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.

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."

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 …

Barney Frank accuses Bush of genocide "ethnic cleansing" Major Update  —  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.

Lott: I May Oppose Troop Escalation  —  Yesterday on MSNBC, Trent Lott (R-MS), the second ranking Republican in the Senate, said that he may oppose troop escalation in Iraq.  Watch it:  —  Lott's comments are particularly significant because, as the Minority Whip, he's responsible for bringing …

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 …

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 …

DEM LETTER TO BUSH: "WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO REJECT ANY PLANS THAT CALL FOR OUR GETTING OUR TROOPS ANY DEEPER INTO IRAQ"....  Dear Mr. President:  —  The start of the new Congress brings us opportunities to work together on the critical issues confronting our country.

Two Strategies for Avoiding Truth  —  "Physicists do it...Psychologists do it...Even political scientists do it...Research findings confirming a hypothesis are accepted more or less at face value, but when confronted with contrary evidence, we become "motivated skeptics" …

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.

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 …