Obama Meets Party Donors in New York  —  Senator Barack Obama treaded onto Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's home turf last night to meet with prominent Democratic donors and feel out those who might prefer the sound of President Obama to President Clinton (as in Hillary, not Bill).

Mr. Bolton Resigns  —  John Bolton's decision to resign as America's envoy to the United Nations was a wise move.  He averted a distracting and divisive fight at a time when both Congress and the Bush administration have better things to do.  He has also provided President Bush with an opportunity …

La Shawn Barber: Supreme Court hears race-based school assignment arguments  —  WASHINGTON - During legalized racial segregation, students were assigned to schools based on race.  Whites and blacks were educated in separate facilities.  In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this practice …

NASA Plans Lunar Outpost  —  Permanent Base at Moon's South Pole Envisioned by 2024  —  NASA unveiled plans yesterday to set up a small and ultimately self-sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime around 2020 — the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned exploration of the solar system.

U.S. Envoy Khalilzad to Leave Iraq, Officials Say (Update1)  —  Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, plans to leave his post and will be replaced by Ryan Crocker, the current ambassador to Pakistan, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

Howard Kurtz speaks on Jose Padilla: just some leg shackles for the Dirty Bomber  —  Howard Kurtz, the media critic for both CNN and The Washington Post, participated in an online chat yesterday, and was asked about the Jose Padilla story in yesterday's New York Times.  This is what ensued:

Hardliners turn on Ahmadinejad for watching women dancers  —  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who flaunts his ideological fervour, has been accused of undermining Iran's Islamic revolution after television footage appeared to show him watching a female song and dance show.

Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish  —  Medical records show that when Tyler Jennings returned from Iraq last year, he was severely depressed and used drugs to cope.  When the sergeants who ran his platoon found out, they started to haze him.

Escape From Wall Street  —  How Congress put Hong Kong and London in a position to surpass New York as a financial capital.  —  HONG KONG—If you want to look for reasons why New York's status as the world's financial center is in serious jeopardy, you need only come here to gaze at this booming city and tour its markets.

Putz on Iraq: a timeline.  —  Since Putz has so generously offered to hold a symposium on what to do about the Great Victory in Iraq disaster, we thought this brief timeline would be useful for the participants.  —  9/11/01  —  Suggests attacks on WTC give Bush license to nuke Baghdad.  —  6/4/02

A Dream of Mature Nations  —  A number of Canadians took offense recently to a Boston Herald column in which I slammed Canada and Europe in general for failing to hold up its end in this war for democracy, freedom and security.  Specificially, I slammed them for being smug democracies …

Bush Meets With Rival of Iraqi Leader  —  President Bush met today with one of the most powerful Shiite leaders in Iraq — a political rival of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki — and urged him to "reject the extremists that are trying to stop the advance of this young democracy."