It appears that Republicans have almost no chance at stopping President Obama from replacing Supreme Court Justice David Souter with whomever he wants, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to try. A special team of GOP researchers is already combing through the records of potential nominees, hoping to find extreme legal writings and other closet-lurking skeletons, reports Politico. “I don’t think, given their majority, that we can stop them, but it’s a great opportunity for us to tie their incumbents to whatever crazy opinions or statements come to light,” said one senior Republican aide. Finding and airing potential nominees' dirty laundry could help Republicans gain an edge in the upcoming 2010 elections. Obama’s short-list is said to include Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York, Obama’s solicitor general Elena Kagan, federal judge Diane Wood, and Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm.

The H1N1 flu has spread to 11 countries with 331 infections, and now the World Health Organization is sending out mixed messages about just how dangerous the virus can get. Outside of Mexico, those infected have exhibited relatively mild symptoms, but a spokesman for WHO mentioned today that the Spanish Influenza, which killed 50 million people around the globe, also started out very mild in the spring of 1918, “only to reappear in the autumn of 1918 with a vengeance.” He added, “It would be remiss of us not to take this extremely seriously,” but that “people should act with common sense rather than panic.” Because the genes of the viruses appear similar, a vaccine would be likely to counter the strain, although officials predict it would take four to six months to develop one.

Alright people. You can calm down about the economic catastrophe. Warren Buffett says it’s over. Or, almost at least—according to Buffett, we’re past the “Pearl Harbor” conditions of last September but “we’re still at war.” He explained, “Pearl Harbor was September. At that point, you could have lost the war. And there was a strike at the heart of the American system, the financial system. And we got past that. Some of the right decisions were made then, so I give people great credit for doing that. The war isn't over, though.” According to the Financial Times, “Warren Buffett will be under pressure at Saturday’s annual gathering of faithful shareholders to explain his worst year ever, with the usually adoring crowd set to probe the legendary investor on his bargain-hunting strategy, succession plans and views of the crisis.”

When Chip Saltsman, Michael Steele's old rival for the RNC chair, distributed a CD with the song "Barack the Magic Negro" on it, Steele lashed out in January. “It doesn’t help at all,” he said at the time. “Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party.” Now that Steele heads up the Republican Party, has he changed his tune? While hosting a radio show on Friday, Steele laughed along with a caller who called President Obama a "magic negro." The caller continued: "Even when things go wrong, he still manages to come out smelling like a rose." Steele said, "Well, yeah." And thus ends the most politically incorrect statement of the week.

Alleged sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri's guilty plea indicates the relatively low-tech world of Al Qaeda terror plotting post-September 11. The plea document shows how in 2001, Al Qaeda embraced simple strategies like computer search engines, pre-paid calling cards, and public phones to plot attacks. Alleged Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed used a free Hotmail account—HOR70@hotmail.com—to communicate with other terror operatives. The plea states that al-Marri, who was held for five years as an “enemy combatant” without charges, researched cyanide gas on the Internet, and used software to cover his tracks. He also marked locations of major dams, tunnels and waterways in a U.S. almanac, and prosecutors say Al Qaeda was planning to attack those sites with cyanide gas.

How goes so far Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department? It’s like being “mayor of a good-sized small city,” Clinton tells The New York Times. It’s been smooth-sailing so far. Clinton’s relationship with her former rival, President Obama, is “comfortable, if not warm,” writes the Times. She has a regular Thursday afternoon meeting with Obama and sees him several other times each week. What conflict there has been so far is not with Obama, but with National Security Adviser James L. Jones: “[P]eople in her circle say less-than-generous things about Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, suggesting there is some jockeying among the top officials around the president. General Jones, these people say, has struggled with his transition from Marine commander to senior staff person, speaking up less in debates than Mrs. Clinton and not pushing as hard for decisions.”

We would have preferred Scared Straight, but this will do: According to AdvertisingAge, Michael Vick is in talks to become a spokesman for PETA. Currently finishing up a 23-month sentence for running a dog-fighting ring, Vick’s rehabilitation tour will also include “mea culpa TV interviews, PSAs and charitable donations to other animal-rights organizations.” PETA’s director of youth outreach and campaigns confirmed that the organization is talking with Vick.

