What Clinton wishes she could say  —  Why, ask many Democrats and media commentators, won't Hillary Rodham Clinton see the long odds against her, put her own ambitions aside, and gracefully embrace Barack Obama as the inevitable Democratic nominee?  —  Here is why: She and Bill Clinton …

Forget It.  It's Chinatown... Big Lizards Breaking Bombshell News!  —  The most iconic photograph from the riots attending the torch-bearing ceremony, the one that has every tongue wagging, is surely this one: A Tibetan supporter violently assaulting a wheelchair-bound woman carrying the torch through Paris.

It's Obama, stupid: Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid  —  DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.  —  Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders …

Dancing fools  —  I was very sorry to be missing this, as I'm out of DC for the weekend, but not as sorry as I am now—someone just got arrested.  —  The background: twenty people were at the Jefferson Memorial, dancing to the private groove of their own iPods so as not to disturb anyone.

Bill Clinton, China linked via his foundation  —  A firm that has donated to the president's charity is accused of collaborating with the government in its crackdown on Tibetan activists.  Hillary Clinton has spoken out against China's actions.  —  NEW YORK — As Chinese authorities …

FOR IT, BEFORE SHE WAS AGAINST IT  —  Theda Skocpol writes in ...

Serious Question  —  The ACLU wants a special prosecutor to investigate Bush's admission that he authorized torture.  I think that is a swell idea that is likely to go nowhere.  —  I hear John Conyers asked an assembled crowd today in Philadelphia whether any of them would object to impeaching the president.

OBAMA IN 2004  —  TPM Reader GB sent me in the video of a 2004 appearance by Barack Obama on the Charlie Rose show in which he talks about the same issue of rural and working class Americans and the Democratic party.  It's from November 23rd, 2004, so just after Obama was first elected …

Joking students called on the carpet  —  The pair at Colorado College are rebuked over a feminist-newsletter parody seen as threatening.  —  A satirical response to a feminist publication at Colorado College has landed the college and two of its students in the middle of a fierce debate over freedom of speech.

“Dr. Phil” Staff Bails Out Girl Jailed for YouTube Beating  —  The TV talk show Dr. Phil McGraw confirmed on Saturday the fact that its staff bailed out of Florida jail one of the girls involved in the violent video posted on YouTube.  The video depicted several teen girls beating one of their classmates while filming her.

Pirates can claim UK asylum  —  THE Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.  —  Warships patrolling pirate-infested waters, such as those off Somalia …