Whitehouse Reveals Smoking Gun of White House Claiming Not to Be Bound by Any Law  —  Damn, I love me some Sheldon Whitehouse.  He, like, actually knows the law.  And he, like, is willing to actually read the stuff he is exercising oversight over.  —  Which is why this speech he gave today …

Huckabee Surges, Obama Gains in Iowa  —  The new NEWSWEEK poll shows the former Arkansas governor now has a two-to-one lead over Romney, while Barack improves against Hillary.  —  Yana Paskova / Getty Images  —  Looking Up: Huckabee now seems unstoppable in the Iowa caucuses

Democrats Call for Inquiry in Destruction of Tapes by C.I.A.  —  Angry Democratic lawmakers called for investigations today into the Central Intelligence Agency's destruction in 2005 of at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody.

How and Why Romney Bombed  —  The Reuters headline said: "Mitt Romney Vows Mormon Church Will Not Run White House."  Unfortunately, this time Reuters got its story right.  In his long-awaited speech designed to win over conservative evangelicals, Romney actually did say something to this effect …

O'Reilly: Progressive blog readers = 'devil worshippers.'  —  On Fox News yesterday, Bill O'Reilly let loose on "far-left websites" like DailyKos, stating, "If you read these far-left websites, you're a devil worshipper.  You are."  O'Reilly's ombudsman responded, "As a journalist, you know better than that."

Pelosi calls Cheney swipe undignified  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says a swipe that Vice President Cheney took at Democratic House leaders is "beneath the dignity of his office."  —  Capitol Hill was abuzz Thursday with discussion of the vice president's assertion in an interview …

Why we stay mute on Islamic sex apartheid  —  US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton last week urged President George W. Bush to call on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to drop all charges against a 19-year-old Saudi woman who had been gang-raped at knifepoint …

Iran NIE and a prediction  —  From Stephen Peter Rosen  —  For the most part, the arguments about the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran have been and will be a debate, not about intelligence, but about Bush foreign policy.  But the NIE also provides an opportunity to assess …

Site of Barack-Oprah event isn't unionized  —  MANCHESTER - Barack Obama's presidential campaign deeply concerned organized labor by booking its big rally Sunday with superstar Oprah Winfrey at the Verizon Wireless Arena.  —  A union representing organized stage hands have been trying unsuccessfully …

Imam's daughter in hiding after her conversion to Christianity sparked death threats  —  The daughter of a British imam is living under police protection after receiving death threats from her father for converting to Christianity.  —  The 31-year-old, whose father is the leader of a mosque in Lancashire …

Penn Endorses Kucinich For President In SF  —  Sr. Advisor Confirms Endorsement To NBC11  —  Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn endorsed Dennis Kucinich for president in San Francisco Friday.  —  Penn made what had been billed as a "major political statement" at San Francisco State University.

Romney Spokesman Won't Say If Atheists Have Place In America  —  A spokesman for the Mitt Romney campaign is thus far refusing to say whether Romney sees any positive role in America for atheists and other non-believers, after Election Central inquired about the topic yesterday

Peggy Noonan Admits GOP Is Controlled By Fundies, "Idiots"  —  Nooner, who's apparently been in a coma for the past 30 years, is shocked, shocked! to find that the GOP's base is a bunch of [flat-earther homophobic] religious bigots. … And why would that be? … You don't say!  Goodness, who let them in?

Steynophobia  —  Late yesterday I stumbled across an article about a "human rights complaint" filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) against Maclean's, Canada's most widely-read news magazine, for running a "flagrantly Islamophobic" excerpt from Mark Steyn's book, America Alone.