Positive Initial Reaction to Sotomayor Nomination  —  Americans believe intellect, experience most important in Obama's choice  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' first reactions to the news of President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court are decidedly …

Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings  —  Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans.  What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere …

Abu Ghraib abuse photos ‘show rape’  —  Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.  —  At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another …

Presidential Fundraising Trips Leave Taxpayers With Hefty Tab  —  President Obama left Tuesday for a two-day fundraising tour in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.  The Democratic National Committee is expected to pick up part of the cost, but if history is any gauge, taxpayers will pick up most of the tab.

The Peter Principle  —  We hang together or hang separately. … All of us, every single person regardless of political persuasion who reads this, have a tendency to deny our friends and fellow travelers at times.  All of us.  —  Peter, under pressure and fear, denied Christ not just once, but three times.

Video: O'Reilly smears Hot Air  —  Ah, there's nothing like yanking a comment out of context and using it to smear the entire site, even though neither Ed nor I have ever referred to Obama as “Hussein.”  Bonus points to O'R for referring to the comment in question as a “blog posting” even though it's anything but.

Is the Geithner Plan DOA?  —  The Wall Street Journal reports that the Public-Private Investment Program — better known as Geithner's Plan — might never live at all. … Given how much publicity — and controversy — Geithner's plan received when it was announced last March, that might seem a bit odd.

Specter Tops Toomey By 9 Pts.  In Pennsylvania Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; New Democratic Senator Has Big Primary Lead  —  Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, the likely Republican challenger in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race, has gained some ground and now trails newly-converted Democratic …

Please uncover your face.  It's our custom  —  Why are women's faces concealed in East London but not in Damascus?  —  Funny to return from Lebanon, Syria and Turkey - where women go unveiled - and return to Britain, the land of the full hijab.  I see more women with their faces covered in Tower Hamlets than I did in Damascus.

National security adviser downplays N. Korea threat  —  President Obama's national security adviser on Wednesday said that North Korea's recent nuclear detonation and missile tests are not “an imminent threat” to the safety and security of the United States.

Shhhh.  Newspaper publishers are quietly holding a very, very important conclave today.  Will you soon be paying for online content?  —  Here's a story the newspaper industry's upper echelon apparently kept from its anxious newsrooms: A discreet Thursday meeting in Chicago about their future.

FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight  —  Bureau agents will gather evidence to ensure that criminal prosecutions of alleged terrorists are an option.  The move is a reversal of the Bush administration's emphasis on covert CIA actions.  —  Reporting from Washington …