HILL JABS AT JOHN  —  TAKES HER FIRST SHOT VS. AN '08 PREZ FOE  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton last night ripped into 2008 White House contender John Edwards - her first direct assault on any of her potential Democratic presidential rivals.  —  Clinton's surprising broadside came just hours after Edwards …

Politicizing Prosecutors  —  The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as the new United States attorney for Arkansas.  Normally, the Senate would have vetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment.  But the White House took advantage of a little-noticed provision …

Opening a New Front in the War, Against Iranians in Iraq  —  For more than two years after Saddam Hussein's fall, the war in Iraq was about chasing down insurgents and Al Qaeda in Iraq.  Last year it expanded to tamping down sectarian warfare.  —  Over the past three weeks …

Hanging of Saddam's aides filmed  —  Iraqi government officials have shown journalists video of the hanging of two of Saddam Hussein's aides, during which one of the men was decapitated.  —  The film shows Barzan Ibrahim - Saddam Hussein's half-brother - and Awad Hamed al-Bandar hanged side-by-side.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  —  (CBS) On Jan. 12, 2007, two days after President George W. Bush told the country that he would send 21,000 more troops into Iraq, the president sat down with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley for a candid conversation.  The two met in Camp David's Laurel Cabin …

U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans  —  Just days after President Bush unveiled a new war plan calling for more than 20,000 additional American troops in Iraq, the heart of the effort — a major push to secure the capital — faces some of its fiercest resistance from the very people …

Sandy Berger: What Did He Take and Why Did He Take It?  —  Some things cry out for explanation.  Like finding $90,000 in marked bills in a Congressman's freezer.  Or finding out that a blue-chip lawyer who held one of the most important jobs in the nation was willing to risk his career …

Cheney Defends Efforts to Obtain Financial Records  —  Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended efforts by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to obtain financial records of Americans suspected of terrorism or espionage, calling the practice a "perfectly legitimate activity" …

Will Saudis Ban the Letter 'X'?  —  The letter "X" soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross.  —  The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict …

from the protein wisdom archives: "There's no such thing as race (and it's a good thing, too)"  —  I like to trot out this old essay for MLK day, because it affords me the opportunity to take the race / "diversity" industry—whatever its intentions, be they altruistic or self-serving …

Bill O'Reilly And NBC, Shouting to Make Themselves Seen?  —  A war of words between Bill O'Reilly and NBC has erupted into a shouting match that is overheated, mean-spirited and incredibly entertaining.  —  "NBC News has gone sharply to the left," the Fox News star said on his radio show in early January.

New Law Could Subject Civilians to Military Trial  —  Provision Aimed at Contractors, but Some Fear It Will Sweep Up Other Workers  —  Private contractors and other civilians serving with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be subject for the first time to military courts-martial under …

How Australia confronts militant Islam  —  A nation's blunt refusal to back down to terror  —  Australians are sometimes accused of being direct, even blunt.  But this way of going about things seems to have worked well enough when dealing with the threat of radical Islamism Down Under.