Obama takes 1st step in presidential bid  —  WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) said Tuesday he is taking the initial step in a presidential bid that could make him the nation's first black to occupy the White House.  —  Obama announced on his Web site …

What's the White House Doing to Prosecutors?  —  During a floor speech on the topic moments ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said the White House has told her it was replacing from five to 10 Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys with its own interim appointees.  —  We know of seven who have left during …

Legalize It  —  HOW TO SOLVE AFGHANISTAN'S DRUG PROBLEM.  —  The British Empire once fought a war for the right to sell opium in China.  —  In retrospect, history has judged that war destructive and wasteful, a shameless battle of colonizers against colonized that in the end helped neither side.

Rumsfeld is gone, but the veep's other loyalists remain.  —  With the departure of his longtime friend Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton's resignation as U.N. ambassador, and Democrats taking over Congress, times seem grim for the Dick Cheney wing of the Bush administration.

Choice of Martinez sparks GOP rebellion  —  Rebellion is brewing among conservatives on the Republican National Committee over President's Bush's attempt to "impose" Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida as "general chairman" of the party, who favors "amnesty" for illegal aliens.

Libby Trial, Day One: Can You Trust Cheney?  —  From my "Capital Games" column at www.thenation.com....  "Would any of you have any difficulty fairly judging the believability of former or present members of the Bush Administration?"  —  In a Washington courtroom on Tuesday morning …

What Congress Can (And Can't) Do on Iraq  —  Congressional Democrats (and Republicans) who oppose President Bush's decision to send additional American troops to Iraq may frustrate his plan, but not — as suggested by Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn — by imposing 21,500 strings on the 21,500 new troops.

McCain Was Against War In Iraq Before He Was For It  —  So I began looking through some old newspaper clippings on the Gulf War for some research I have been doing, and you just wouldn't believe what I happened across.  Featured prominently in one article from August of 1990 …

AP: Iran Gets Army Gear in Pentagon Sale  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries - including Iran and China - who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions.

FORMER U.N. OIL-FOR-FOOD CHIEF BENON SEVAN INDICTED OVER BRIBES FROM SADDAM'S REGIME  —  Benon Sevan.  —  Former U.N. Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan has been indicted in New York federal court for allegedly taking bribes under the program from Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S. authorities announced Tuesday.

Yeas and Nays: Tuesday, Jan. 16  —  WASHINGTON - Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin cover people, power and politics in the beltway each weekday.  Email them at yan@dcexaminer.com .  —  Little to head WHCA's big night  —  He does a mean Ronald Reagan impersonation and his imitation of Richard Nixon is legendary.

THE LEFT AND THE WAR....If anti-war liberals were right about the war from the start, how come they don't get more respect?  Here's the nickel version of the answer from liberal hawks: It's because they don't deserve it.  Sure, the war has gone badly, but not for the reasons the doves warned of.

Second Iraq Hanging Also Went Awry  —  Iraq's turbulent effort to reckon with the violence of its past took another macabre turn on Monday when the execution of Saddam Hussein's half brother ended with the hangman's noose decapitating him after he dropped through the gallows trapdoor.

Stop the Escalation in Iraq  —  To: Legislators, Staff, and Interested Parties  —  From: Progressive States Network  —  Re: Preventing Escalation in Iraq  —  This LegAlert discusses the President's proposed escalation in Iraq, its implications for states and the nation …

A crowded womb  —  A twin leans over and kisses the cheek of her sister in a heart-warming picture that would not be out of place in any family home.  —  Yet these siblings are a not even born and the astonishing images have been captured on a new 'four-dimensional' ultrasound scan of the womb.

U.N.: 34,452 Iraq civilians killed in '06  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nearly 35,000 civilians were killed last year in Iraq, the United Nations said Tuesday, a sharp increase from the numbers reported previously by the Iraqi government.  —  Gianni Magazzeni, the chief of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq …

Bombs kill 65 at Baghdad university … BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Scores of people were killed in Baghdad on Tuesday in bombing and shooting incidents, most of them in neighborhoods where the militia of a powerful anti-American Shiite cleric holds sway.  —  A suicide bomber and a car bomb killed …

Iranian regime change: "Faster, please!"  —  ut as a politically divisive figure.  He's loved — and consulted at the highest levels — by his fellow travelers for his hard-line positions on the Middle East.  His catchphrase, "faster, please!" refers to the speed with which he'd like the United States to compel regime change in Iran.