A Handpicked Team for a Foreign Policy Shift  —  WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room.

Sad News: Tanta Passes Away  —  My dear friend and co-blogger Doris “Tanta” Dungey passed away early this morning.  I would like to express my deepest condolences to her family and friends.  —  Photo: Tanta in 2004 (from her sister Cathy).  —  From David Streitfeld at the NY Times …

Doctors shocked at hostages's torture  —  They said that just one look at the bodies of the dead hostages as well as terrorists showed it was a battle of attrition that was fought over three days at the Oberoi and the Taj hotels in Mumbai.  —  Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies …

NY Times Scurrying To Give Obama Victory Credit For Their Shared Defeat In Iraq  —  Barack Obama and his Democratic allies have famously done everything in their power to try to lose the Iraqi War while President Bush is in office, but now that everyone with any understanding of the conflict knows …

I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq  —  I should have felt triumphant when I returned from Iraq in August 2006.  Instead, I was worried and exhausted.  My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi …

The Chris Matthews Show: Obama's Problems Will Come From The Angry Left, Not Republicans  —  John Amato has blogged about this and this clip from this week's The Chris Matthews Show is proof positive that the progressive blogosphere must be smart about picking battles in pushing a liberal agenda for America.

NBC Exec: Obama's Skin Color Gives Him More Legitimacy Than Any American Leader In History  —  The number two man at NBC News believes Barack Obama's skin color gives him more legitimacy around the world than possibly any American leader in history.  —  For those unfamiliar …

Kristol's Next War  —  In addition to being a booster of the two actual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bill Kristol and/or his publication has, at one time or another, also called for the United States to go to war with North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Sudan.  And now he's got another war he's like to start:

‘We thought we were safe... then CNN stepped in!’  —  A SOUTH Wales couple caught in the Mumbai terror attacks claimed last night that CNN put their lives at risk by broadcasting where they were.  —  Lynne and Kenneth Shaw, of Penarth, warned that terrorists were listening in to the media to pinpoint Western victims.

‘The Doves Were Right’  —  In 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy brought to Washington a new generation of pragmatic young activists who came to be known as the New Frontiersmen.  When the journalist Theodore White later wrote a memorable photo essay about them for Life magazine, he called them the “action-intellectuals.”

UFO enthusiasts call on Obama to release XFiles  —  UFO enthusiasts are pressing Barack Obama to release classified documents about sightings of alien spacecraft, encouraged by support from within the President-Elect's own White House team.  —  Desperate to see the US emulate the British Government …

Dick Durbin misses the point about Ryan  —  Just before Thanksgiving, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) moistened his finger and, as he has done so many times in his career, held the digit aloft to check the prevailing winds.  —  This time, when he figured the winds were just right …

Obama followers patiently awaiting instructions  —  Defending his unbroken string of establishment/hawkish/conservative appointments, the general speaks:  —  “What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking.  But I understand where the vision for change comes from.

MUSLIMS “WORRY ABOUT IMAGE”  —  That's what the Associated Press says.  Somehow, it seems like we've been down this road before: … Yeah, that keeps happening.  Funny thing. … D'ya think?  Some Muslims, though, don't seem to share that concern: … No doubt Muslims who actually advocate mass murder are a minority.