You might think that Islamist insurgency and the interim Somali government and free-form terrorist activities were enough to keep the notorious Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab busy. But apparently not. At a recent conclave, Al-Shabaab bigwigs voted to undergo a major rebranding and possibly marketing campaign.

They’re changing their name from al-Shabaab to Imaarah Islamiyah (Islamic Authority).

Shabaab leader Mukhtaar Robow explained the name change with local media after the announcement was made. “Al-Shabaab means ‘youth’ but many of us, including the leaders, are very old so we want to change the name to Imaarah Islamiya,” said Robow, according to SomaliaReport.com.

This weekend’s Kennedy Center honors brought together quite a crowd: Glenn Close, Stephen Colbert, Sarah Jessica Parker, Neil Diamond, Robert De Niro, Yo-Yo Ma, and Smokey Robinson. Oh, and Newt.

NAACP: “In the face of far-reaching demographic and electoral trends revealing unprecedented minority political mobilization in America, an assault on voting rights accelerated in 2011.”

EPA and Army join forces on ‘net zero’ sustainability program.

Nancy Pelosi to TPM: “One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”

At this time of the year, lots of us start taking a closer look at the Intrade.com betting numbers. This is the site where people bet on who they think will win a certain question.

The current numbers for getting the nomination are 45.3% for Romney; 32.2% for Newt; and 6.2% for Huntsman. Ron Paul is at 5.1% and everyone else drops off from there. Read More

There are some more details out this morning on that poll from last night showing Newt Gingrich moving into a solid lead in Iowa. The poll is the Des Moines Register poll, conducted by J. Ann Selzer, which is considered the gold standard for Iowa polls. (Another poll out this morning from NBC-Marist shows broadly comparable results.)

The good news for Gingrich is that he’s not only in first place; he’s also the candidate respondents chose most as their second choice. In other words, he’s got room to grow as other candidates fade.

The silver lining for Romney is that respondents see him as most electable (38%), most likable and most presidential. And Mitt is the second choice of most Newt supporters. Read More

And Mitt, bringing up the rear …

9:33 PM: Mitt starts off saying that the EPA is the president’s tool to destroy the free enterprise system and prevent economic growth.

9:35 PM: Romney says federal government does have a role in federal government: attacking teachers’ unions.

And now Bachmann …

Okay, forget about Bachmann. She’s being silly. But the real stand-out here is Ken Cuccinelli, the very right-wing Attorney General of Virginia. With candidate after candidate he’s asking really sharp and probing questions and even more the follow-ups — pretty much in each case pressing candidates when it’s clear they don’t really understand or aren’t paying attention to the basics of constitutional law or really obvious questions about relations between the states and between the states and the federal government.

Like pretty much every Republican candidate, Bachmann says she wants to abolish the EPA. Then Cuccinelli asked, well, what about when states have a dispute between them? What about when Ohio’s plants are sending pollution into Pennsylvania? She vaguely said that this could be handled on a case by case basis. But a special law every time this happened, he shot back? Obviously that didn’t make sense. He didn’t press the point past the point when it was obvious She really hadn’t considered the question. He had a similar exchange with Perry. Maybe Cuccinelli should be nominee.

In case you didn’t know there’s a sorta debate tonight on Fox News. It’s basically a quick round-robin type interview on Mike Huckabee’s Fox show where Huck and a panel do little mini-interviews with each successive candidate.

Newt …

8:09 PM: Newt’s campaign made sure to send ‘Good Newt’ tonight, pretty cool and polished, making good reference to his knowledge of the workings of the federal government without seeming pompous. I think if you’re a Republican looking to be reassured that Newt’s got his feet on the ground and himself under control, you probably think he’s doing pretty well.

8:19 PM: Newt finishing up. Think he did pretty well.

Santorum ….

8:29 PM: It seems he’s pro-life. Now the AG of Florida (one of the questioners) is flipping out over water standards that are strangling Florida.

Perry …

8:39 PM: Perry seems to have gotten himself in a bit of a jam saying he could basically abolish ‘Obamacare’ with an executive order on day one. Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia AG, seized on this, seeming to realize this didn’t make any sense. Now, Mitt Romney has repeatedly said he’d basically give a waiver to every state on day one in office. And that would severely hobble the law. The key though is that Perry didn’t seem to know that he couldn’t just do something like a executive order veto. He fell back on saying he’d have ultra-politicized appointees who’d undermine the law. But Cuccinelli was right on this. Perry muffed it.