Looters in Loafers  —  Last October, I saw a cartoon by Mike Peters in which a teacher asks a student to create a sentence that uses the verb “sacks,” as in looting and pillaging.  The student replies, “Goldman Sachs.”  —  Sure enough, last week the Securities and Exchange Commission accused …

Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor  —  The People and Their Government  —  By almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.  A new Pew Research Center survey finds a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government …

Tea partiers in two camps: Palin vs. Paul  —  Tea party activists are divided roughly into two camps, according to a new POLITICO/TargetPoint poll: one that's libertarian-minded and largely indifferent to hot-button values issues and another that's culturally conservative and equally concerned about social and fiscal issues.

Top GOP Officials Writing Off Crist  —  Top GOP officials in DC now believe it is a virtual certainty that FL Gov. Charlie Crist (R) will bolt the GOP and run instead as an independent, sources tell Hotline OnCall.  —  Over the weekend, Crist pulled TV advertisements that had been running in key markets …

Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders killed, U.S. and Iraqi officials say  —  BAGHDAD — The two leaders of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq have been killed in an air strike carried out by American troops, Iraqi and U.S. officials announced Monday.  —  The deaths of Abu Ayyub al-Masri …

Tancredo: Send Obama ‘back’ to Kenya  —  Former congressman Tom Tancredo's speech at the National Tea Party was a misstep that gave organizers their only lasting, negative coverage.  At a Sunday afternoon tea party rally in Greenville, S.C., where he was the keynote speaker, Tancredo stepped in it again.

LEAVE THE 19TH AMENDMENT ALONE.... I like to think I can take a joke, and appreciate political commentary intended as humor, but this item from Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wasn't amusing.  The headline read, “Time to repeal the 19th Amendment?”

North Carolina Democrats' votes against health care push labor to form party  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — A political rebellion is brewing inside an old funeral home near the state Capitol here.  Frustrated liberals and labor organizers are taking aim at the Democratic Party, rushing to gather enough signatures …

Op-Ed Contributor: Violence Is Unacceptable in a Democracy  —  FIFTEEN years ago today, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City claimed the lives of 168 men, women and children.  It was, until 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in United States history.

Airlines condemn ‘European mess’  —  The international airline association has criticised Europe's governments for the way they closed airspace because of volcanic ash from Iceland.  —  IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani told the BBC: “This is a European embarrassment and... a European mess.”

An alarming outbreak of ‘regime’ amnesia  —  Time's Joe Klein got some attention over the weekend when he said, on “The Chris Matthews Show,” that statements from Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are “right up close to being seditious.”  What received less attention was the statement immediately following Klein's …

Militia movement will be packing heat at rally on the Potomac  —  Daniel Almond, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, is ready to “muster outside D.C.” on Monday with several dozen other self-proclaimed patriots, all of them armed.  They intend to make history as the first people to take their guns …

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests  —  Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, a BBC World Service poll suggests.  —  For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative.

McCollum Leads Tight Florida Governor's Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Obama Approval Up As Voters Back Offshore Drilling  —  Republican State Attorney General Bill McCollum holds a narrow 40 - 36 percent lead over Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat …

Americans Still Most Confident in Obama on Economy  —  Obama, business leaders have confidence of majority of Americans  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Obama and “business leaders” engender the most confidence from Americans for their ability to do or to recommend the right thing for the economy.

Lib Dems surge 10 points in poll  —  Labour forced into third place for first time ever in Guardian/ICM voting series, which began in 1984  —  The extraordinary surge in support for the Liberal Democrats continued to gather pace today as a Guardian/ICM poll put the party in second place on 30%, up ten points in a week.