Did yesterday's hostage crisis teach us anything about Hillary Clinton?  —  You might think we got a chance to see how she deals with a crisis, but that's not really so.  She had no executive authority in the matter.  The local police had to handle the situation.

SHAG FUND — IT'S ON US!  —  Yesterday, every reporter who wanted a copy, was allowed to go down to City Hall and pick up copies of the city financial records that were the basis of the original Shag Fund report in the Politico.com.  That's how we found out about the weird $400,000 prepayment …

Why I Parted Ways With Chávez  —  ON Dec. 17, 1982, three of my fellow officers in the Venezuelan Army and I swore our allegiance to the Bolivarian Revolutionary Army 2000.  We considered ourselves to be at the birth of a movement that would turn a critical eye on Venezuela's troubled social …

Rove's Version of 2002 War Vote Is Disputed  —  Former White House aide Karl Rove said yesterday it was Congress, not President Bush, who wanted to rush a vote on the looming war in Iraq in the fall of 2002, a version of events disputed by leading congressional Democrats and even some former Rove colleagues.

Helen Thomas pwned by Dana Perino Video added  —  Heh. … I would say that Thomas is a disgrace to her profession, but it was their choice to put her on the front row in these gaggles.  It's therefore their call whether she's a disgrace or not, and if they think she is they'll move her off the front row.

Jordan's Spy Agency: Holding Cell for the CIA  —  Foreign Terror Suspects Tell of Torture  —  AMMAN, Jordan — Over the past seven years, an imposing building on the outskirts of this city has served as a secret holding cell for the CIA.  —  The building is the headquarters …

The Price of Annapolis  —  Lebanese democracy.  —  WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, Saad al-Hariri's Mostaqbal party agreed to a constitutional amendment that would allow Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Michel Suleiman to be elected president.  Up until now, Hariri and his March 14 allies …

Gospel Truth  —  AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot.  The shocker: Judas didn't betray Jesus.  Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed.

Good Morning  —  Welcome to the new Firedoglake.  As you can see, we've been busy making a few changes.  —  The biggest change will be in the comment section, where we're going be implementing registration to keep the load on both our servers and our moderators from getting any heavier.

Death, Taxes and Mrs. Clinton  —  Only two of them are inevitable.  —  I will never forget that breathtaking moment when, in the CNN/YouTube debate earlier this fall, the woman from Ohio held up a picture and said, "Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards, this is a human fetus.

Putin Withdraws Russia From Major Arms Treaty  —  President Vladimir Putin signed a law Friday suspending Russia's participation in a major conventional arms treaty that had limited NATO and Russian military deployments in Europe.  —  The Kremlin had been threatening all year to scrap …