Whom do you most want to interview that you haven't yet? Kyla Kelim, MOBILE, ALA. Fidel Castro certainly. Always wanted to interview a Pope. Any Pope. And J.D. Salinger, who is probably the most impossible interview to get. The Catcher in the Rye had a major impact on me. I'd ask him, "Where'd you go? Why'd you stop writing? Did you run dry after four books?" That just boggles me. That's something I could never do. Disappear from the scene. ...

After more than a year of bitter political debate and seemingly inescapable congressional deadlock, President Obama sat down in the White House East Room on March 23 and signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law with a stroke of his pen. And then another pen. And another. Obama used 22 pens to sign the landmark $938 billion health care bill. It would seem that either the President has an undiagnosed case of OCD ...

We're Calling It, Healthcare Is Going To Pass Alright, we're calling it. Healthcare is going to pass. Dennis Kucinich has announced his intention to support the bill, and now, according to ace Washington Independent reporter David Weigel, even the tea partiers are feeling dispirited. Kucinich is an odd one, but he's actually important, and presumably he wouldn't throw away his much-vaunted independence if he thought he was going to be on the losing side of the battle. He obviously knows that Pelosi and ...

A national campaign to inoculate tens of millions of Americans against H1N1 influenza began Monday, with health care workers in Indiana and Tennessee targeted as the first recipients, federal health authorities said. Obama will be joined by, among others, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the heads of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees in the House and Senate, the officials said. The meeting comes ...

Deliberations over what to do in Afghanistan are taking place behind closed doors, but the divisions among some of President Obama's trusted advisers are starting to emerge. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has made no secret about his belief that the U.S. needs to send more troops now -- or it will risk failure, making an unusual appearance last week in front of a global strategic think tank to present his case. "We need to ...

With the passage of health-care-reform legislation out of the Senate Finance Committee expected on Tuesday, the debate moves into a new and delicate stage. It is one that will test the legislative and political skills of Senate majority leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a scale that no congressional leadership team has had to face in at least four decades. Whether they are up to the challenge will determine not only the fate of the ...

As support for the war in Afghanistan dips to an all-time low, some leading lawmakers are questioning President Obama's approach to what he calls a "war of necessity." Just 39 percent of Americans favor the war in Afghanistan compared to 58 percent who oppose it, according to a national CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday. The poll follows the two deadliest months for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. In August, 48 U.S. troops were killed in the fighting, surpassing the ...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to approve sending thousands of additional forces to Afghanistan to deal with the growing threat from roadside bombs, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Friday. Over the past two weeks, Gates has concluded that there are not enough forces or equipment in Afghanistan to protect U.S. troops from the threat of roadside bombs, Morrell said. The secretary, he said, wants to send these forces "as soon as possible." Morrell said the deployment would be separate ...

A Republican House member shouted, "You lie" during President Obama's health care speech to Congress on Wednesday, and members of both parties condemned the heckling. After the speech, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson issued a statement apologizing for his outburst. "This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill," the statement said. "While I disagree with the president's statement, my comments ...

CIA Director Leon Panetta recently testified to Congress that the agency concealed information and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001, according to a letter from seven House Democrats to Panetta made public Wednesday. The letter to Panetta, dated June 26, was published on the Web site of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California. "Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years ...