ALERT: SHUTTING DOWN THE FLOOR  —  House Republicans are shutting down the floor, because the Democrats are threatening to change a rule and deny Republicans any opportunity to offer a motion to recommit on the "paygo" provisions of their legislation.  That's a lot of wonky talk; bottom line …

2 additional prosecutors were considered for ouster  —  WASHINGTON - The Justice Department last year considered firing two U.S. attorneys in Florida and Colorado, states where allegations of voter fraud and countercharges of voter intimidation have flown in recent years, congressional investigators have learned.

Wolfowitz to Resign Today?  —  Brian Ross Reports:  —  World Bank officials say the bank's board is completing an "exit strategy" that will allow World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to resign this afternoon and "still save some face" over the issue of his efforts to seek a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend at the bank.

Can You Even Imagine How Bad it Must Have Been?  —  I want to put yesterday's incredible Comey testimony in some context, to demonstrate just how otherworldly this story is — and what an extraordinary tale it tells about the nature of the officials who are running our government.

Hamas blames world, Israel and Arabs  —  The international community, Israel and Arab countries are to blame for the current inter-Palestinian fighting in the Gaza Strip for failing to life an economic siege on the Palestinians, a senior Hamas official said Wednesday.

Debates: DNC Announces Six; Two On CNN, Two On NBC/MSNBC  —  The Democratic National Committee has officially announced "the dates, media sponsors and cities for the six DNC sanctioned debates."  —  CNN and NBC get two and ABC and CBS get one each.  Fox News isn't included.  Here's the list:

The Wages of Weakness  —  Bernard Lewis is our greatest living scholar of the Islamic world.  In today's Wall Street Journal, he drew lessons from our Cold War experience and applied them to the current situation in the Middle East.  Lewis's arguments are powerful; doubly so …

A Disaster: The GOP Caves On Border Security  —  Word is leaking that the GOP in the Senate are on the verge of agreeing to an immigration bill that has —as a concession to the GOP— less than half of the fencing promised by law last year.  —  White flag time on the border, and a national security and thus a political disaster.

Romney Leaps to GOP Lead in Iowa; Edwards Keeps His Edge  —  Giuliani the big loser, while McCain remains steady; Hillary, Obama remain strong in tight Dem contest  —  Republican Mitt Romney has pushed from a distant third place into a small lead in Iowa, the continuation of progress …

Chris Matthews slams Rep. Kingston over War propaganda: Lazy and dishonest.  —  You never know which direction Chris Matthews is headed on any given day, but today he slammed Rep. Jack Kingston's phony war propaganda comparisons after Chris asked him how long we'll have troops in Iraq.  —  Download (3782) |

Seeing Jose Padilla for the first time  —  Let's all welcome Lew to Firedoglake - he'll be covering the Padilla trial for us - and he'll be on the Thom Hartmann show on Air America tomorrow!  —  Seeing Jose Padilla for the first time in person - after five years of studying the man …