Where the Votes Are, So Are All Those Calories  —  Running for president is like entering a competitive eating contest and a beauty pageant all at once.  Candidates are expected to eat local specialties often and with gusto, yet still look attractive and fit.

Clinton wins surprise support from former French first lady  —  PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won surprise backing from the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday, together with a pledge to join her on the campaign trail.

Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request  —  Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause  —  Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects …

Banks Gone Wild  —  "What were they smoking?" asks the cover of the current issue of Fortune magazine.  Underneath the headline are photos of recently deposed Wall Street titans, captioned with the staggering sums they managed to lose.  —  The answer, of course, is that they were high on the usual drug — greed.

Taliban control half of Afghanistan, says report  —  The Taliban has a permanent presence in most of Afghanistan and the country is in serious danger of falling into the group's hands, according to a report from an international think tank.  —  The Senlis Council claimed that the insurgents controlled …

Where has Bush got with jaw-jaw?  —  American foreign policy has been nothing like as interventionist as its critics like to think  —  Critics of George W. Bush's Middle East policy are hoping for a change in direction once America's 43rd President has left the White House.

A 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending - participate by not participating  —  Action update: MTV, the channel that markets itself to hip youth, has decreed that our Buy Nothing Day public service spot "goes further than we are willing to accept on our channels".

Joe and Valerie Wilson: Treason is Not Old News  —  "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources.  They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors."  George Herbert Walker Bush, CIA dedication ceremony, April 26, 1999.

Repubs Warn Repubs They're Losing the Center; Will Dems Fight Hard Enough to Win It? … Over at Swing State Project, James has a great compilation of recent comments by prominent Republicans, many retired, expressing great pessimism about their party.  The recurring theme is that the Republicans …

Shiites in S. Iraq Rebuke Tehran  —  Petition Calls for U.N. Probe Into Iran's Influence, Sheiks Say  —  More than 300,000 Shiite Muslims from southern Iraq have signed a petition condemning Iran for fomenting violence in Iraq, according to a group of sheiks leading the campaign.

In identifying those trying to kill us, we should choose our words carefully  —  'Islamofascists' and 'Islamists' are not the right labels.  But Muslim opinion leaders must condemn violent jihadists  —  Timothy Garton Ash  —  What should we call the people who want to kill us?  Islamofascists?

Candidates Hope Not to Wear Out Holiday Welcome in Iowa  —  Once Sen. Christopher J. Dodd finishes having Thanksgiving turkey on a farm in eastern Iowa tonight, he can turn his attention to another pressing matter: making sure his two daughters know that Santa Claus will find them this year.

Rove Tries To Rewrite History: Claims WH 'Opposed' Politicizing Pre-War Iraq Vote  —  Last night on The Charlie Rose Show, former Bush political adviser Karl Rove claimed that he was "opposed" to holding the pre-war Iraq vote just ahead of the 2002 elections.