Across Mideast, Arabs hail shoe-hurling journalist  —  BAGHDAD — Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, as Arabs across many parts of the Middle East hailed the journalist as a hero and praised …

The Real Story Behind the Rushed Blagojevich Bust: How the Feds Are Frustrated by Losing (Maybe) Half of Their Case  —  Cam Simpson reports on the Rod Blagojevich case in Chicago.  —  Conventional wisdom holds that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ordered the FBI to arrest Rod Blagojevich …

Two Sides of a Troubled Governor, Sinking Deeper  —  CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich is a polished speaker who can win over elderly women at luncheons in southern Illinois with his earnest attention and eloquently recite historical anecdotes from the lives of the leaders he says he most admires …

Limits on Executive Pay May Prove Toothless  —  Loophole in Bailout Provision Leaves Enforcement in Doubt  —  Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism …

Net neutrality and the benefits of caching  —  One of the first posts I wrote for this blog last summer tried to define what we at Google mean when we talk about the concept of net neutrality.  —  Broadband providers — the on-ramps to the Internet — should not be allowed to prioritize traffic based …

Bush On Al Qaeda Not Existing In Iraq Before Invasion: ‘So What?’  —  Yesterday, after an Iraqi journalist used “[t]wo of the worst insults in Islam” against him, an unfazed President Bush sat down with ABC's Martha Raddatz for an exit interview in Iraq.  When Raddatz asked Bush about his legacy …

On the Hunt in Baghdad  —  BAGHDAD — “If your men conduct any raids,” I said to Captain Todd Looney at Combat Outpost Ford on the outskirts of Sadr City, Baghdad, “I want to go.”  —  “We might have something come up,” he said.  “If so, I'll get you out there.”

The (Really) Moderate Muslims of Kosovo  —  On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, becoming the newest country in the world—and one of the most unusual.  Most of its citizens are Muslim, an oddity in Europe; further, unlike most Muslim-majority nations …

Hoekstra to announce retirement  —  Less than a week after being reappointed as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) will announce that he will not seek a tenth term in 2010, according to a source with knowledge of the decision.

Gen. Shinseki's Silence  —  The announcement that retired Army chief of staff Eric Shinseki will be President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of veterans affairs has energized one of the most enduring myths of the Bush presidency.  Among the media coverage in recent days …

The 17th Floor, Where Wealth Went to Vanish  —  The epicenter of what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history was the 17th floor of the Lipstick Building, an oval red-granite building rising 34 floors above Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.  —  A busy stock-trading operation occupied the 19th floor …

Roads, Trains Can't Handle Jan. 20 Droves  —  With Street and Bridge Closures, Expect ‘Long Lines, Long Walks’  —  Even if only half of the projected 2 million to 4 million people show up for next month's presidential inauguration, the Washington region's roadways and transit systems …

Spousal Ties to Lobbying Test a Vow From Obama  —  WASHINGTON — Linda Hall Daschle is one of the most important aviation lobbyists in town.  Ms. Daschle is also the wife of Tom Daschle, whom President-elect Barack Obama has chosen to be the next secretary of health and human services.

David Shuster to Host MSNBC Political Program  —  MSNBC is replacing one David with another on its 6 p.m. program, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”  —  The cable news channel, owned by NBC Universal, is expected to announce Monday that David Shuster, a Washington correspondent …

McCain unsure if he'll support Palin for president  —  (CNN) — Sen. John McCain said Sunday he would not necessarily support his former running mate if she chose to run for president.  —  Speaking to ABC's “This Week,” McCain was asked whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could count on his support.

Fairfield Sent Madoff $7.3 Billion as Funds Took Fees  —  A A A  —  Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich Group would have collected about $135 million in fees this year for peddling Bernard Madoff's investing acumen to clients from South America, the Middle East and Asia.

Paterson proposes ‘Obesity Tax’  —  ALBANY - A can of Coke could soon cost New Yorkers more than just calories.  —  Gov. Paterson, as part of a $121 billion budget to be unveiled Tuesday, will propose an “obesity tax” of about 15% on nondiet drinks.  —  This means a Diet Coke might sell for a $1 …

TROUBLING THOUGHT  —  Like most of us, if I'm honest with myself, I really only know how Secret Service protection works from the movies or how, going on my own common sense, I figure it works.  The folks who protect the president are professionals.  So I want to be extremely tentative …

Grand Jury Probes Richardson Donor's New Mexico Financing Fee  —  A A A  —  Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — A federal grand jury is investigating how a company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama, on bond deals that threaten to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history …