Give us guns - and troops can go, says Iraqi leader  —  Listen to the interview with Nouri al-Maliki  —  America's refusal to give Baghdad's security forces sufficient guns and equipment has cost a great number of lives, the Iraqi Prime Minister said yesterday.

Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation  —  Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists' influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power.

McCain no longer rocks in Granite State  —  As Mitt, Hillary, Barack and a dozen others jump into the presidential stampede, something interesting is happening in New Hampshire.  —  For seven years, conventional wisdom has said that the state's pivotal independent voters would line …

Congressional Procession of Iraq Proposals Likely to Lead Nowhere  —  "You cannot run a war by committee," Vice President Cheney said over the weekend.  —  Oh?  Just watch them.  —  Lawmakers were introducing Iraq legislation at a mad pace yesterday, at one point in the afternoon scheduling news conferences in half-hour intervals.

NEIL SHER: CONSIDER THE SOURCE  —  Last month I noted the accusation by Neil Sher that Jimmy Carter had once lobbied the Justice Department on behalf of a former SS concentration camp guard who had been deported.  Today Lucianne is featuring the Israel National News story by Ezra HaLevi …

Court to Oversee U.S. Wiretapping in Terror Cases  —  The Bush administration, in a surprise reversal, said on Wednesday that it had agreed to give a secret court jurisdiction over the National Security Agency's wiretapping program and would end its practice of eavesdropping without warrants on Americans suspected of ties to terrorists.

FACT CHECK: Bush Has Cut Funding For Cancer Research  —  Health officials reported yesterday that cancer deaths in the United States dropped for the second year in a row.  President Bush teed off this news with a speech at the National Institutes of Health, touting the increased funding for cancer research since 2001:

Bush Faces Deepening War Opposition, Demand for Congress to Act  —  Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush failed to rally public support with his nationally televised speech announcing plans to send more soldiers to Iraq, as most Americans say they want Congress to find a way to stop the troop increase.

Chinese Test ASAT?  —  I noticed this blurb on SEESAT today: … I've been hearing the same murmurings—and my sources tell me that a major defense publication is working on the story.  So, I suppose it is time to mention what is now an open secret inside the US defense community.

Washington 'snubbed Iran offer'  —  Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight programme.  —  Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.

Newspaper Columnist Art Buchwald Dies at 81  —  Art Buchwald, 81, the newspaper humor columnist for more than a half-century who found new comic material in the issues that come up at the end of life, died of kidney failure last night at his son's home in Washington, his family announced today.

Time Inc. Lays Off More Than 250  —  Time Inc. began laying off more than 250 people today at its top magazines, including its most profitable title, People, which said it was shutting down its Washington, Miami and Chicago bureaus entirely.  —  Employees in those bureaus said they were …

Speaking Chic to Power  —  LAUDING someone for their style on Capitol Hill is a lot like celebrating the best surfer on Florida's Gulf Coast — it's all relative, and some would argue irrelevant.  Washington has never embraced fashion (nor, for that matter, has the fashion world embraced Washington), and for understandable reasons.