International:
Hamas Calls for New Terror Attacks on Israel
Hamas militants called Sunday for a fresh wave of attacks against Israel after troops killed nine Palestinians in weekend fighting, straining a five-month-old cease-fire.

In response to the bloodshed, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' more moderate Fatah movement urged him to consider breaking off contacts with the Israeli government, despite his pledge to the United States to hold regular meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Hamas and Fatah are partners in a coalition government. Read more here.

Another Fallujah leader is killed
The Fallujah City Council chairman, a critic of al Qaeda who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed yesterday. His death was the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. Details here.

Pentagon Invites Kremlin to Link Missile Systems
The Bush administration is offering Russia a new package of incentives to drop its strong opposition to American missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, including an invitation to begin linking some American and Russian antimissile systems, according to senior administration and military officials. Read on...

"I Wish The War With Iraq Never Existed"; "It Was Osama bin Laden's Idea:
On a visit to Ohio yesterday, White House senior political adviser Karl Rove claimed he never wanted the war in Iraq. "I wish the war were over," Rove said. "I wish the war never existed. ... History has given us a challenge." In Jan. 2002, Rove told conservatives that "Americans trust the Republicans to do a better job of keeping our communities and our families safe. ... We can also go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America." In June 2002, Rove was giving PowerPoint presentations to candidates advising them to "focus on the war" in their fall campaigns. In Aug. 2002, Rove was chairing the White House Iraq Group, whose mission was to "develop a strategy for publicizing the White House's assertion that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States." In Sept. 2002, Time reported that when friends asked whether President Bush planned to invade Iraq, Rove was known to reply, "Let me put it this way: If you want to see Baghdad, you'd better visit soon." Former White House counterterrorism director Richard Clarke later wrote that the Iraq "crisis was manufactured, and Bush political adviser Karl Rove was telling Republicans to 'run on the war.'" Rove also claimed yesterday in a question-and answer period after his speech that it was Osama bin Laden, not Bush, who decided to launch the Iraq war: "I think it was Osama bin Laden's [idea]." Rove's comments are part of re-emerging tactic by the Bush administration to associate the ongoing war in Iraq with 9/11. Rove and company appear to have forgotten that Bush said 9/11 had "nothing" to do with the war in Iraq.

National:
Rove Spat Heats Dinner
Against an elegant backdrop of political cocktail partying, singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow and top presidential adviser Karl Rove got into a heated exchange over global warming at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

Crow recently joined forces with Hollywood activist Laurie David in the “Stop Global Warming College Tour,” which pretty much is what it says. The duo was seen in a heated conversation with Rove, in an incident which quickly became the evening’s centerpiece of discussion.

An eye-witness recounted what they saw:“Sheryl and Karl Rove were talking. Karl looked annoyed and she was poking him [angrily]. He started to leave and she pulled on his sleeve and pulled him back. Rove tried to walk away.” Read the full story here.

"I Don't Recall"
Throughout this scandal, Gonzales has simultaneously said that he is "ultimately accountable and responsible for what happens within the department," while at the same time shirking responsibility: "I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."

Yet documents show that Gonzales was involved and approved plans to fire several of the prosecutors in an hour-long meeting on Nov. 27. Earlier in the month, Gonzales former chief of staff Kyle Sampson told congressional investigators that the Attorney General was "inaccurate," or "at least not complete" in asserting that he had no role in the prosecutor purge deliberations. Last week, Gonzales finally conceded the obvious -- that he was involved.

False Deadline
Yesterday, the AP put out a report confirming that President Bush has been hyping a false Iraq spending deadline. For weeks, Bush has been trying to force Congress to abandon its support for an Iraq withdrawal timeline by claiming that a "clean" Iraq spending bill must be signed by mid-April or U.S. troops will suffer. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report showing that the Army actually has enough money in its existing budget to operate through June. The Bush administration and its conservative allies disputed the CRS's findings. But now, the CRS numbers have been confirmed by the Pentagon. "The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war through June, despite warnings from the White House that troops are being harmed by Congress' failure to quickly deliver more funds," according to the AP's report. "The Army is taking a series of 'prudent measures' aimed at making sure delays in the bill financing the war do not harm troop readiness, according to instructions sent to Army commanders and budget officials April 14."

Condi urges Iran to join Iraq talks
Condoleezza Rice is urging Iran to join her at a high-level conference on the future of Iraq next week, signalling that Washington is now ready for a serious exchange of views with Tehran after several months of resisting Iran’s advances in the region.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the US secretary of state said it would be a “missed opportunity” if Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister, did not attend the minister-level meeting to be hosted by Egypt. Read more here.

George Tenet Targets Cheney, Clinton in New Book
Former CIA Director George Tenet's long-awaited book will hit book stores in the next week - and its release won't be happy news for both Democrats and Republicans. At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA will take shots at key members of President Bush's inner circle. NewsMax has learned that Vice President Dick Cheney is a particular target, relating how he pushed too hard for intelligence that might tie Iraq to the attacks of 9/11. More on this story here.

In Other News...
The U.S. military is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall in Baghdad "to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city."

A suicide bomber breached Baghdad's heavy security presence again last Thursday, killing a dozen people in a mostly Shiite district a day after more than 230 people died in one of the Iraq war's deadliest episodes of violence.

A bill giving Washington, D.C. its first full seat in Congress cleared the House yesterday, marking the city's biggest legislative victory in its quest for voting rights in nearly three decades. But the bill doesn't appear to have enough votes to break a Senate filibuster, and President Bush has vowed a veto.

A group of 42 top former World Bank executives — including Shengman Zhang, the former World Bank No. 2 official under Wolfowitz — has written a letter urging Paul Wolfowitz to resign

From The Right: Doug Giles: Gun Free Zones: A Mass Murderer's Dream Come True
Unfortunately, there was no concealed weapon in the possession of a concerned citizen to stop this satanic weed from taking root because guns are disallowed on campus.

From The Left: Paul Singer: Waxman Sets Hearing to Consider Batch of Subpoenas House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-California) is ginning up the subpoena mill, scheduling a meeting next week to consider subpoenas in four different investigations of the Bush administration.

Quote Of The Day: “I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop,”...“There are other methods to protect neighborhoods.”..."this wall reminds us of other walls," Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the construction of Baghdad wall- in an apparent reference to the wall that divided the German city of Berlin during the Cold War. details here

(Sources: FOXNews, ThinkProgress, TownHall, CommonDreams, DrudgeReport, TruthOut, NewsMax, NYT, WashingtonTimes, WashingtonPost, The Politico, Ohio.com, RushLimbaugh, CNN, Time, ArmyTimes, TheOlympian, LATimes, FinancialTimes, PoliticalWire, Reuters, Breitbart)