"I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," said James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Tegnelia said the test was part of a U.S. effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply-buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

"We have several very large penetrators we're developing," he told defense reporters. "We also have - are you ready for this - a 700-ton explosively formed charge that we're going to be putting in a tunnel in Nevada," he said. "And that represents to U.S. the largest single explosive that we could imagine doing conventionally to solve that problem," he said. The aim is to measure the effect of the blast on hard granite structures, he said.

*****

He said the Russians have been notified of the test, which is scheduled for the first week of June at the Nevada test range. "We're also making sure that Las Vegas understands," Tegnelia said.

Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more "once the leanings of Independents are taken into account."

Independents now make up 34% of the population. When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each. This shift indicates, Gallup says, why its polls show Democrats leading in this year's congressional races. The latest poll was taken from January to March 2006, with a national sample of about 1,000 adults.

The Fed raised its target for the federal-funds rate, charged on overnight loans between banks, to 4.75% from 4.5%. In a statement released after the two-day meeting ended Tuesday, the Fed said: "Some further policy firming may be needed to keep" the risks to both growth and inflation "roughly in balance," identical to language in the statement released after Mr. Greenspan's last meeting, on Jan. 31.

Bond and stock prices declined on the announcement, reflecting investors' increased certainty that more rate increases lie ahead. It was the Fed's 15th consecutive quarter-point rate increase since it began to raise rates from a then-46 year low of 1% in June, 2004.

Mr. Bernanke was sworn in as chairman Feb. 1 and Tuesday was the first meeting of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee that he chaired. In his confirmation hearings he pledged "continuity" with Mr. Greenspan's policies, and the similarity of the FOMC's actions and words to those on Jan. 31 may have in part reflected that priority.

"Economic growth has rebounded strongly in the current quarter but appears likely to moderate to a more sustainable pace," the statement said in its most notable difference from Jan. 31. The inclusion of the Fed's view of where growth is going may reflect Mr. Bernanke's desire to more clearly demonstrate how the forecast is influencing monetary policy.

The first witness, Harry Samit, an F.B.I. agent in Minnesota who questioned Mr. Moussaoui at his arrest, firmly asserted that had he been given the truth "we would have several new leads to investigate," and the plot might have been thwarted. Instead, he said, Mr. Moussaoui's answers sent investigators on "wild goose chases."

Under cross-examination by Edward B. MacMahon Jr., a court-appointed lawyer for Mr. Moussaoui, Mr. Samit acknowledged that after the attacks he had written strongly worded reports saying his superiors had improperly blocked his efforts to investigate Mr. Moussaoui. He added that he was convinced that Mr. Moussaoui was a terrorist involved in an imminent hijacking plot.

That senior bureau officials dragged their feet on investigating Mr. Moussaoui by seeking search warrants from a special intelligence court or a more routine criminal search warrant was not new. But it had never been presented so vividly as a reluctant Mr. Samit was obliged to do under cross-examination.

He offered a devastating comment from a supervisor who said pressing too hard to obtain a warrant for Mr. Moussaoui would hurt his career. Mr. Samit also wrote that his superiors did not act because they were guilty of "criminal negligence" and they were gambling that Mr. Moussaoui had little to offer. The lost wager, Mr. Samit said, was paid in many lives. Mr. Samit was followed to the witness stand by Michael Rolince, a retired F.B.I. counterterrorism supervisor who similarly recited a list of actions that the bureau could have taken if Mr. Moussaoui had told them about Qaeda plans to take over planes with knives and fly into buildings.

But when Mr. MacMahon began reading from a document detailing many suspicions about Mr. Moussaoui's intentions, Mr. Rolince interrupted, "Can I ask what document that's coming from?" Mr. MacMahon obliged, noting that it was an urgent memorandum written by Mr. Samit on Aug. 18, 2001, hoping to attract the attention of headquarters. Mr. Rolince had inadvertently underlined that the agent's suspicions had never risen to his attention.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding. But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity. The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial. In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it's a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.

Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into the psychology of conservatism, and concluded that people who are dogmatic, fearful, intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty, and who crave order and structure are more likely to gravitate to conservatism. Critics branded it the "conservatives are crazy" study and accused the authors of a political bias. Jost welcomed the new study, saying it lends support to his conclusions.

