Palin beginning to irritate some Senate GOPers  —  Sarah Palin has begun to get on the nerves of Republican senators who say the former GOP vice presidential nominee is taking her own White House aspirations entirely too seriously.  —  But those same senators may have their eye …

Not All Abortions Are Equal  —  The case of Dr. George Tiller, murdered just over a week ago in the lobby of his church, helps explain why so many people believe that abortion should be available at any stage of pregnancy.  —  Tiller did abortions in third trimester, when almost no one else would do them …

GAFFNEY: America's first Muslim president?  —  During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton — someone Judge Sonia Sotomayor might call a “white male” — was dubbed “America's first black president” by a black admirer.  Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering …

10 Banks Allowed to Repay $68B in Bailout Money  —  WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has approved 10 of the nation's largest banks to repay $68 billion in government bailout money.  —  The department on Tuesday said the banks, which were not named, will be allowed to repay the money …

Sotomayor scheduling riles GOP  —  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy's move to set a July 13 start date for Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination hearings has infuriated Republicans, who are threatening to slow walk the every step of the confirmation so they can have more time to dig through …

Voight on Obama: The president is a ‘false prophet’  —  • President Obama  —  The hope of the Republican Party: A combo ticket with Jon Voight and Sarah Palin...the combined intellect and spiritual resonance of a newt...all designed to lead us out of darkness.  —  Ruth, Orlando

Lieberman, Graham Threaten to Shut Down Senate  —  Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to hold up any and all legislation in the Senate until Congress passes its legislation to prohibit the release of photos showing detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cautious at Heart  —  Sonia Sotomayor had bad timing.  If she'd entered college in the late-1950s or early-1960s, she would have been surrounded by an ethos that encouraged smart young ethnic kids to assimilate.  If she'd entered Princeton and Yale in the 1980s, her ethnicity and gender …

Exchange of the Day  —  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) was interviewed last night by Sean Hannity on Fox News:  —  Palin: We are the only state with a negative tax rate where we don't have any income, sales or property tax statewide, and yes we have a share of our oil resource revenue that goes back to the people that own the resources.

Love or lust, Obama and the fawning press need to get a room  —  When Barack Obama decided that questions from the German press about his trip agenda in that country were too pesky, he told the reporters, “So, stop it all of you!”  He just wanted them to ask things he wanted to talk about.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL): I Told China Not To Believe U.S. Budget Numbers  —  Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) now appears to have taken a bold step in the debate over the budget deficit: Openly telling a foreign government not to trust the administration in Washington.  —  The Straits Times reports …

The Media Fall for Phony ‘Jobs’ Claims  —  The Obama Numbers Are Pure Fiction.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Tony Fratto is envious.  —  Mr. Fratto was a colleague of mine in the Bush administration, and as a senior member of the White House communications shop, he knows just how difficult …

Health reform bill lacks details  —  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee will release a much anticipated draft of health care reform this afternoon, but the most contentious issues, like the public insurance option and employer mandate, will be left out of the bill for now …

Poll: Third of Republicans view party unfavorably  —  WASHINGTON — In thinking about the Republican Party's troubles, consider this: One-third of Republicans now say they have an unfavorable opinion of their party.  —  There's no such dyspepsia among Democrats.  Just 4% have an unfavorable view of their party.

Cantor Falsely Claims There Are No ‘Judicial Precedents’ For The Prosecution Of Suspected Terrorists On U.S. Soil  —  Today, Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani was transferred to New York to face trial for the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

O'Reilly and Fox News will have more right-wing violence to answer for  —  If Fox News is going to continue to traffic in hateful, vigilante-style rhetoric, then folks at Fox News, as well as their apologists in the GOP Noise Machine, are going to have to come up with better talking points …

The Top of the Class  —  The complete list of the 1,500 top U.S. high schools  —  Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl.  Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Dr. Tiller, Murder, Domestic Terrorism and the Republican Right  —  As a former lifelong Republican from an influential family of religious right leaders, I look at the national village idiot that the Republican Party has become the way I'd contemplate a demented cousin pissing on the picnic basket at a family reunion.

Court clears Chrysler sale, without dissent  —  Ending more than three days of intense, round-the-clock and high-stakes legal maneuvering in the Supreme Court, the Justices on Tuesday evening without dissent removed a legal obstacle to sale of the troubled auto industry giant, Chrysler.

Health Reform for Beginners: The Difference Between Socialized Medicine, Single-Payer Health Care, and What We'll Be Getting  —  I've been meaning to write this post for some time.  The words “socialized medicine” and"single-payer health care" get thrown around with such gleeful abandon …

Canada's ObamaCare Precedent  —  Governments always ration care by making you wait.  That can be deadly.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Congressional Democrats will soon put forward their legislative proposals for reforming health care.  Should they succeed, tens of millions of Americans …

Holder Winks at Voter Intimidation  —  On ballot integrity, the Justice Department is taking us backward.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  When Eric Holder became U.S. attorney general, he promised to administer the law in an objective, nonpolitical manner.

Return of the Once-Rare Beaver?  Not in My Yard.  —  CONCORD, Mass. — The dozens of public works officials, municipal engineers, conservation agents and others who crowded into a meeting room here one recent morning needed help.  Property in their towns was flooding, they said.  Culverts were clogged.

Study: Cap and trade would hurt economy  —  The Brookings Institution on Monday said cap-and-trade legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would lower the nation's gross domestic product in 2050 by 2.5 percent, compared with levels it would reach if the legislation is not implemented.

Sestak Leads Specter 52%-44% Among PA Dems Who Know Both Candidates  —  Sign up to volunteer for Joe Sestak today!  —  Reddit upvotes appreciated.  —  I have obtained a complete copy of the GQP polling memo, commissioned by a labor-funded 527, on the potential Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary.

North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a ‘merciless offensive’  —  North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.