A U.S. intelligence official told CNN on March 17 that an intercepted message reveals that some members of al Qaeda are looking to the group founder Osama bin Laden for more visible leadership. The report followed an interview on the same topic with CIA Director Leon Panetta by a Washington Post reporter.

Osama bin Laden is "rarely seen, rarely heard," the official told CNN, and that is "troubling" to those who regard him as their leader.

"There are strong indications that some al Qaeda terrorists would like Bin Laden to take a higher profile," the official said, adding that Panetta's comments in the Washington Post were referring to the al Qaeda core that is operating along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

Yet another off-the-wall lawsuit is sparking debate, this time in Mississippi. A lesbian teenager, Constance McMillen, declared her intention to show up for the senior prom wearing a tuxedo with her female date. School officials gave the idea a thumbs-down, which, of course, sparked the interest of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — a long-time leftist front group that never saw a sordid cause they didn’t like. With the parents’ blessings, attorneys for the girl confronted school officials, claiming they had violated the girl’s free-expression rights and threatening a lawsuit. So the Itawamba County School District canceled the April 2 prom rather than give in.

Now the girl in question has the gall to be upset because she is “facing hostility” from classmates who (understandably) blame her for “ruining” their senior year, and she is suing the school to try to force them to put on the prom.

President Obama’s campaign promised openness and transparency, yet the most recent proposal to pass health care reform illustrates anything but that. In a desperate endeavor to pass the unpopular health care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposes using the “self-executing rule,” despite her objection to use of a similar rule in 2005. 

The Washington Post explains that the self-executing rule “allows for a ‘two for one’ procedure: When the House adopts such a rule, it simultaneously agrees to dispose of a separate matter, a ‘self-executed provision’, which is specified in the rule itself.” What this means is that lawmakers have no opportunity to amend or vote separately on the provision that is self-executed. This rule has been around since the Great Depression in 1933, though it exists in various forms.