5th U.S. Congressional District Special Election  —  Massachusetts Fifth U.S. Congressional District  —  Precincts Reporting - 96 out of 195 - 49%  —  Should You Get A Home Equity Loan?  —  Thinking of remodeling your home or paying off some debt?  LendingTree has expert articles …

CHENEY AND OBAMA COUSINS?  —  From NBC's Adam Verdugo  —  In an interview with MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell this afternoon, Lynne Cheney revealed that while researching the Cheney family tree for her new book "Blue Skies, No Fences," she discovered that the Vice President Cheney and Barack Obama are related — albeit distantly.

Support Wanes in House for Genocide Vote  —  Worried about antagonizing Turkish leaders, House members from both parties have begun to withdraw their support from a resolution supported by the Democratic leadership that would condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago.

Poll: As Thompson's star fades, Clinton's on the rise  —  CNN Senior Political Analyst  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Fred Thompson got into the Republican race with great expectations.  And sure enough, just after he got in last month, polling showed Thompson and Rudy Giuliani were just about tied for front-runner.

N.H. inches toward December primary  —  Notice to all national political reporters, campaign operatives and presidential candidates: You may not be home for the holidays.  —  Until recently, I did not think that any state actually would hold its 2008 primary as early as this December.

Carville: Jeb Bush will be GOP nominee  —  NEW YORK (CNN) — Democratic strategist and CNN analyst James Carville tossed out a provocative idea during a panel discussion on politics Tuesday.  —  At CNN's America Votes 2008 Breakfast, the chief architect of Bill Clinton's successful 1992 …

Mugged by Unreality  —  MANHATTAN — So perhaps Jon Elliott wasn't exactly cool as a cucumber when he took to the airwaves early Tuesday to announce fellow Air America host Randi Rhodes had lost several teeth in an cold-blooded assault while walking her dog on the streets of New York City.

Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second Chance  —  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers.  The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter.

Sarah Maria Santorum's tears inspire song  —  This is the story of a defeated senator, his crying daughter, a Nashville songwriter and Martina McBride, the country music star.  —  It begins in Pittsburgh on election night 2006.  Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), losing to Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr …

Hacked Ann Coulter site: my career was a prank!  —  Ann Coulter's web site was apparently hacked Monday night.  In place of a column about Republican politics was "An Open Letter to Readers" announcing that her entire career had been a practical joke.  —  Radar magazine's site spotted …

Food Companies Face U.S. Probe Over Iraq Deals  —  WASHINGTON — Prominent American food companies are under scrutiny in a federal probe of possible fraud and corruption in the military's food-supply operations for the Iraq war.  —  Investigators from the Justice Department and the Defense Department …

Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer  —  Fury at James Watson's theory: "All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really"  —  One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled …

More S-Chip Poster Children  —  Yes, it was hard to miss the blogospheric frenzy over my piece this morning on the latest poster child the Democrats are upholding for S-CHIP.  —  As best I can tell, mostly the response has been a misreading of what I wrote.

Some Palestinians prefer life in Israel  —  In East Jerusalem, residents say they would fight a handover to Abbas regime  —  JERUSALEM — After 40 years of living under Israeli occupation, two stints in Israeli prisons and a military checkpoint on the same road as his odds-and-ends shop …