Obama Administration Responds To Rand Paul On Drones  —  The U.S. government cannot target an American citizen who is not engaged in combat on American soil, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday during his daily press briefing.  —  Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) …

Yup, Samira probably sent those tweets  —  The row over Samira Ibrahim's tweets (written up by my fellow blogger Marc) is raging.  Mainstream US journalists are now beginning to cover the story, and Jeffery Goldberg has written that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum raised concerns …

Sen. Carl Levin announces he will not seek re-election in 2014  —  WASHINGTON - Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., announced today that he will not seek re-election in 2014.  He released the following statement:  —  I have decided not to run for re-election in 2014.

The Good, Racist People  —  Last month the actor Forest Whitaker was stopped in a Manhattan delicatessen by an employee.  Whitaker is one of the pre-eminent actors of his generation, with a diverse and celebrated catalog ranging from “The Great Debaters” to “The Crying Game” to “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.”

It's time to overturn DOMA  —  In 1996, I signed the Defense of Marriage Act.  Although that was only 17 years ago, it was a very different time.  In no state in the union was same-sex marriage recognized, much less available as a legal right, but some were moving in that direction.

How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for ‘Star Wars’  —  One weekend last October, Robert Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney (DIS), sat through all six Star Wars films.  He'd seen them before, of course.  This time, he took notes.  Disney was in secret negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm …

New Study Finds Firearms Laws Do Nothing to Prevent Homicides  —  That's the headline you should be seeing, but won't.  Instead, you will see headlines like this one, on CNN: “Study links gun laws and lower gun mortality.”  Or this one, from the Chicago Tribune: “States with strict gun laws found to have fewer shooting deaths.”

New York Hearing Set as Son-in-Law of Bin Laden Is Caught  —  WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden's son-in-law was recently arrested in the Middle East, was transferred to the United States and is now in a New York jail, according to two people briefed on the matter.

New York National Rifle Association official barred from carrying a gun  —  An order of protection stemming from a domestic disturbance at his Long Island home in 2010 prevents Richard D'Alauro, the NRA's field representative for the city and its suburbs, from carrying the weapons.