Clinton reaches out to Iowans about 2008  —  The senator is calling Democrats to gauge support for a possible White House run.  —  Sen. Hillary Clinton began making calls Monday to Iowa Democrats about the state's political landscape with an eye toward its 2008 presidential nominating caucuses, aides to Clinton said.

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.

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 …

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:

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.

Car bombs, gunmen kill 29 in Baghdad … BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A trio of car bombs ripped through a southwestern Baghdad neighborhood Tuesday morning, killing at least 14 people and wounding 25 more, Baghdad emergency police said.  —  The attack took place near a gasoline (petrol) station around 10 a.m. (2 a.m. ET)

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.

How to end AP's "60 Minutes Moment" on Iraqi Sources  —  You've probably not read much about it because only a handful of mainstream media outlets have covered it, but the Associated Press - for decades America's largest and most trusted wire news service - is at the center of a credibility crisis largely of its own making.

4th district map OK'd … As expected, Utah lawmakers Monday adopted a new four-seat U.S. House redistricting plan, but only after a few legislators tried to carve up the map with eyes toward running for Congress or shoring up their own legislative seats.  —  With Utah's action, all depends on Congress.

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.

The Military and The Media  —  FALLUJAH, IRAQ: I've completed the first leg of the journey to Iraq, after having moved through Dubai, Kuwait and Baghdad.  I am now at Camp Fallujah.  While in Fallujah, I'll embed with a Marine Police Transition Team (PTT) and also meet with the Civil Affairs Group.

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

Neanderthal Women Joined Men in the Hunt  —  A new explanation for the demise of the Neanderthals, the stockily built human species that occupied Europe until the arrival of modern humans 45,000 years ago, has been proposed by two anthropologists at the University of Arizona.