The Dubai oil sheiks who tried to buy New York's ports now want to snap up the popular Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut and the glitzy Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. The oil-money crowd from the United Arab Emirates is joining deep-pocketed New York developer Steve Ross of The Related Companies, along with high-powered real estate funds Whitehall Street, Colony Capital and Providence Equity Partners to buy up casino mogul Sol Kerzner's empire.

Kerzner has erected gargantuan resorts around the world, including Sun City off the southern tip of Africa and a 60-acre water park in the desert of Dubai. The group said it will buy out Kerzner's publicly traded company for about $3.6 billion - and allow Kerzner and his son Butch to run it with a stake of about 25 percent. Shares of Kerzner International Ltd. soared 13 percent to $79.43, up $9.07. The company manages the Mohegan Sun and built the $1 billion Atlantis resort with its spectacular 34-acre aquarium. The same Dubai firm that touched off a firestorm of protest at trying to acquire management business at America's major ports - Istithmar - is behind the Kerzner deal.

Kerzner and his partners would take their offshore company private and away from the scrutiny of public investors and regulatory agencies. The group would pay $76 a share, and assume $599 million of debt. Istithmar, a Dubai investment bank, is operated by the United Arab Emirates government holding company, called The Corporate Office, or TCO. TCO also owns Dubai Ports World, which in turn took over the firm that manages U.S. ports - Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. - for $6.8 billion.

Dubai, which agreed this month to sell its interest in U.S. ports, said its $1.2 billion takeover of a U.K. company with U.S. plants that make military equipment is delayed while the authorities investigate security concerns. Dubai International Capital LLC, which is owned by the government of the Persian Gulf emirate, and Doncasters Group Ltd. agreed to delay the transaction by as many as two months from March 31 while government agencies review the purchase, Sameer Al Ansari, Dubai International's chief executive, said in an interview today.

"After what happened with Dubai Ports, the government is looking at this deal more closely," Al Ansari said after a press conference in Dubai announcing an agreement with HSBC Holdings Plc. Dubai's bid may ignite a political debate in the U.S. similar to that caused last month by the emirate's $6.8 billion purchase of London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. DP World had to agree to sell interests in six U.S. terminals. Revenue from Doncasters' nine U.S. plants, which make parts for tanks and military aircraft, account for about 40 percent of total sales.

"If this deal isn't approved by the U.S., it wouldn't proceed," said Angus Blair, chief executive of Mena Financial, a London-based company which advises foreign companies about doing business in the Middle East.

*****

The Committee on Foreign Investment, a federal body which considers the sale of U.S. assets to foreign companies, started a detailed 45-day investigation into the Doncasters agreement at the end of February, said Al Ansari. Al Ansari declined to comment on whether the transaction will go through.

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Kuwait's state-controlled PWC Logistics, which won a U.S. military contract last year worth as much as $14 billion to feed troops in Iraq, agreed in July to buy Santa Ana, California-based GeoLogistics Corp. for $454 million. GeoLogistics is an international freight management company with operations in more than 100 countries, according to its Web site.

The Senate, on a 52-48 vote, sent to President Bush a bill raising the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion and preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes. When the government reaches the new ceiling, expected sometime next year, the debt will represent $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The House avoided an election-year vote on raising the debt limit by automatically sending the bill to the Senate when it passed a budget last year. The bill passed the Senate just hours before the House was expected to approve another $91 billion to fund the war in Iraq and provide more aid to hurricane victims. The partisan vote also came as the Senate continued debate on a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1, that would produce a $359 billion deficit.

In twin setbacks for GOP leaders, the Senate voted 51-49 to add $3 billion to the budget for heating subsidies for the poor and 73-27 to add $7 billion for education, health and worker safety accounts. The moves broke through President Bush's overall "cap" on agency budgets to be funded later in the year through appropriations bills. Congress has now increased the debt ceiling four times by a total of $3 trillion since Bush took office five years ago.

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Democrats blasted the bill, saying it was needed because of fiscal mismanagement by Bush, who came to office when the government was running record surpluses. "When it comes to deficits, this president owns all the records," said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The three largest deficits in our nation's history have all occurred under this administration's watch."

