SHEEHAN, IRAQ WAR PROTESTERS BREAK UP HOUSE DEMOCRATS' PRESS CONFERENCE  —  Jan. 3: Peace activist Cindy Sheehan speaks on Capitol Hill.  —  WASHINGTON — Iraq war protesters broke up a press conference by House Democrats on Wednesday with chants to bring American troops home from Iraq.

Intelligence Chief Is Shifted to Deputy State Dept. Post  —  John D. Negroponte, whom President Bush installed less than two years ago as the first director of national intelligence, will soon leave his post to become the State Department's second-ranking official, administration officials said Wednesday.

In Padilla Wiretaps, Murky View of 'Jihad' Case  —  In 1997, as the government listened in on their phone call, Adham Hassoun, a computer programmer in Broward County, Fla., proposed a road trip to Jose Padilla, a low-wage worker there.  The excursion to Tampa would be his treat, Mr. Hassoun said …

Bush Signals Budget Accord  —  President Bush promised yesterday to produce a plan to balance the federal budget in five years and challenged lawmakers to slash their special pet projects in half next year, embracing priorities of the new Democratic leadership that will assume control of Congress today.

U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting  —  A laboratory that has tested most of the nation's electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.

Lieberman Party Now in Hands of Critic  —  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The party Sen. Joe Lieberman created to mount his independent re-election campaign has been seized by one of his critics, and the secretary of state's office said Wednesday that it won't challenge the takeover.

This Is Your Brain on Drugs, Dad  —  WHEN releasing last week's Monitoring the Future survey on drug use, John P. Walters, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, boasted that "broad" declines in teenage drug use promise "enormous beneficial consequences not only for our children now …

A Moment of Savagery - Now a New Hope?  —  If you're looking for a blogger to feel some pity for Saddam Hussein because his executioners were primitive and rude, you've come to the wrong place.  Punch up the Daily Kos and you'll find countless diarists eager to express some sympathy for this particular devil.

Late Nite FDL: And They Call Us 'Unhinged', Partie Deux  —  We'll, there's just nothing like that good old Right Wing Civility, now is there? … Isn't that special?  —  Can you imagine the s**t-storm that would erupt if a liberal posted an entry like that on their blog?

Hussein Guard Is Arrested, Officials Say  —  The Iraqi prime minister's office gave its first public defense today of the way the government carried out the execution of Saddam Hussein, and said that a guard who they believe recorded the moment in a macabre unauthorized video had been arrested.

The Healing Process  —  Following up on my post below, I noticed that the transcript of last night's Shields and Brooks was available and I think it deserves a little bit more attention: … There are so many things in that little exchange that I find apalling I don't know where to start.

THE LAW CATCHES UP TO PRIVATE MILITARIES, EMBEDS  —  Since the start of the Iraq war, tens of thousands of heavily-armed military contractors have been roaming the country — without any law, or any court to control them.  That may be about to change, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow P.W. Singer notes in a Defense Tech exclusive.

Rehnquist FBI File Sheds New Light on Drug Dependence, Confirmation Battles  —  The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's Senate confirmation battles in 1971 and 1986 were more intense and political than previously known, according to a newly released FBI file that also offers dramatic …

Young celebrate freedom in a city where fear is still lurking  —  There was not a hijab or niqab in sight as clubbers at the Global Dance Hall worked up a sweat to gangsta rap and Kenyan hip-hop.  Instead, women shook their hair and stole glances at the men lining the wall.