Dear Reuters, You Must Be Kidding  —  This is from a Reuters story on the Jerusalem bombing earlier today: … Those Israelis and their crazy terms!  I mean, referring to a fatal bombing of civilians as a “terrorist attack”?  Who are they kidding?  Everyone knows that a fatal bombing …

Rep. Weiner sinks meat hooks into health-care law's attackers  —  Democrats would be better off if more of them acted like Weiners.  —  As the first anniversary of the health-care law approached this week, many Democratic lawmakers went to ground, leaving unanswered Republican accusations …

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  White House: Libya fight is not war, it's ‘kinetic military action’  —  In the last few days, Obama administration officials have frequently faced the question: Is the fighting in Libya a war?  From military officers to White House spokesmen up to the president himself …

Discord Among Allies  —  Many people were taken aback when France emerged as one of the most pugnacious advocates of military action in Libya, especially Americans who were accustomed to French criticism over Iraq and French foot-dragging over Afghanistan.  Without President Nicolas Sarkozy's early …

Buried Provision In House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes  —  All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers …

Egypt Air removes Israel from map  —  Jordan stretches to sea in online map by Egypt's largest airline, though it continues to fly to Israel  —  Egypt Air, the largest airline in Egypt, has removed Israel from the map - literally.  On its website, Ynet has learned, Jordan's land reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

My position on Libya  —  It is deeply troubling that there is so much confusion, lack of foresight, and little resolve coming from the President and his administration about what our mission and goals must be in the Libya engagement.  —  On March 3rd, President Obama said publicly that “it's time for Gadaffi to go.”

'I'm through whining about a liberal press,' says Sarah Palin  —  Sarah Palin insists she's done complaining about the liberal media.  —  Speaking to Greta Van Susteren on Fox News Wednesday night, the former Alaska governor shrugged off what she contends is a double standard in the way conservative women are treated.

Palin 2.0?  Bachmann Tells ABC News, “I'm In!”  —  Tea Party Darling Says She Wants In on Conversation, Not So Sure About Running  —  Just over ten months before next February's Iowa caucuses Sarah Palin is returning from a recent trip to Israel.  But Tea Party darling Rep. Michele Bachmann …

New Problems at Japanese Plant Subdue Optimism  —  The Japanese electricians who bravely strung wires this week to all six reactor buildings at a stricken nuclear power plant succeeded despite waves of heat and blasts of radioactive steam.  —  The restoration of electricity at the plant …

Durbin is wrong about Muslim rights  —  In the wake of Rep. Peter King's largely toothless hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin is now scheduling Senate hearings on “Muslim rights.”  According to the Washington Times, Durbin claims that …

Unsustainable budget threatens nation  —  Repeated battles over the 2011 budget are taking attention from a more dire problem—the long-run budget deficit.  —  Divided government is no excuse for inaction.  The bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform …

Business groups press Treasury to shift on corporate tax holiday  —  A coalition of American-based corporations calling for a tax holiday on overseas profits say the Obama administration is looking at the issue from the wrong perspective.  —  The question, they say, is not whether …

States Pass Budget Pain to Cities  —  The state budget squeeze is fast becoming a city budget squeeze, as struggling states around the nation plan deep cuts in aid to cities and local governments that will almost certainly result in more service cuts, layoffs and local tax increases.

Worldwide Approval of U.S. Leadership Tops Major Powers  —  U.S. also remains top desired destination for potential migrants  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States continues to achieve higher global approval ratings than China, Russia, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Same-sex marriage stays on hold for Prop. 8 appeal  —  A federal appeals court rejected a plea by gay and lesbian couples Wednesday to let same-sex weddings resume in California while the court reviews a 2008 ballot measure that banned such marriages, a process that could take at least one more year.

Fears grow of humanitarian crisis in besieged Libyan city  —  Gallery: Conflict and chaos in Libya: As forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi continue attacks on rebels and international strikes begin, thousands of Libyans flee the fighting.  —  Aid organizations scrambled Wednesday …

Caught in the act, Silvio Berlusconi's arresting bunga bunga girls  —  They are not the type of photographs that usually emerge from gatherings hosted by heads of state.  —  But these images reveal what goes on behind closed doors at Silvio Berlusconi's infamous ‘bunga bunga’ parties.

National to add second controller overnight after tower goes silent  —  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ordered a second air traffic controller to be on duty overnight at Reagan National Airport, after the lone controller was unavailable early Wednesday as two passenger planes were trying to land.

Rights Are Curtailed for Terror Suspects  —  New rules allow investigators to hold domestic-terror suspects longer than others without giving them a Miranda warning, significantly expanding exceptions to the instructions that have governed the handling of criminal suspects for more than four decades.

Panel on Anthrax Inquiry Finds Case Against Ivins Persuasive  —  WASHINGTON — A panel of psychiatrists who studied the medical records of Bruce E. Ivins found that the F.B.I.'s case that he mailed the anthrax letters in 2001 was persuasive, and that Dr. Ivins's decades-long history …

Liberal Bias at NPR?  —  Surveys show that millions of conservatives choose NPR, even with powerful conservative alternatives on the radio.  —  On the day NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller lost her job, I was reporting from Egypt.  That evening, I had dinner with employees from NPR's Cairo bureau.