Palin Bus Tour Takes Extended Pit Stop  —  Less than a month after she appeared poised to shake up the Republican presidential campaign, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has once again receded from the 2012 limelight.  —  When Palin launched her “One Nation” bus tour on Memorial Day amid …

Obama Opts for Faster Afghan Pullout  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 “surge,” by the end of next summer …

CBO: We'll only have giant deficits if Congress wants giant deficits  —  The Congressional Budget Office just released the latest edition of its long-term budget outlook (pdf), and it shows the same thing as always: If Congress lets the Bush tax cuts expire or offsets their extension …

My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant  —  One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab.  She handed me a jacket.  “Baka malamig doon” were among the few words she said.  ("It might be cold there.")  When I arrived at the Philippines' Ninoy Aquino International Airport …

Climate of Denial  —  Can science and the truth withstand the merchants of poison?  —  AL GORE  —  The first time I remember hearing the question “is it real?” was when I went as a young boy to see a traveling show put on by “professional wrestlers” one summer evening in the gym …

Michele Bachmann's Holy War  —  The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter  —  Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing.

Staff quit because “I'm different,” Gingrich says  —  (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday attributed the mass resignations among his campaign staff to the fact that he is “very different” from mainstream politicians.  —  “Philosophically …

Silver sees session end today, ready for SSM tweaks  —  After spending 90 minutes meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, legislative leaders emerged to say they have not fully ironed out details of the “big ugly” framework containing a property tax cap, rent regulation renewal and relief of some local government mandates.

CAIR Loses IRS Status  —  Donations to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) no longer are tax deductible after the organization was among 275,000 tax-exempt organizations purged earlier this month by the Internal Revenue Service.  —  The groups failed to file required annual reports …

WRAPUP 4-Democrats call for new spending in US debt deal  —  * Biden group pushes ahead in deficit-reduction talks  —  * CBO says benefits will swamp economy in long term (Adds quotes from Bernanke)  —  Democratic leaders called on Wednesday for additional spending to boost the sluggish U.S. economy …

Lawmakers Re-Introduce The Equal Rights Amendment In Response To Wal-Mart Ruling  —  This week, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to 1.5 million women by throwing out their charges of comprehensive gender discrimination by retail behemoth Walmart in a 5-4 decision.

Huntsman's family gave nearly $25,000 to Reid last cycle  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said this week he prefers Jon Huntsman to Mitt Romney in the GOP Mormon presidential primary, has taken a lot of money from the Huntsman family, and the former Utah governor appointed Reid's son, Josh, to Utah's Board of Regents.

Tobey Maguire Sued Over Multi-Million Dollar Illegal Poker Game; DiCaprio, Affleck & Damon Involved  —  Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire is among more than a dozen high-profile Hollywood celebrities being sued in connection with a mega-millions illegal gambling ring that ran high-stakes underground poker games …

House Republicans to vote on de-funding Libya conflict  —  House Republicans are planning to vote on a bill that would prohibit funding of the American mission in Libya, a shift from previous plans to consider a weaker rebuke of President Obama's military intervention in the north African country.

Nobody's Candidate  —  The media might love Jon Huntsman, but it's less clear that Republicans do.  —  The media create and the media destroy.  Jon Huntsman announced his presidential bid to the kind of hype once reserved for a Pink Floyd reunion or a LeBron James signing …

Dems lost the argument over the deficit, because they never engaged it  —  In case you need further evidence that the Dem decision to effectively endorse the right's austerity/cut-cut-cut frame is only harming themselves, check out the internals of the new Bloomberg News poll.

An Auspicious Start  —  A political earthquake shook California ten days ago when the Citizens Redistricting Commission released its first Congressional maps.  Since their release, statisticians and pundits have been working furiously to figure out their consequences.  Will the Democrats or the Republicans benefit?

Barney Frank and Ron Paul will Introduce Legislation on Thursday to Fully Legalize Marijuana  —  Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce “bi-partisan legislation tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax …

Jon Stewart 1, Politifact 0: Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed  —  I have a lot of respect for political fact checking sites.  I think they play a critical role, especially in our misinformation-saturated political and media environment.  —  However, sometimes these sites fall for the allure of phony bipartisanship.

NBC gives Donald a Trump-sized raise to $160M  —  Playing the presidential card has paid off for Donald Trump.  —  The real-estate mogul and reality-TV host — who kept viewers and the NBC network guessing until the last minute whether he would make a serious run at the Oval Office …

Man flies US Airways in women's underwear (Photo)  —  Six days before a college football player was arrested at San Francisco International Airport in a dispute that began when a US Airways employee asked him to pull up his sagging pants, a man who was wearing little but women's undergarments …

Italy breaks ranks over NATO's Libya mission  —  ROME (AFP) - Italy called for a suspension of hostilities in Libya on Wednesday in the latest sign of dissent within NATO as the civilian death toll mounts and Moamer Kadhafi shows no signs of quitting power.  —  “We have seen the effects …