Deep doubts about the Iraq war and pessimism about America's future have shattered public confidence in President George W. Bush and helped drive his approval ratings to their lowest level ever, pollsters say. As Bush launched a series of speeches to drum up support for the war, a new round of opinion polls found growing skepticism about Iraq and distrust of Bush. His image declined sharply, with one poll finding "incompetent" to be the most frequent description of his leadership.

Bush's approval rating dipped as low as 33 percent in one recent poll after a string of bad news for the White House, including uproars over a now-dead Arab port deal, a secret eavesdropping program, a series of ethics scandals involving high-profile Republicans and a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. The political storm has left Bush's second-term legislative agenda in tatters, threatened Republican control of the U.S. Congress in November's elections and shredded his personal image as an effective leader.

"His strong points as a president were being seen as personally credible, as a strong leader. That has all but disappeared," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, whose latest independent poll found a dramatic decline in Bush's credibility. A majority of Americans, 56 percent, believe Bush is "out of touch," the poll found. When asked for a one-word description of Bush, the most frequent response was "incompetent," followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." In February 2005, the most frequent reply was "honest." "The transformation from being seen as honest to being seen as incompetent is an extraordinary indicator of how far he has fallen," Kohut said.

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A recent CBS poll found 66 percent of the public believed the country was headed down the wrong track, while a Harris Interactive poll put the number at 60 percent. Views on Iraq and the war on terrorism were equally pessimistic, with 67 percent of respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll saying Bush did not have a clear plan for handling Iraq. Independent pollster Dick Bennett of American Research Group said Bush's failure to acknowledge public anxieties added to his troubles. "The biggest problem the White House faces is reconnecting with people. People simply aren't buying it anymore," Bennett said. "People can see for themselves that things actually are not fine."

Yet while one Dubai company may be giving up on U.S. ports, another one shows no signs of quitting the U.S.—or of giving up a contract with the Navy to provide shore services for vessels in the Middle East. The firm, Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), is an old British company that last January was sold to a Dubai government investment vehicle for $285 million. ISS has more than 200 offices around the world and provides services to clients ranging from cruise ship operators to oil tankers to commercial cargo vessels. In the U.S., the company operates out of more than a dozen port cities, including Houston, Miami and New Orleans, arranging pilots, tugs, linesmen and stevedores, among other things. The firm is also a defense contractor which has long worked for Britain’s Royal Navy. And last June, the U.S. Navy signed on too, awarding ISS a $50 million contract to be the "husbanding agent" for vessels in most Southwest Asia ports, including those in the Middle East, according to an unclassified Navy logistics manual for the Fifth Fleet and a press release from ISS.

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No question, the husbanding contract provides the potential for mischief. Husbanding agents arrange everything from fuel to spare parts to fresh vegetables for vessels at ports of call. More critically, they often provide security, like erecting concrete barriers and what the military calls "force protection." Husbanding agents often learn weeks in advance of a ship’s schedule so as to be prepared when the vessel arrives, information that the Navy keeps closely guarded since it could be invaluable in the hands of terrorists. The suicide bombing of the Cole, for instance, occurred less than three hours after the ship had completed mooring in the harbor of Aden, Yemen. "It would have been much more difficult for the bombers to execute the attack without some previous knowledge of the ship's schedule and its intent to pull into Aden," says a former Navy officer.

Contacted by TIME, a spokesman for ISS confirmed the existence of the contract, but said that confidentiality terms prevented him from discussing it. A statement issued by the firm declared that "ISS has undergone rigorous external security checks" and has "comprehensive internal policies on security." Regarding its U.S. port operations, the company states that all port staff "are fully vetted and cleared and undergo a background check to enable them to work within the port limits."

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ISS, in fact, isn’t the only Dubai company that has won big business with the Pentagon. In December 2004, another such firm, Seven Seas Shipchandlers, won a $700 million contract to be the prime vendor for maintenance and repair operations for troops in the U.S. Central Command region, which includes the Middle East. Seven Seas has also provided food supplies to U.S. troops in Iraq. Another Dubai-based firm, MAC International, is under contract to deliver $67.2 million worth of police trucks to the Army.

"Because of the strong relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United States and to preserve that relationship ... DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity," Edward H. Bilkey, DP World's chief operating officer, said in a statement. The announcement did not specify which U.S. company would be involved.

