Person of the Year: You  —  Yes, you.  You control the Information Age.  Welcome to your world.  —  The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men."

Officials: Edwards to enter 2008 race  —  WASHINGTON - Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards intends to enter the 2008 race for the White House, two Democratic officials said Saturday.  —  Edwards, who represented North Carolina in the Senate for six years …

A Mideast Counteroffensive  —  IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presided over a convention of Holocaust deniers in Tehran this week, rousing them with yet another speech predicting the extinction of Israel.  In Lebanon, the pro-Western government of Fouad Siniora hung by a thread …

Up Escalator  —  Bill Richardson uses the "e" word and calls out St. John: … Yes, yes, yes.  If Bush does what he'd like to do, which is send in more troops, then this will no longer be Bush's war —  it's McCain's war too and he needs to have it strung around his neck like a neocon albatross.

'We're Going to Win'  —  The president finally has a plan for victory.  —  It turns out you only have to attend a White House Christmas party to find out where President Bush is headed on Iraq.  One guest who shook hands with Bush in the receiving line told him, "Don't let the bastards get you down."

Funding Threatened By Hill's Inaction  —  Government Operations, Projects in Peril  —  The Republican-controlled Congress's decision to adjourn a week ago before completing many of the spending bills that finance the federal government will reverberate in ways large and small …

Legal System in Iraq Staggers Beneath the Weight of War  —  In 2004, American troops detained Laith al-Ani, shown in a family photo.  He sent his family a letter, above, from his detention camp, but they say they do not know why he is still held.  More Photos >

In Farewell, Rumsfeld Warns Weakness Is 'Provocative'  —  Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld bade farewell to the Pentagon on Friday with a combative valedictory speech in which he warned against hoping for "graceful exits" from Iraq and said it would be wrong to regard the lack of new attacks …

Not Going to Happen  —  Yglesias: … Indeed.  I don't know why it seems like inhabitants of a certain corner of the blogosphere seem be the only ones who understand this, though I suppose people are finally starting to get it.  I imagine Bayh dropped out in part because he recognized that the Iraq bed isn't going to uns**t itself.

Prosecutor post is filled in recess  —  A surprise late-afternoon announcement Friday that J. Timothy Griffin will become the new U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas drew the ire of U. S. Sen. Mark Pryor, whose spokesman said the maneuver amounts to "basically circumventing the normal process."

Iraqi PM invites Saddam officers to return to army  —  Source: Reuters  —  Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday Iraqi army officers of all ranks sacked after the U.S. invasion in 2003 would be allowed to reapply for their posts in the new army.

Keeping Iraq attack numbers under wraps  —  As Justin Rood noted, this chart, produced by the Government Accountability Office, tracks the number of per-months attacks in Iraq, based on Pentagon data.  —  A close look at the chart, however, notes that a few details are missing — specifically …

The Coming Death of Email  —  Evan Coyne Maloney notes that at this point more than 90% of email on the internet is spam, and the percentage is only continuing to increase.  As a result, he says that email is going to die soon.  —  Certainly internet email will.

Stalingrad on the Tigris?  —  Below you will find a Power Point (what else?) presentation on the recent AEI analytic meeting run by one of the Kagans.  The cast of contributers at the end reads very much like one of the great neocon "papers" done up before their return to power under Bush 41'.

Military Taking a Tougher Line With Detainees  —  A part of the Camp 6 center at Guantánamo, which had been intended to be common area.  With the tighter security, however, the inmates will not be sharing meals there.  Camp 6 also has one-man exercise pens.