We Scream, We Swoon.  How Dumb Can We Get?  —  Here's Agence France-Presse reporting on a rally for Sen. Barack Obama at the University of Maryland on Feb. 11: “He did not flinch when women screamed as he was in mid-sentence, and even broke off once to answer a female's cry of 'I love you …

Live, From New York...It's Hillary Clinton!  —  Saturday Night Live opened tonight with a fake presidential debate hosted by mock Brian Williams and Tim Russert.  Williams and Russert were bored by healthcare and were overly nice to Obama, while Amy Poehler, as Hillary Clinton, played mildly indignant.

Rove: Iraq Redeployment Would Cause Oil Prices To Skyrocket To $200 A Barrel  —  This morning on Fox News Sunday, former White House adviser Karl Rove claimed that redeployment from Iraq would cause oil prices to shoot to $200 a barrel: … Watch it:  —  Occupying Iraq has hardly helped oil prices stay low.

INDEMNIFICATION....As we all know, the Bush adminstration is hellbent on passing a law granting telecom companies retroactive immunity for any surveillance laws they may have broken in the aftermath of 9/11.  But there's an odd aspect to this whole thing: the telecom companies themselves …

Iran leader's Iraq visit eclipses US, Arab ties  —  Pomp and ceremony greeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his arrival in Iraq on Sunday, the fanfare a stark contrast to the rushed and secretive visits of his bitter rival U.S. President George W. Bush.

US military kills al-Qaida leader  —  BAGHDAD - A U.S. military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted al-Qaida in Iraq leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for the bombing deaths of five American soldiers, a spokesman said Sunday.  —  U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith …

We recommend Mike Huckabee  —  A vote for Huckabee is a vote for GOP's future  —  Whatever Texas Republican primary voters do Tuesday, John McCain is all but guaranteed to be the party's presidential nominee.  It is mathematically impossible for Mike Huckabee, the last remaining major GOP contender, to capture the nomination.

The “liberal” position on the Surveillance State  —  It's periodically worthwhile to take note of just how far to the Right our political establishment has shifted over the last couple of decades, and few issues reveal that shift as clearly as the debate over warrantless government spying.

Independent expert: IDF bullets didn't kill Mohammed al-Dura  —  A report presented to a French court last week by an independent ballistics expert maintains that the death of Mohammed al-Dura, a Palestinian child seen being shot in the Gaza Strip during the first days of the intifada in September 2000 …

Chavez sends troops to Colombia border  —  Venezuelan leader warns neighbor's action against rebels could lead to war  —  A Venezuelan soldier patrols a checkpoint near the border with Colombia on Friday.  Colombia's leftist rebels have increasingly obtained refuge in Venezuela as President Hugo Chavez …

A level playing field for cities  —  FROM ATHENIAN philosophers to Florentine painters to Chicago architects, cities have long been wellsprings of collaborative invention.  In the past, urban creativity was an interesting sideshow, not the main economic event, but today …