the European Parliament.  —  The far-Right party won almost 10 per cent of the vote in Yorkshire and the Humber …

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Details Vision for Health-Care Reform  —  Government Subsidies Would Help Families; Insurance Firms' Profits Could Decline  —  Three months after he was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) vowed in an emotional Democratic National Convention address …

New Orleans mayor quarantined in China  —  (CNN) — The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been quarantined in China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office said Sunday.  —  Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, flew on a plane that carried …

Tickle Me Obama: Lessons from Sesame Street  —  Most presidents are easy to pin down on our cultural maps.  Ronald Reagan was raised in Dixon, Ill., but we placed him in Hollywood, telling America's story on the big screen.  Bill Clinton may have been the Man from Hope, Ark., but the mischief of nearby Hot Springs was in his blood.

After Cairo, It's Clinton Time  —  It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry after reading the reactions of analysts and officials in the Middle East to President Obama's Cairo speech.  “It's not what he says, but what he does,” many said.  No, ladies and gentlemen of the Middle East, it is what he says and what you do and what we do.