Abdallah Hajji and Lofti Lagha knew the worst was not behind them when they boarded a plane from Guantánamo Bay detention facility back home to Tunisia in 2007. After being held in Guantánamo under suspicions of terrorist involvement, the two Tunisian nationals were independently cleared as non-enemy combatants and released back into the hands of the Tunisian government, according to a report published by Human Rights Watch. Despite pleas by the detainees to forgo the repatriation and known reports of torture in Tunisia, the U.S. government went ahead with the transfer. To no one’s great surprise, Hajji and Lagha were both viciously tortured in Tunisian prisons — all of which could have been prevented.

Where were you the day political satire died? I was at home watching the inauguration, of course.

I saw it all go down. I watched President Obama address both America and the world with such purpose, integrity and humility that one thing became abundantly clear: he killed satire in cold blood.

With Clinton’s philandering and Bush’s floundering, the past 16 years have been an all-you-can-eat buffet of political buffoonery for columnists, pundits and comedians alike.

But the electoral process giveth, and the electoral process taketh away.

On January 20th I watched a green helicopter fly away with my meal ticket.

CHICAGO (AP) — Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign announced Friday that he will campaign with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton next week, a step toward unifying a fractured Democratic Party after a bruising primary fight.

Obama's campaign said in a brief e-mail that said the two senators and former opponents will campaign together for the first time on Friday, June 27, and more details would be forthcoming.

A day earlier, Obama and Clinton also plan to meet in Washington with some of her top contributors in an effort to calm donors who remain frustrated with Obama's presidential campaign. The former first lady will introduce Obama to her financial backers.

Graphic design has always eeked its way into presidential campaigns. Many remember the famous analysis of the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards logos which analyzed everything from the choice of fonts (obnoxiously bolded sans serif vs. light highbrow serif) to the placement of the flags (firmly anchored vs. flying off the page). All this seemed to confirm Bush’s brawny, strength-obsessed politics, versus the perception of Kerry as an elite weakling.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton will end on Saturday her historic bid to become the first woman president but Barack Obama said he won't be hurried into a decision on whether to make her his running mate.

Clinton, in an e-mail to supporters, said she "will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise."

The e-mail was a shift in tone by the former first lady, who announced 17 months ago that she was "in it to win it." Many of her supporters now are pushing for her to be included as the vice presidential candidate, in their minds a "dream ticket" that would bring Obama her enthusiastic legions and broaden his appeal to white and working-class voters.

CHICAGO (AP) — History within his reach, Barack Obama was primed to claim the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday or soon after as voters in Montana and South Dakota bring his months-long contest with dogged rival Hillary Rodham Clinton to a close. Clinton appeared ready to bow to the inevitable and spare the party an even more protracted fight.

Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said Tuesday that once Obama gets the majority of convention delegates, "I think Hillary Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee."

As the Cornell-operated Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico struggles to find financial support after the National Science Foundation slashed its funding, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is proposing, in legislation she introduced two weeks ago, that the NSF completely restore the research facility’s grants. But with just a month until the Puerto Rican primary, some Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) supporters are calling the move political posturing.

On April 15, Clinton introduced a bill in the Senate — S.2862 — that directs the NSF to “ensure that the Arecibo Observatory is fully funded.” The bill cites the scientific and research value of the observatory and also calls for the observatory’s collaboration with NASA for the research of near-Earth objects.

This week’s Democratic primaries in Ohio and Texas may decide who the Democratic nominee for President will be. Obama and Clinton have recently been debating who can most effectively destroy the economy--

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is no new contender in the political arena. Having been in the national spotlight since her husband was elected president 16 years ago, Hillary Clinton’s announcement that she is running for our nation’s highest office was all but a surprise. And with Super Tuesday — the day many believe will decide who wins the primaries — less than two weeks away, Clinton is looking good in the polls.

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) — A neighbor of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton was arrested Thursday in the slaying of his wife, who he claimed had been shot by a stranger on a dark suburban road.

Carlos Perez-Olivo, a disbarred lawyer who was wounded himself in the Nov. 18, 2006, shooting, was expected in county court later Thursday, said Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore. Chalfen did not say what charge or charges Perez-Olivo faced.

Perez-Olivo's lawyer has said his client is innocent. He did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday.