Suicide bomber kills 121 in Baghdad  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomber struck a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 121 people and wounding scores among the crowd buying food for evening meals, the most devastating strike in the capital in more than two months.

Republicans Plan to Block Iraq Debate  —  Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said Friday that his party would unite to block Senate debate next week on a bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq unless the Democrats allowed votes on at least two Republican alternatives.

U.S. can't prove Iran link to Iraq strife  —  Despite pledges to show evidence, officials have repeatedly put off presenting their case.  —  WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims …

Bush to Request Billions for Wars  —  President Bush will ask Congress for close to three-quarters of a trillion dollars in defense spending on Monday, including $245 billion to cover the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and other elements of the "global war on terror," senior administration officials said yesterday.

Rudy and the Republican Nomination  —  To:  —  Team Rudy  —  Brent Seaborn, Strategy Director  —  Re:  —  Rudy and the Republican Nomination  —  Over the last month or two there has been a good deal of public opinion polling on the 2008 Republican primary race.

No sanctuary for Super Bowl flock  —  Churches scramble to cancel big-screen bashes after an NFL warning.  —  They were expecting a big crowd this Sunday at Farmland Friends Church in rural Indiana.  —  The sanctuary would be decked in blue and white streamers, the card tables groaning with sloppy-Joe fixings and bowls of chips.

Blue America: Charlie Brown, CA-04  —  [Charlie Brown joins us today in the comments to discuss his candidacy for Congress.  As always in Blue America threads, please stay on topic — any off topic comments should be taken to the prior thread — and please be polite.

A FAN OBAMA DOESN'T NEED  —  SEN. Barack Obama might want to tell George Soros to shut up, now that the Hungarian-born billionaire has equated the George W. Bush administration with the Third Reich.  Soros, who spent $26 million trying to beat Bush two years ago, is a key supporter …

Conservatives continue to use Fox's 24 to support hawkish policies … In his January 30 syndicated column, Cal Thomas attacked "ideologically decrepit" Iraq war protesters and claimed: "Unlike Vietnam, the Islamofascists won't leave us alone if we leave Iraq before stability is established."

Republican Senators and The Choice Before Them: Get It Right Or Get Out  —  Bill Kristol writes bluntly about the choice facing Republican senators next week.  It is a piece that will circulate throughout the Beltway this weekend, hopefully to good effect.  But even Kristol understates …

Spitting on Veterans  —  Slate's Jack Schaefer is joining Media Matters in desperately trying to establish the meme that spitting incidents involving war veterans is myth, an urban legend.  After all, that reprehensible behavior on the part of VietNam era leftists has hung like an albatross around liberals' necks for years, now.

Senator Clinton won't run out use of force to stop 'pro-terrorist' Iran  —  At a speech Friday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said "no option can be taken off the table" when dealing with Iran, RAW STORY has learned.

Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York  —  The New York Police Department released new information yesterday showing that police officers stopped 508,540 individuals on New York City streets last year — an average of 1,393 stops per day — often searching them for illegal weapons.