Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

"You Gotta Ask Me Nicely" by digby When a man questions why a policeman has pulled him over and refuses to sign the ticket, the policeman electrocutes him to make him comply: The video shows the Utah Highway Patrolman pull over Jared Massey and his pregnant wife who also had their baby with them in the car and ask for Mr Massey's license. Mr Massey tells the officer he does not understand why he has been stopped or what he is being charged with, at which point the officer orders Massey to get out of the car.

Someday Rudy Giuliani will look back on this moment and wonder why he shelved one of his core convictions and didn’t run as himself.

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.

The Department of Homeland Security failed to prepare for a massive influx of applications for U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits this summer, prompting complaints from Hispanic leaders and voter-mobilization groups that several hundred thousand people likely will not be granted citi...

(Updated below - Update II - Update III) For the sake of its own credibility, Time Magazine needs immediately to prohibit Joe Klein from uttering another word about the eavesdropping and FISA controversy. He simply doesn't know what he's talking about and he publishes demonstrably false statements. Klein's latest article in Time does nothing more than what Klein and most Beltway "liberal" pundits always do and have been doing for the last twenty years -- namely, warn Democrats that they will lose elections unless they renounce their beliefs and act as much as possible like Republicans on national security issues.

Commanders hope to shift more of the security burden in Iraq to the Iraqis without giving up gains U.S. troops have made, officials said.

Hillary bracing for possible letdown in Iowa Obama's narrow lead in polls prompts her to beef up staff - CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Antiabortion activists in several states are promoting constitutional amendments that would define life as beginning at conception, which could effectively outlaw all abortions and some birth control methods.

Thanksgiving Day should be turned into a National Day of Atonement to acknowledge the genocide of America's indigenous peoples.

Deepening the mystery surrounding the anti-Mormon polling calls, the Romney campaign is confirming that it referred reporters to two recipients of the calls without disclosing that the two were also on the Romney campaign payroll, TPM Election Central has learned. In response to questions from TPM Election Central, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden confirmed that the campaign had failed to disclose this info to reporters. Madden suggested that the campaign had identified them as "supporters," which is a far cry from being directly paid by the campaign, as the two call recipients were.

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides in 2007, by far the lowest number since reliable statistics became available in 1963.

Saudi Arabia and Libya, were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year to facilitate attacks.

Dan Lehr November 21, 2007 - 5:11PM Del.icio.us | Digg |

Stunning temples carved out below the ground in secrecy by an eccentric with 'paranormal' visions, have finally been revealed to the world.

The ruling by Pakistan’s Supreme Court paves the way for Gen. Pervez Musharraf to be sworn in again as the nation’s leader.

When Jordan Fox was serving in Iraq, his mother helped organize Operation Pittsburgh Pride, which sends thousands of care packages to U.S. troops from his hometown, which prompted a personal “thank you” from the White House. When Fox was seriously injured in Iraq, the president sent what appeared to be personal note, expressing his concerns to the Fox family. But more recently, Fox received a different piece of correspondence from the Bush administration. The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

· Frontline getting closer to Kabul, says thinktank · Aid not going to those who need it most, warns Oxfam Graphic: Taliban presence in Afghanistan Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday November 22, 2007 The Guardian Afghan National Army soldiers head out on patrol. Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters The Taliban has a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan and the country is in serious danger of falling into Taliban hands, according to a report by an independent thinktank with long experience in the area.

The subprime crisis and the credit crunch are the result of our failure to effectively reform corporate governance after the last set of scandals.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) “raised some eyebrows” with his recent remarks about President Bush’s knowledge about Iraq. His comments “about his experiences with the White House during meetings on the war in Iraq” left some conservatives in the crowd “befuddled.” Chattanooga’s NewsChannel 9 reports: “I was in the White House a number of times to talk about the issue, and I may rankle some in the room saying this, but I was very underwhelmed with what discussions took place at the White House,” Corker said.

As he has tacked to the left and right throughout his career, his worldview has remained constant.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 22 -- President Pervez Musharraf's script for a tightly controlled political transition moved ahead on cue Thursday, as his hand-picked Supreme Court dismissed the final legal challenge to Musharraf becoming president for another five-year term and officials said he would...

Based on lessons learned from the Bush administration, I am making a list called Qualities We Don’t Want in the Next President.

USATODAY.com Latest News

Earlier this week, Washington Post investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Jeff Leen hosted an online chat at washingtonpost.com. One of the participants asked Woodward and Leen how pervasive the voter suppression tactic known as “caging” is. The investigative reporters had no idea what it was: Washington, D.C.: Don’t you have a duty to report criminal activity to the appropriate authorities? How pervasive is “caging”? Bob Woodward and Jeff Leen: We publish what we can find and document.

For anyone over 50, today is not only Thanksgiving but the day JFK died 44 years ago. He has been gone now for almost as long as he lived and, in these times of White House infamy, not nearly as much in the national mind as his antagonist, Richard Nixon, whose all-time low approval ratings have just been eclipsed by George W. Bush. A few years after the assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy wistfully told me that her husband was being remembered too much for how he died rather than what he had lived for. She was right. It was too soon then for Americans to appreciate what they had lost.