*****

A source involved in talks between the White House, Congress and DP World said the exact meaning of the UAE firm's statement is unclear, in part because the details of the transaction have not been worked out. "The next steps are very hard to predict at this point, either in terms of who they'll actually sell to and in terms of what it means for U.S. relations in the region," the source said. A source told CNN that the White House believes DP World's American assets would be sold to a U.S. firm.

*****

Because of sparse information about the transaction, Senate Democrats reacted cautiously to the company's announcement and continued to press for a Senate vote that would kill the deal.

"If the U.S. operations are fully independent in every way, that could, indeed, be promising," said Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. "If, on the other hand, there is still ultimate control exercised by DP World, I don't think our goals would be accomplished, and obviously, we'll need to study this agreement carefully."

"Today the United States Senate is considering a bill that would have a serious and damaging impact on health coverage for women across the United States. The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act (HIMMAA), introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), would allow insurance companies to ignore nearly all state laws that require insurance coverage for certain treatments or conditions, such as laws that require them to include contraceptives in their prescription plans. [Emphasis added by irate Broadsheet poster.]

"This federal legislation would raze hundreds of state laws that ensure patients can get the medical care they need and would

"-- not allow women to designate their ob/gyns as primary care providers

"-- not allow women to seek care directly from their ob/gyns, but would force them to be screened by their primary care doctors first

"-- dismantle coverage for contraception

"-- dismantle coverage for annual cervical cancer exams

"-- not allow women to stay with the same doctor throughout a pregnancy, if that doctor was dropped from the insurance provider."

In short: "Under HIMMAA women will lose contraceptive-equity protections currently guaranteed by state law."

• The opening short film in which the previous Oscar hosts all turned down the job. The first scene showed Chris Rock and Billy Crystal peeking out of a Brokeback Mountain tent saying they were "too busy" to host the show. Whoopi Goldberg closed the door on the producers answering ("Oh, Hell no!"), David Letterman and Steve Martin both declined so they could spend more time with Martin's (fictional) children "so they won't grow up weird," Mr. Moviephone was "unavailable." Mel Gibson turned the job down while speaking in the ancient Mayan dialect that he's using in his new film.
• Stewart's jab at the media: while discussing best picture nominee Capote, Stewart said, "Capote, of course, addressed similar themes to Good Night, and Good Luck. Both films are about determined journalists defying obstacles in a relentless pursuit of truth. Needless to say, both are period pieces."
• The one Dick Cheney joke: "Björk couldn't be here tonight," Stewart said, referring to the singer's infamous swan dress. "She was trying on her dress and Dick Cheney shot her."
• The series of Swift Boat Veteran-style political attack ads for the feuding Best Actress Nominees, created by Stewart and The Daily Show team and narrated by Stephen Colbert. In one ad, British ladies each discussed why Dame Judi Dench shouldn't win: "She once punched me in the eye during a bar fight," one confided. Keira Knightly looked completely confused during her own fictional campaign ad against Charlize Theron in which she accused Theron of simply "hagging it up" in movies to win. Perhaps they don't have political attack ads in England, where Keira Knightly grew up...but somehow that seems unlikely. The ads were quite clever; on the last screen each ad said "Paid for by the candidate's mother" or by some shadowy organization.
• Looking over his shoulder at a giant, 40' Oscar statue, Stewart wondered "If we pulled that statue down, do you think democracy would flourish in Hollywood? Maybe James Caan could then hit Oscar in the face with a shoe."
• Returning from a commercial break, the camera catches Stewart ranting to the audience: "And that is why I think Scientology is right, not just for this city, but for the country" before he realizes that the show is live again. The Scientologists in the audience may not have thought that was funny, but I thought it was absolutely hilarious.

• A Zogby poll reports that 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately,
• A CBS poll puts President Bush at a 34% approval rating. The same poll reported that 70% of Americans (including 58% of Republicans) do not want U.S. ports turned over to Dubai World Ports. This poll is the one that put Dick Cheney's approval rating at a bargain basemet 18%, which surely has to be some kind of record for a sitting vice-president. Although Spiro Agnew may have given Cheney a run for his money.
• A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll puts President Bush at a 39% approval rating. 59% said President Bush can no longer manage the government effectively, which is hardly a vote of confidence. That same poll revealed that only 9% of Americans think the United States should take military action against Iran; 68% favor diplomatic and economic action to keep Iran away from atomic weapons.