This is both surprising and it isn’t: According to a new poll from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support torture. According to CNN, “More than half of people who attend services at least once a week—54 percent—said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ justified. Only 42 percent of people who ‘seldom or never’ go to services agreed.” More than six in ten white evangelical protestants said that torture is sometimes justified. Mainline Protestants were most opposed, with more than three in ten saying torture is never justified. 49 percent of all respondents said torture is sometimes or often justified, while a quarter said it never is.

Longtime Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans died on Friday in his Nevada home. The impressionist and comedian was wildly popular at the Mirage, where he had a nine-year deal, and previously starred in his own one-man Broadway show. Gans, who was 52, was to begin a string of performances at the new Encore Theatre in February. Robin Leach of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous spoke highly of the performer who was Vegas’ “Entertainer of the Year” for 11 years, saying, “He was an absolute genius with the art of impersonation…Everybody knew that when they came to Vegas, the one show they had to see was Danny Gans.”

It was apparently a quiet day in the West Wing: President Obama interrupted Robert Gibbs’ press briefing today to talk about the Supreme Court. Praising retiring Justice Souter as a “fair-minded and independent judge,” Obama went on to say that he will seek “someone who understands justice is not just about some abstract legal theory,” but about how laws affect Americans’ daily lives. Gibbs said that Obama will name someone “well before the end of July,” so that the person is seated by the time the Court’s new session begins.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has compared himself on previous occasions to Jesus and Napoleon. Now, claiming that internal polls show him with a 75-percent approval rating, he’s bragging that he’s more popular than Obama. "The opinion polls I know say that he (Obama) is at 59 percent. Only (Brazilian President Luiz Inacio) Lula tops 60 percent—he is at 64 percent. So mine is a record high," he told reporters. Protesters at the occasion probably beg to differ: They yelled “Go Away!” at Berlusconi.

While the big names in the Democratic Party are firmly standing behind Senator Arlen Specter's decision to cross over to their side, some liberals think he should have to run in the 2010 Democratic primary before his bid for re-election. "Elites believe that primaries are messy," said Accountability Now Co-founder Greg Greenwald. "Accountability Now believes that nothing focuses the mind of a politician on listening to citizens better than a primary." At least two Democrats-Joe Sestak and Joe Torsella- appear to still be in the running for the 2010 primary. Sestak said that Pennsylvanians, not the Washington "establishment" should decide who will run. President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, among others, have all unreservedly welcomed Specter into the fold.

Michelle Obama may need to get up at 5:15 a.m. to walk Bo—but at least she’s doing so in style. To an event at a local food bank, the First Lady recently wore a pair of über-chic Lanvin sneakers that retail for a cool $540. While the hot stepper paired the shiny-toed sneaks with her trademark J.Crew cardigan and casual capris, 78 percent of Daily News readers thought the fashion choice was in "poor taste." But her reps have fired back, saying that “they’re shoes.” Thanks, we can see that.

The H1N1 flu (formerly known as the swine flu) has now spread to 11 countries. The World Health Organization has confirmed 331 infections, with hundreds more suspects and thousands of samples taken from patients. Precautions are being made to stop the outbreak: 298 public schools in the U.S. have closed and Citigroup disinfected a New York City office building. Domestically, the CDC has confirmed 141 infections, including a toddler who died of the disease earlier this week.

Now that Supreme Court Justice David Souter has announced he'll retire at the end of this session, who will Obama appoint to fill his seat? So far, a frontrunner is federal judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York, who grew up in the Bronx, attended Yale Law School and was Clinton's appointee to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Also in the running is Elena Kagan, Obama's solicitor general, who is liberal, but made a point to reach out to conservatives while dean of Harvard Law School. Other possibilities, according to Politico, include Diane Wood from Chicago (who worked in the Department of Justice for both Reagan and Clinton and is considered moderate); Kathleen Sullivan (the liberal former dean of Stanford Law School who is an expert on Constitutional Law); Harold Koh (current dean of Yale Law); the moderate Cass Sunstein (Obama's information czar); and Ann Williams, who could be "tough for Republicans to oppose" because she was appointed by Reagan and elevated by Clinton to the appeals court.

