BET Founder Slams Obama in South Carolina  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who is campaigning today in South Carolina with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, just raised the specter of Barack Obama's past drug use.

Deplorable Campaigning  —  Mike Huckabee: “Many of us who have been Republicans out of conviction . . . the social conservatives,” he told reporters, “were welcomed in the party as long as we sort of kept our place, but Lord help us if we ever stood forward and said we would actually like to lead the party.”

The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws  —  (updated below)  —  I've written several times before about the oppressive, dangerous hate speech laws which are common — increasingly so — in both Canada and Europe, whereby the Government is empowered to punish as criminals citizens …

A GOP Numbers Crunch  —  The first year of the 2008 campaign — think about that — has clearly established that the Republican Party's prospects are cloudy.  In the first two major contests, Mike Huckabee has finished first and third, John McCain fourth and first, Mitt Romney second twice.

Liberal Fascism And Its Critics  —  Here is some free advice for liberals who don't care much for Jonah Goldberg or his (bestselling) new volume: Either confine yourself to dismissive snark, of the sort perfected by my colleague Matt, or buckle down and actually read the damn thing.

PLOT TO KILL QUEEN FOILED  —  AL Qaeda terrorists posing as TV crews planned to blow up the Queen by smuggling explosives into last year's Commonwealth summit.  —  Two huge outside broadcast vans belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation were seized after a tip-off from intelligence agents.

Who Spun The Hormuz Incident?  (Update - The Full Video)  —  By now, anyone following the changing story of the almost-clash between three US Navy capital ships and five Iranian speedboats in the Gulf has read the Navy Times report that says the mysterious threatening voice on the Pentagon's audio tape …

Snow Shrugs Off Post-War Failures: ‘Everybody Gets It Wrong At The Beginning Of A War’  —  Yesterday, former White House spokesperson Tony Snow was interviewed on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.  —  Maher discussed how woefully unprepared the Bush administration was for post-invasion Iraq.

Another Sign Edwards Will Throw Support to Obama  —  South Carolina may be the end for John Edwards if he comes in third.  It seems, once again, he's displaying his preference for Obama over Hillary.  At a campaign event at a predominantly black Baptist church today Edwards said : … and,

G.O.P. Voters, in Big Shift, Favor McCain Over His Rivals  —  WASHINGTON — Republican voters have sharply altered their views of their presidential candidates following the early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, with Senator John McCain, widely written off just weeks ago …

So We Thought.  But Then Again . . .  HARRY S TRUMAN once said he wanted to talk to a one-armed economist, “so that the guy could never make a statement and then say: ‘on the other hand.’ ” Yet economic knowledge continues to progress in unexpected ways.  Here are a few of the things we learned in the last 12 months: