The Adults take Charge  —  The Reality Based Community Strikes Back in Iraq  —  The professionals take charge.  Bush is bringing in Ryan Crocker, a distinguished career foreign service officer, as the new US ambassador to Iraq.  And Gen. David Petraeus will replace Gen. Casey as top ground commander in Iraq.

Jubilant Democrats Assume Control on Capitol Hill  —  In a day of transition and pageantry, exultant Democrats on Thursday took control of both houses of Congress for the first time in a dozen years and elected the first woman to be speaker of the House.  —  Representative Nancy Pelosi …

Grit and guts for Navy corpsmen in a Fallujah police station  —  WASHINGTON - Editor's note: Blogger Bill Ardolino is embedded with a U.S. Marine unit in Iraq.  He's there to find out the truth about the U.S. war effort on the ground in Iraq.  Unlike the vast majority of mainstream media journalists …

Negroponte shift is ruffling feathers  —  Some say that his assignment to the State Department will leave the national intelligence office in a lurch.  —  WASHINGTON — The abrupt departure of John D. Negroponte as the nation's spy chief prompted angry responses from Capitol Hill and triggered …

White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says  —  Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster …

Jihadist Website: Al-Zawahiri Urges Somalis, Muslims To Fight Ethiopian Forces  —  A jihadist website is observed on 5 January to post several links to 5-minute and 30-second audio message by Al-Qa'ida's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri entitled "Rise up and Support Your Brothers in Somalia."

Barney Frank accuses Bush of genocide  —  There's no other way around it: When you accuse someone of perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" in any way, shape or form, you are accusing them of genocide.  —  Genocide.  Let that word work its way around your mind for an moment.

Guardsmen overrun at the Border  —  National Guard unit stormed while patroling the border  —  Border attack raises security concerns  —  A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico.  —  According to the Border Patrol …

Saddam should have been studied, not executed  —  Sparing Hussein and studying his makeup could have provided valuable research.  —  THE OBVIOUS objections to the execution of Saddam Hussein are valid and well aired.  His death will provoke violent strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims …

The Hanging: Beyond Travesty  —  Of the 6 billion people on this Earth, not one killed more people than Saddam Hussein.  And not just killed but tortured and mutilated — doing so often with his own hands and for pleasure.  It is quite a distinction to be the preeminent monster on the planet.

Ex-Dem.  Party boss blasts Kerry in book  —  WASHINGTON - Former Democratic Party boss and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe is lambasting John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign, calling his effort to unseat President Bush "one of the biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics."

ADMIRAL WILLIAM J. FALLON, USN  —  Commander, U.S. Pacific Command  —  Admiral William J. Fallon was raised in Merchantville, N.J. A 1967 graduate of Villanova University, he received his commission through the Navy ROTC Program and was designated a naval flight officer upon completion of flight training in December 1967.

In New Senate, The 'Candy Desk' Gets a Kiss-Off  —  New Occupant Hails From  —  State With a Sweet Deficit;  —  'Moose Doodles,' Anyone?  —  WASHINGTON — With Democrats back in control of Congress for the first time in years, much is changing in the nation's capital …

Big money backs McCain in S.C.  —  Arizona senator lines up impressive list of 2008 finance committee members  —  U.S. Sen. John McCain has locked up nearly every major Republican donor in South Carolina to lead his 2008 finance committee, including some of the top names of President Bush's 2000 campaign.