Miss California Carrie Prejean—who dominated a news cycle or two for coming out against gay marriage during the Miss USA telecast—had undergone breast augmentation surgery paid for by the Miss California Pageant just weeks before the national contest. "We assisted when Carrie came to us and voiced the interest in having the procedure done," the co-director of the Miss California Pageant admitted on The Early Friday morning. "We want to put her in the best possible confidence in order to present herself in the best possible light on a national stage."

To whom do we owe the CIA’s interrogation regimen? According to ABC News, “the CIA's secret waterboarding program was designed and assured to be safe by two well-paid psychologists now working out of an unmarked office building in Spokane, Washington.” Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, both former military officers, founded Mitchell Jessen and Associates and “together designed and implemented the CIA’s interrogation program.” Their associates say that they “boasted” of making $1,000 a day from the CIA. Neither had any experience as interrogators before the CIA hired them.

Following in the steps of bands like Radiohead, Coldplay is breaking through the $9.99-barrier by announcing they will be giving out their latest CD for free. Fans will be able to download the disc on May 15 or get a physical version if they see Coldplay live. The band described the gimmick for the album LeftRightLeftRightLeft a "recession-busting mark of gratitude."

The First Family: they’re just like us. Like so many regular kids, Sasha and Malia Obama have been skimping on their chores recently, so Michelle has had to roll out of bed extra early to walk the dog. “Even though the kids are supposed to do a lot of the work, I’m still up at 5:15 a.m. taking my dog out,” she said. “So for everyone who has a child asking for a puppy— you have to want the dog. As I do. I love my Bo.”

Chauffeured cars, bodyguards, club memberships, company jets, apparently they have not yet gone out of style. “The median value of these and similar perks rose nearly 7 percent in 2008,” according to the Associated Press. “The increase came even as overall CEO compensation fell 7 percent to $7.6 million.” The median value of perks in the 309 companies that the AP examined was over $170,000, and only three CEOs received no perks at all. The biggest earner of perks was Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon, who took home $3.9 million in perks.

Hopefully you’re done weeping over Portfolio’s demise because the publishing industry was in a celebratory mood Thursday night. The winners of the 44th annual ASME National Magazine Awards were announced and Esquire, The New Yorker, Wired, and Backpacker came away with three Ellies each. First-time winners include AARP the Magazine, Automobile, Field & Stream, and The New York Times Magazine, and Texas Monthly trumped The Atlantic and New York for general excellence in the 250,000 to 500,000 circulation range. Legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz was also honored by four of her editors: Jann Wenner, Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, and Tina Brown.

The liberal justice conservatives love to hate is leaving the Supreme Court: David Souter, who was appointed by President Bush in 1990, will retire after this year’s term, according to NPR. At 69, Souter is only the Court’s fifth-oldest judge, but apparently he dislikes Washington and wants to return to his home state of New Hampshire. According to NPR, “Souter was apparently satisfied that neither the court's oldest member, 89-year-old John Paul Stevens, nor its lone woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancer surgery over the winter, wanted to retire at the end of this term. Not wanting to cause a second vacancy, Souter apparently had waited to learn his colleagues' plans before deciding his own.”

A hitch in President Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay: Where to put the prisoners? Many of them will be sent to other countries or tried in U.S. courts, but yesterday Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated that as many as 100 detainees could end up without trial on American soil. “What do we do with the 50 to 100—probably in that ballpark—who we cannot release and cannot try?” Gates asked in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. The Administration doesn’t know what to do with detainees who are too dangerous to release, but cannot be fairly tried due to the harsh ways they were interrogated. Gates asked for $50 million in case a facility for the detainees needs to be built quickly, and Congress members are already pleading that the facility not be built in their states.

