‘Have You No Sense of Decency?’  The Wm.  Cronon Story  —  BEIJING, China.  I don't mean to keep butting in and have just a minute to type this out, but I think it's important to direct attention to a new abuse of power underway in Wisconsin.  —  William Cronon (right), whom I know very slightly …

Huckabee Has Slight Edge, Palin Down, in GOP '12 Preferences  —  Romney, Palin would tie if Huckabee does not run  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Mike Huckabee tops a large list of potential GOP presidential candidates in current support for the party's 2012 nomination, with 19% of Republicans saying they are most likely to back him.

G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether  —  General Electric, the nation's largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.  —  The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.  —  Its American tax bill?

Japan Encourages a Wider Evacuation From Reactor Area  —  TOKYO — Japanese officials began encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Friday as new signs emerged that parts of the crippled facility are so damaged and contaminated …

Connie Mack will NOT run for U.S. Senate  —  U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV won't run for U.S. Senate.  —  “I've got two small children and it's hard enough to get to spend a lot of good quality time now.  I have a wife.  They are all very important to me and at the end of the day family has to be number one …

Lamestream Media: Reload or White Flag?  —  “Let's keep pivoting around media bias, and not get distracted with the vulgar personal shots.  Call out lies and set the record straight, but always keep the ball moving.  No one ever won a game only playing defense.”

CBO: Taxing mileage a ‘practical option’ for revenue enhancement  —  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs …

The professor's war … President Obama is proud of how he put together the Libyan operation.  A model of international cooperation.  All the necessary paperwork.  Arab League backing.  A Security Council resolution.  (Everything but a resolution from the Congress of the United States …

The Austerity Delusion  —  Portugal's government has just fallen in a dispute over austerity proposals.  Irish bond yields have topped 10 percent for the first time.  And the British government has just marked its economic forecast down and its deficit forecast up.  —  What do these events have in common?

Number of black D.C. residents plummets as majority status slips away  —  Graphic: View how demographics in your neighborhood have changed over time.  —  The number of African Americans residing in the District plummeted by more than 11 percent during the past decade, with blacks on the verge …

Allies Are Split on Goal and Exit Strategy in Libya  —  WASHINGTON — Having largely succeeded in stopping a rout of Libya's rebels, the inchoate coalition attacking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's forces remains divided over the ultimate goal — and exit strategy — of what officials acknowledged Thursday …

Woops, Newt Did It Again: Trying To Defend Libya Flip-Flop, Gingrich Reverses Himself On Air Power  —  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went on Fox News last night to “attempt[] to clarify [his] stance on Libya,” as Fox itself put it, but only ran into more trouble.

The stupid saga of Andrew Breitbart and the Huffington Post  —  So!  Arianna Huffington — recently put in charge of all the “content” at AOL following the dial-up ISP's acquisition of her former “liberal Drudge” Internet newspaper — gave a blog to her old friend Andrew Breitbart.

The Speech Obama Hasn't Given  —  What are we doing in Libya?  Americans deserve an explanation.  —  It all seems rather mad, doesn't it?  The decision to become involved militarily in the Libyan civil war couldn't take place within a less hospitable context.

Canadian general to take NATO command of Libya  —  TORONTO - A Canadian general will take over command of the NATO mission in Libya.  —  Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Friday that Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard has been designated to lead the alliance's military campaign in Libya.

Obama fails to grasp the gravity of going to war  —  Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork  —  “I see Obama's visiting the United States,” said Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, the president's first full day back in Washington after a spring break diplomatic tour of Latin America.

Against The F-Word  —  During a debate over neoconservatism, Damon Linker insists that the ideology isn't fascistic: … Agreed (but one needs to recall Leo Strauss's early love affair with Mussolini and his contempt for what he saw as decadent liberal democracy).

Does Pawlenty Have a Sharia Problem?  —  Pawlenty's effort to expand Muslim homeownership could hurt him in the GOP primary.  —  Abid Lakhani wanted to buy a home.  —  Unfortunately, as an observant Muslim, his options were limited.  Many Muslims hold that the paying or charging of interest …

A Nation of Dropouts Shakes Europe  —  LISBON—Isabel Fernandes, a cheery 22-year-old with a constellation of stars tattooed around her right eye, isn't sure how many times she repeated fifth grade.  Two, she says with a laugh.  Or maybe three.  She redid seventh grade as well.

Lautenberg: Republicans “don't deserve the freedoms that are in the Constitution!”  —  Actually, it's difficult to hear Senator Frank Lautenberg's patronizing follow-up, because the right-to-life counterprotestors taping his remarks reacted vocally to the idea that an elected official …

Does the Supreme Court care more about free speech for the wealthy than about political corruption?  —  Imagine you want to run for office, say for a seat in the state legislature, and you are deciding whether to opt into a voluntary public financing system: accepting a pot of money …

Syria makes promises as unrest spreads  —  (CNN) — At least 15 people were killed as thousands took to the streets in or made their way to the restive Syrian city of Daraa, where deadly clashes erupted over the last week between protesters and security forces.