Sotomayor backers urge reporters to probe New Haven firefighter  —  WASHINGTON — Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.  —  On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing …

Leaders in House Seek to Tax Rich for Health Plan  —  WASHINGTON — House Democrats will ask the wealthiest Americans to help pay for overhauling the health care system with a $550 billion income tax increase, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee said Friday.

David Brooks Recounts GOP Senator Who “Had His Hand On My Inner Thigh” At Dinner Party  —  You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!  —  DOWNLOADS: (365)  —  PLAYS: (972)  —  Think Progress has more: … This is one of those bizarre moments …

The new Report on illegal spying is not a real investigation  —  The Bush-era torture regime might have been that administration's most flamboyant act of criminality, but its illegal NSA warrantless eavesdropping program (and other still-unknown surveillance programs) has always been the clearest.

In Ghana, Obama Preaches Tough Love  —  ACCRA, Ghana — President Obama traveled in his father's often-troubled home continent on Saturday as a potent symbol of a new era and the embodiment of hope but also as a messenger with a tough-love theme: American aid must be matched by African responsibility for its own problems.

The Stumbles That Led to an Ethics Blunder  —  The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record “salons” was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions.  —  Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility …

Obama Diagrams Health-Care Strategy From Abroad  —  President Obama dropped a few hints about how he intends to lobby Congress on health care during a news conference Friday following the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy.  And if we're parsing his remarks correctly, lawmakers can expect firm prodding through …

Weekly remarks: Obama still clearing wreckage; Cantor asks, where are the jobs?  —  This week's weekly remarks open with President Obama in Africa opening on foreign affairs.  But by the second paragraph out of 20, he gets to what he really wants — needs — to talk about: domestic business in general and the economy specifically.

Obama admin: No grounds to probe Afghan war crimes  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama administration officials said Friday they had no grounds to investigate the 2001 deaths of Taliban prisoners of war who human rights groups allege were killed by U.S.-backed forces.

Lender CIT Group Is Facing a Crunch  —  CIT Hires Bankruptcy Adviser as Payment Looms; Financier to 1 Million Businesses  —  CIT Group Inc., a lender to almost a million mostly small and midsize businesses across the country, is preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing after so far failing …

What Would More Stimulus Look Like?  —  Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong both had good items yesterday discussing the desirability of additional stimulus.  The politics still aren't there yet, but in the interests of moving the ball forward it's worth thinking about what additional stimulus might look like.