A turning point in the Obama campaign? His Jefferson Jackson Dinner event speech in Iowa on Saturday was deemed “excellent” by political observers, one of whom noted that “the passion he showed should help him close the gap on Hillary Clinton by tipping some undecided caucusgoers his way.”

Pakistan’s Gen. Pervez Musharraf scheduled parliamentary elections for January, but says emergency rule will continue until then, “immediately raising new questions about the vote’s legitimacy.”

Thousands of federal inmates—in the slammer on drug charges—might get released early, if the U.S. Sentencing Commission approves a proposal that seeks to rectify the “much harsher punishment on crack cocaine users and dealers than in powder cocaine cases.” (FYI: “About 80% of those sentenced on federal crack charges every year are African American.”)

An oil tanker dumped 1,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Black Sea, during a massive storm.

Breaking news! It’s rainy and windy.

And finally, the reason I couldn’t finish my breakfast this morning, (thanks, Oregonian!):