Officials: Al Qaeda claims it killed Bhutto  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin Thursday citing an alleged claim of responsibility by al Qaeda for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a DHS official told CNN.

Be Reasonable  —  As Iowa sizes up the candidates, so do I.  —  By next week politically active Iowans will have met and tallied their votes.  Their decision this year will have a huge impact on the 2008 election, and a decisive impact on various candidacies.  Some will be done in.  Some will be made.

Clinton's “don't ask” policy  —  As she races through Iowa in the days before next week's caucuses, Hillary Clinton is taking few chances.  She tells crowds that it's their turn to “pick a president,” but over the last two days she has not invited them to ask her any questions.

Fun With Antecedents  —  Via Scott Lemieux, Robert Dallek reviews a new book on Condoleezza Rice: … By the same token, if earth's yellow sun gave me the powers of a kryptonian, I'd be a super hero.  If my blog had Engadget's traffic, I'd be the most popular political blogger.

Edwards reaches new heights in Iowa  —  DES MOINES - John Edwards appears to have risen to a new highpoint in Iowa, marking an upward trend over the past two weeks that places him in a statistical tie with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  —  A new Strategic Vision poll released Friday finds …

Giuliani Campaign Official: Rudy Is The Only Candidate Who Can Chase “The Muslims"..."Back Into Their Caves"  —  From the Guardian UK via TPM: (h/t SteveAudio)  —  Winning hearts and minds the world over...  John Deady, Co-Chair for New Hampshire's Veterans for Rudy:

Under Attack, Drug Maker Turned to Giuliani for Help  —  In western Virginia, far from the limelight, United States Attorney John L. Brownlee found himself on the telephone last year with a political and legal superstar, Rudolph W. Giuliani.  —  For years, Mr. Brownlee and his small team …

Trouble With Trade  —  While the United States has long imported oil and other raw materials from the third world, we used to import manufactured goods mainly from other rich countries like Canada, European nations and Japan.  —  But recently we crossed an important watershed …

Military Paper Challenges Defense Dept.  —  WASHINGTON — Top editors at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes are asking for full disclosure of the paper's relationship with a Department of Defense publicity program, called America Supports You, after disclosures that money for the program was funneled through the newspaper.

The 2007 Golden Monkeyfist Awards...  Finally!  —  The big awards are here, and I am ever humbled by the incredible lot of excellent consonant-level, unsung, Progressive blogs out there.  I honestly wish that I had time for more awards, but, we all have real jobs, and only so much time in a day to read new blogs.

Stem cell, contraception groups paid Huck  —  Mike Huckabee last year accepted $52,000 in speaking fees from a bio-tech giant that wants to research human embryonic stem cells, a non-profit working to expand access to the morning after pill and a group pushing to study whether tightening gun control laws will reduce violence.

Pelosi, Reid, Huckabee, Obama Among Nation's “Most Corrupt”  —  Judicial Watch has named its ten most corrupt political figures of 2007, and the list may surprise.  It includes a number of very well-known politicians who have received little attention for their questionable business deals.