'Meet the Press' transcript for Dec. 9, 2007  —  Mayor Rudy Giuliani, R-N.Y.  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Our Meet the Candidates 2008 series continues, an exclusive interview with Republican Rudy Giuliani.  He has served as associate attorney general in Washington …

Republican Candidates Firm on Immigration  —  In front of what will probably be their most pro-immigration audience, Republican candidates toned down their rhetoric but told Spanish-language television viewers in a debate on Sunday that they would take strong measures to close off the country's borders to illegal immigration.

Oprahpalooza in South Carolina  —  (Photo: Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times)  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — It was a staggering sight.  Upwards of 29,000 people at a political rally.  And the Democratic primary in South Carolina is not until Jan. 26.  —  The Double O Express …

Sunday horror: Church shootings in Colorado; gunman killed by armed female church security staffer  —  By now, you've read about the two tragic church shootings incidents in Colorado earlier today.  What you may not have heard about is how the gunman at the second church was reportedly stopped:

Social Security Disability Cases Last Longer as Backlog Rises  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

The Paygo Farce  —  Democrats admit it was all a big confidence game. … Well, as Emily Littela, the half-witted Gilder Radner character on Saturday Night Live, would have put it: "Never mind."  Last week Congressional Democrats formally renounced their ballyhooed budget pledge to offset …

Justice, CIA watchdog launch inquiry  —  It's a first step to see whether the agency acted criminally in destroying videotapes of terrorism suspects' interrogations.  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General said Saturday that they had launched …

There Are Flops, And Then There Is "Redacted"  —  Brian De Palma's "Redacted," the Iraqi war movie that won the best director prize at the Venice Film Festival but has been dismissed as loathsome and awful in other circles, has been in theaters - okay, 15 theaters - nationwide for three weeks now.

Lawrence O'Donnell Loses His Ever-Loving Mind on McLaughlin  —  A sane, if highly flawed, discussion of Mitt Romney's "Faith In America" speech on the McLaughlin Group was cold-cocked into the realm of crazy-faced anger by guest panelist Lawrence O'Donnell this morning, who started off by criticizing Romney …

Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans  —  British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.  —  The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury …

Taliban 'hanged boy, 12, for spying for UK'  —  Taliban fighters hanged a 12-year-old boy from a mulberry tree, claiming he was passing information on Taliban roadside bomb attacks to police and British forces, Afghan police have said.  —  The gruesome murder, which occurred in Sangin …

U.S. Is No Haven, Canadian Judge Finds  —  Late last month, a federal judge in Canada ruled that the United States had violated international conventions on torture and the rights of refugees.  —  The decision has caused quite a stir in Canada.  The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper …

Huckabee Steps Up TV Ads  —  Laura Meckler reports on the presidential campaign.  —  Mike Huckabee, his fund-raising robust and poll numbers climbing, is stepping up his television advertising.  Two new ads hit the Iowa airwaves Monday, and he goes on the air for the first time in both New Hampshire and South Carolina.