There are many unanswered questions regarding Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. The latest is the AP report that senior American officials have revealed that “the United States provided a steady stream of intelligence to Benazir Bhutto about threats against her before the former Pakistani prime minister was assassinated and advised her aides on how to boost security, although key suggestions appear to have gone unheeded.” The report adds that even the Pakistan government was provided...

I can’t claim to know much about Mauritania, but I just read an extremely interesting article about the country in the latest edition of the Arab Reform Bulletin. In it, author Salma Waheedi demonstrates that not all news coming from the Arab world is bad news: Mauritania, an often-ignored country in the western periphery of the Arab world, surprised observers two years ago by undertaking one of the most forthcoming advances toward democracy in the region. Democratic reforms came as a result...

What role should religion play in politics? That question has suggested itself for many reasons during the already too-long 2008 presidential campaign. It’s a question of particular interest to me because I’m a lifetime political junkie, a student of history, and a Lutheran pastor. There are, it seems to me, three main reasons we’re asking the question in a major way this year. The first is the candidacy of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon. Personally, while I have the same...

Just when you thought American politics can’t get more sleazy, ethically-smelly or…Rovian….on the final day of the year former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee holds a press conference that could go down in history as lowering the bar so low that it touches the floor. The scene: a press conference where Huckabee was supposed to unveil a new negative ad against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney who has gone on negative on Huckabee big-time on the air — beating back Huckabee’s...

Listen to The Capitol Steps New Year’s Eve 2007 Edition ONLINE or on these NPR stations.

Huckabee’s got protesters already! Is it performance art? Civil disobedience? Street theater? Self-centeredness? Neither Fred nor Cindy is welcome in MY home. CNN Political Ticker: Anti-war protestors and Ron Paul supporters both kept Mike Huckabee from entering his Iowa campaign headquarters through the front door Monday. Three people who managed to break inside — holding a sign that said “What Would Jesus Bomb?” — were arrested and led away, yelling and singing. Around two...

John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri

The Guardian has an interesting write-up on “Pakistan may not make it: The country’s future now depends on a power struggle between the army and Bhutto’s son”. The article is written by Peter W Galbraith, a former US ambassador to Croatia, who is the author of “The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End”. “Pakistan’s army has long defined itself as the guardian of the nation, and successive generals have used this role as...

With polls in Iowa see-sawing faster than a see-saw in a playground used by hyperactive five-year-olds, a Republican candidate who has seemingly fallen off the media radar is getting some notice and even again being called Reaganesque: actor Fred Thompson. Yes, THE Fred Thompson who seemingly had an incredible moment in political history when GOPers were waiting for him to enter the fray as a kind of new Ronald Reagan who could offer them an appealing choice from a political buffet table that many...

What should Washington do, now that its plans for restoring democracy in Pakistan appear to have unraveled? According the the editorial board of Mexico’s La Jornada newspaper, the U.S. should, ‘Prevent Musharraf from using the assassination of Bhutto and the violence it has unleashed to reinstall the state of emergency and postpone elections indefinitely; pressure him to carry out a peaceful democratic transition as quickly as possible; and relinquish control of a regime whose fall,...

I’m going back to Minnesota on New Year’s Eve (that should be a fun plane trip), so this is it until 2008. Y’all are wonderful. Have a safe New Year’s, and see you soon!

Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the world. He is a familiar pundit on television and radio. SPECIAL EDITOR’s NOTE: We are editing out one reference to Pakistan since it was written before the events there. It is NOT a tasteless comment but it probably would not have gone into this excellent piece if it had been written after events there. The Top Ten Comedic News Stories of 2007 Raging Moderate, by Will Durst Okay. Just so you know: the Top Ten Comedic News Stories...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

It now appears as if the public, the media and the political establishment are being prepared for an announcement that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will launch an independent run for President. Yesterday we ran THIS POST which noted Bloomberg’s upcoming meeting with Unity 08, a high-powered bipartisan group that is on the brink of finding a candidate to back — and to buck two parties increasingly mired in partisanship, polarization and seemingly lacking a desire to truly aggregate...

In helping Turkey target Kurdish guerrillas in Northern Iraq, is America betraying the very people that helped them take down Saddam when Turkey refused to do so? According to this statement by the Kurdistan Democratic Alliance published in Norther Iraq’s Kurdish Media, ‘The U.S.-E.U. alliance with Turkey goes against human dignity, democracy, human Rights and social justice. Yet, both the U.S. and E.U. consider themselves as defenders of these ideals.’ “The Kurds who have been...

Why did the terrorists want so badly to eliminate Benazir Bhutto? Because, according to one of France’s leading writers and philosophers, Bernard Henry Levy, her very existence posed a threat to everything they stand for – including the proper place of a woman. “It is a woman, first of all, that they have killed. A beautiful woman. … the exact opposite of those shamed women, hidden and damned creatures of Satan, who are the only women tolerated by those apostles of a world without...

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani largely-skipped Iowa and was out of the media loop, got some bad publicity and has seen his poll numbers sag. So his strategists decided to roll out a NEW theme: 911. Haven’t we heard that song before? But the Mayor & Co. (partially influenced by the turbulence and uncertainty in nuke-power Pakistan) are returning to pushing The Basic Brand: Mr. Giuliani’s retooled stump speech compares the Sept. 11 generation to the generation that won World War II. He...

By a young woman who loves football...CLICK HERE.

Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons

So far in actual polling numbers he has remained mostly in the single digits. He has raised whopping sums of money on the Internet and is the candidate with the most zealous and motivated supporters. Will he remain the passion of loyal followers — or the biggest political surprise story of the year? Andrew Kline, editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader, believes there’s a good chance Paul will surprise everyone (except his own supporters) and get a double digit vote there....