Since President Obama appointed Timothy Geithner to run the Treasury Department, many have alleged that Larry Summers is the “shadow Secretary,” but does Rahm Emanuel deserve the distinction? The Wall Street Journal reports that “Since [Geithner’s appointment], White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been so involved in the workings of the Treasury that ‘Rahm wants it’ has become an unofficial mantra among some at the Treasury, according to government officials.” For the most part, the help has been appreciated, since Treasury is still understaffed, but “the White House also has pushed to announce programs before details were ready. Other times, the department has been left waiting for White House input -- even on such mundane matters as Web-site design.”

Thanks to newly available DNA technology, Los Angeles police have charged John Floyd Thomas, 72, in two cold-case murders from the 1970s, The Times of London reports. Police say that Thomas's DNA has allegedly been traced to at least five other murder scenes in two different sets of sex killings previously thought unrelated. In the first wave of killings, the so-called "Westside Rapist" killed 17 women, but stopped in 1978, the year Thomas went to jail for raping a woman in Pasadena. The second wave began after Thomas' release in 1983 and claimed the lives of five more women. Clocking in at upwards of 25 murders, the two alleged crime waves would represent Los Angeles' worst crime. An additional 20 women survived attacks, but in the absence of DNA evidence, police didn't link the two crime waves since witnesses gave conflicting descriptions of the assailant to the police.

Good news for TV lovers: Disney will join NBC Universal and News Corp in partnering with Hulu, an online television site, which makes CBS the only major broadcast network giving the site the cold shoulder. After regulators approve the deal, Hulu will stream ABC shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives, USA Today reports. Disney has also offered Hulu as-yet-unannounced programming that's not available anywhere else online, including some select movies and Disney Channel programming.

It's a tough time to be selling art, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sotheby's expects its spring auctions to make $179 million to $256 million, down from $411 million last fall and $742 million last spring. The recession has finally come to the art market, despite the fact that prices climbed after the start of the credit crisis in 2007, when investors moved their money from intangible stock markets to gold and art. That investment pattern causes the art market to lag behind the financial markets by at least a year. Apparently, to avoid devaluing works bought at inflated pre-recession prices, investors are holding on to their big-ticket paintings by stars like Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Instead, cerebral art by lesser known artists popular with museum curators will carry the day.

For American troops in Iraq, April was the deadliest month this year. Two marines and one sailor were killed on Thursday while conducting operations in Anbar Province. At least 18 troops have died this past month, as a result of more insurgent bombings—the most since 25 were killed last September. Despite this recent spike of violence there, the U.S. will continue with its withdrawal schedule, pulling out from the first Iraqi cities by June.

On Wednesday night, President Obama indulged a "rare flash of anger," the New York Times reports, and blamed "a small group of speculators"—namely Peter Weinberg and Joseph Perella—for leading Chrysler to bankruptcy. Facing mounting criticism for rejecting the administration's terms of business, Perella Weinberg Partners finally changed course Thursday evening. But it was too late. Fairly or not, the Times characterizes the whole mess as "yet another public relations disaster for Wall Street." And now that Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 protection, "some industry executives worry the administration will try to turn this episode to its political advantage."

Barack and Michelle Obama emanate an air of friendly nonchalance as they charm reporters, throw parties, and walk Bo.  It’s not as straight-forward as it looks.  There’s a woman behind the scenes, curating it all. In a new profile in WSJ. Magazine, White House social secretary Desirée Rogers reveals her strategy for managing the public face of the most overexposed first family in history. Rogers has a Harvard MBA and a corporate background, so she approaches the Obama White House as if she’s building and strategically marketing the Obama brand. She wants the Obamas to be the most memorable and popular family ever to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and is working to reinstate the environment that the White House is a “people’s house,” where ordinary Americans might feel welcome. Writes WSJ.: “They want to create an environment where average Americans might stop by and catch the first lady serving homemade huckleberry cobbler and caramel ice cream to students, tending to the vegetable garden on the South Lawn or watching the romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You with her girlfriends.”

Wall Street will have to wait a few more days for the results of the government's so-called "stress tests" on the solvency of the nation's top 19 banks. The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have delayed the release of the tests until next Thursday, when they will report the "potential loss estimates for each individual bank" and provide "a better picture of the health of the banking industry," the Wall Street Journal reports. The results will be curved: "The government has said it would not allow any of the 19 banks undergoing the test to fail."