The Up-or-Down Vote on Obama's Presidency  —  WEDNESDAY'S health care rally was one of President Obama's finest hours.  It was so fine it couldn't be blighted even by his preposterous backdrop, a cohort of white-jacketed medical workers large enough to staff a hospital in one of the daytime soaps …

Explosions Hit Baghdad as Iraqis Vote in Pivotal Election  —  BAGHDAD — A concerted wave of attacks struck Baghdad and other cities across the country on Sunday as Iraqis voted to elect a new parliament and possibly a new prime minister.  Explosions reverberated across the capital moments …

Revealed: How hundreds of military personnel, millions of pounds and an experimental ‘lung’ saved the life of a British soldier... shot by accident in his own camp  —  Last updated at 2:29 AM on 07th March 2010  —  It was one of the most complex military logistical and medical operations ever undertaken …

Final push for proximity talks as Biden heads to Israel  —  Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel Saturday to try to make the final push for the launch of indirect proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the arrival of Vice President Joseph Biden in Israel Monday.

Bishops and Abortion  —  Scott Lemieux wrote yesterday: … In fairness, the Bishops seem to me to put quite a lot of political emphasis on institutionalized discrimination against gays and lesbians.  —  On the abortion point, the “life begins at conception and ends at birth” …

If Reform Fails  —  As the fierce debate on President Obama's plan for health care reform comes to a head, Americans should be thinking carefully about what happens if Congress fails to enact legislation.  —  Are they really satisfied with the status quo?  And is the status quo really sustainable?

Consent of the governed - and the lack thereof  —  Our Declaration of Independence observes:  —  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Mom, Apple Pie and Mortgages  —  FOR decades, the federal government has subsidized housing — particularly owner-occupied housing.  This has been especially true during the continuing financial crisis, with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration propping up the housing market …

VIDEO: Sarah Palin writes on her hand because she is just like God  —  This is so jaw-droppingly convolutedly typical:  —  Sarah Palin Speaks at the Ohio Right to Life fundraiser on March 5, 2010.  —  Via Gryphen: … I particularly enjoyed the part about GodClone McJustify's compulsion to scribble a dollar sign on her hand.

Iran's Ahmadinejad: Sept. 11 attacks a ‘big lie’  —  TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a “big lie” used by the U.S. as an excuse for the war on terror, state media reported.

‘They Need to Be Liberated From Their God’  —  The ‘Son of Hamas’ author on his conversion to Christianity, spying for Israel, and shaming his family.  —  'I absolutely know that in anybody's eyes I was a traitor," says Mosab Hassan Yousef. “  To my family, to my nation, to my God.

Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse  —  CLEARWATER, Fla. — Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.