A Top GOP Conservative Defends Pelosi, Slams Fox  —  Tom Coburn fiercely opposed Nancy Pelosi on the Health Bill but praised her as a “nice person.”  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Oklahoma town hall meeting with colorful characters and a lot of populist anger brought out an often glossed over side …

Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense.  —  But the president …

Court Rules Against F.C.C. in ‘Net Neutrality’ Case  —  WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a sharp blow to the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to set the rules of the road for the Internet, ruling that the agency lacks the authority to require broadband providers …

What Does Palinspeak Mean?  —  Why does Sarah Palin talk the way she does?  Just what is this sort of thing below? … Just forty years ago people would be shocked to read something like this as a public statement from someone even pretending, as Palin pretty much had to have been by the time of this quote …

Wash. man charged with threatening Sen. Murray  —  SEATTLE — A Washington state man has been charged with threatening to kill Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray over her support for health care reform.  —  Court documents say federal agents arrested Charles Alan Wilson in Yakima on Tuesday.

Kirk moves ahead  —  The last two months have not been good for Alexi Giannoulias, and Mark Kirk now leads him 37-33 in his bid to be the next Senator from Illinois.  —  A PPP survey taken a week and a half before the primary found Giannoulias up 42-34 on Kirk.

RNC Committeeman Quits, Slams Steele  —  NH RNC member Sean Mahoney resigned his post today, taking aim at chairman Michael Steele in a strongly-worded protest letter over the committee's profligate spending.  —  “Not only has the out-of-touch, free-spending culture of Washington come …

Death Toll Hits 25 in West Virginia Coal Mine Blast  —  MONTCOAL, W.Va. — The death toll from a blast at a West Virginia coal mine rose to 25 on Tuesday, federal safety officials said, making it the worst mining accident in the United States in 25 years.  —  Four miners were still missing …

IRS chief: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund  —  Individuals who don't purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.  After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency's options for enforcing the individual mandate …

Video Shows 2007 Air Attack in Baghdad That Killed Photographer  —  WASHINGTON — The Web site WikiLeaks.org released a graphic video on Monday showing an American helicopter shooting and killing a Reuters photographer and driver in a July 2007 attack in Baghdad.

The National Housing Survey and the real estate bear market  —  There's a huge amount of information in Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey; I'd recommend downloading the full 117-page presentation here.  It confirms what I've been hearing anecdotally: that people still believe in housing as an investment …

ExxonMobil paid no federal income tax in 2009.  (Updated)  —  Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year.  “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam.

Relax, We'll Be Fine  —  According to recent polls, 60 percent of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction.  The same percentage believe that the U.S. is in long-term decline.  The political system is dysfunctional.  A fiscal crisis looks unavoidable.  There are plenty of reasons to be gloomy.

Despite previous governors' refusals, McDonnell issues Confederate history month proclamation  —  Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic predecessors — Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — refused to do.

Dems' special-election scramble  —  The prospect of losing two House seats in back-to-back special elections next month has sparked a vigorous, behind-the-scenes Democratic effort, designed to avoid an outcome that could lead to panic among the rank and file and stall the momentum generated …

Reid: I'm Doing ‘Fine’ in Polls, Country's Skepticism Over Health Care Bill Has Changed  —  This is a rush transcript from “On the Record,” April 5, 2010.  This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.  —  GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Now, the most powerful United States senator goes …

White House Correspondents' dinner just got harder for party crashers  —  Bad news for Washington's junior varsity Salahis: The most crashable (yet crash-worthy) party in town is taking new measures to keep you out.  —  For years, it has been an open secret in D.C. media-political circles …

McMillen: I Was Sent to Fake Prom  —  To avoid Constance McMillen bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a “fake prom” while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents.  —  McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind …

U.S. targets American-born cleric in Yemen: officials  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has authorized operations to capture or kill a U.S.-born Muslim cleric based in Yemen, who is described by a key lawmaker as Americas's top terrorist threat, officials said on Tuesday.

No points for guessing which game has some controversial new rules  —  The rules of word game Scrabble are being changed for the first time in its history to allow the use of proper nouns, games company Mattel has said.  —  Place names, people's names and company names or brands will now count.

Five stumbling blocks that could wipe out many Democrats this November  —  Democrats feel they have grabbed political momentum, but the party still faces several dangers that could wipe it out in November.  —  Democratic strategists and independent political experts identify roughly five stumbling blocks …

Rand Paul and the Washington “machine”  —  Candidates from across the country are running against Washington these days but none so aggressively — or effectively — as ophthalmologist Rand Paul.  —  Paul's latest anti-Washington volley comes in the form of an ad portraying the nation's capitol …

The Upcoming Budget Resolution: What Reconciliation Instructions Might It Contain?  —  Normally, by this point in the year, Congress would have already began the process of marking up the 2011 budget resolution.  The process got pushed back due to the work on the new health care law …

How much taxation is enough?  —  ‘Tea Partiers’ understand the link between taxes and freedom.  Somehow, liberals just don't get it.  —  Congratulations!  This is your last week working for the man — at least for this year.  The Tax Foundation calculates that Tax Freedom Day for 2010 is April 9 …