Anti-U.S. militia returns to Baghdad

Many Iraqis in areas where anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army once held sway say young men who had worn the militia’s signature black shirts have returned ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, albeit in smaller numbers and a low profile.
Many Sunnis in flashpoint neighborhoods say they are lying low or temporarily moving to safer areas [...]

Rare Death Penalty

Though the suspect in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood could face the death penalty, he will be prosecuted in a military justice system where no one has been executed in nearly a half-century.
Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist alleged to have killed 13 people at the massive Army installation in Texas last week, might [...]

President Obama is Floating Amid Three Parallel Universes

In the Republican universe, nearly all his policies have been wrong, even dangerous. His economic stimulus plan has been wasteful and ineffective. His bailouts of the banks and the auto companies have been simplistic and unfair to everyday Americans.
His government activism has set America on a path to socialism or worse. His profligate spending [...]

Illinois Senate OKs Caps on Political Donations

The Illinois Senate signed off Friday on a compromise that would establish the state’s first limits on campaign donations, sending it to the governor despite Republican complaints that the bill concentrates power in the hands of a few political insiders.
The bill would cap the amount of money that people, interest groups and political committees can [...]