US Unemployment Rate Gallops Ahead of Expectations  —  The White House says America's employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago.  The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years.

Obama's Economic Circle Keeps Tensions Simmering  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama was getting his daily economic briefing one recent morning when a fly distracted him.  The president swatted and missed, just as the pest buzzed near the shoes of Lawrence H. Summers, the chief White House economic adviser.

Palin versus GOP  —  Sarah Palin's on-again, off-again appearance at Monday night's gala GOP fundraising dinner is off — again.  —  After being invited — for a second time — to speak to the annual joint fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National …

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 …

Suspect in abortion doctor death warns of violence  —  WICHITA, Kan. — The man charged with murdering a high-profile abortion doctor claimed from his jail cell Sunday that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal, a threat that comes days …

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 …

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.”

President Obama's French food tested by ‘taster’ … A US “taster” tested the food being dished up to President Barack Obama at a dinner in a French restaurant, a waiter said on Sunday.  —  “They have someone who tastes the dishes,” said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the “La Fontaine de Mars” …

Closed Clinic Leaves Abortion Protesters at a Loss  —  WICHITA, Kan. — For the first time in years, only a Wichita police car has been waiting outside the abortion clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, who was shot to death a week ago.  Gone are the trucks bearing enormous images of bloody fetuses …

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.

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 …

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.

Sestak: Only an ‘act of God’ will keep him out of Senate race  —  PITTSBURGH—Short of divine intervention, Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) is running for Senate.  —  “It would take an act of God for me to not get in now,” Sestak told a Democratic State Committeeman Saturday morning within earshot of reporters.

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.

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.

Obama's poor choice for faith leader  —  Why did a pro-choice president appoint someone to HHS who is against abortion AND birth control?  Political payback?  —  President Barack Obama's appointment of Alexia Kelley, founder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good …

“We Were All Appalled By the Bush Years”  —  Thus a neighbor of retired State Department intelligence analyst Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, on the “frustration with U.S. policies” shared by all right-thinking people in the upper-Northwest D.C. bastion of liberalism in which they reside.