Carl Levin Calls for Attacks On Syria.  Admits Al-Qaeda In Iraq & Troops Need to Stay  —  UPDATE: The video is here.  —  Get ready for Carl Levin to get shot by Cindy Sheehan or some other angry lefty.  I'm not sure what happened to him, but he's making sense right now.

African American Voters Shift Support to Obama  —  The opening stages of the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination have produced a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters, who little more than a month ago heavily supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton …

Glenn Greenwald, Thomas Ellers, and Rick Ellensburg: The Three Most Hypocritical Men on the Planet  —  A suicide bomber apparently tried to kill Dick Cheney, and many commenters at the Huffington Post lamented his lack of success.  The offending comments have been removed from the post in question, but you can read some of them here.

Asia-Pacific stocks fall on China plunge  —  Stock markets around the Asia-Pacific region opened sharply lower Wednesday after a dizzying sell-off in China sent global markets into a tailspin.  —  Japanese share prices tumbled 3.56 percent in morning trade Wednesday, tracking a rout …

Democrats Back Away From War Fund Plan  —  WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders are backing away from a plan to scale back U.S. involvement in the Iraq war by using Congress' most powerful tool _ withholding money in the budget.  —  Instead, party officials said Tuesday …

Glenn Beck Claims Olbermann Is 'Killing...The World's Democracy,' 'Smacks Of...McCarthyism'  —  MSNBC host Keith Olbermann is profiled in this month's issue of Rolling Stone.  In the piece, Olbermann shares his thoughts on right-wing CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck:

Afghan Bombing Sends a Danger Signal to U.S.  —  The audacity of a suicide-bomb attack on Tuesday at the gates of the main American base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney underscores why President Bush sent him there — a deepening American concern that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are resurgent.

CanWest Buys out the New Republic  —  Just days after purchasing the shares from money men Roger Hertog and Michael Steinhardt, Canadian media giant Can West has completely bought out the New Republic.  —  The Observer first reported in Dec. 2006 (2nd item) that CanWest was taking a majority stake in the company.

Did the Drudge Report Help Tank the Stock Market?  —  Here's a headline sure to spook any investor or economist: "Greenspan warns of likely U.S. recession."  That was the headline right near the top of the widely surfed Drudge Report yesterday afternoon and this morning …

Seixon No More  —  I'm done.  —  Blogging here has been an interesting adventure since I started back in April 2005.  After 350 posts, 150 trackbacks, 10,000 comments (geez!), several e-mails from Larry Johnson, and one gig on a radio show, it's time to put this baby down.

Two GOP Factions May End Feud in Favor of Fighting Democrats  —  Now that Republicans are in the minority in Congress, a pair of dueling GOP organizations that fund congressional candidates may be reaching a détente of sorts, as they embrace the shared goal of reclaiming the majority in 2008.

RFK Jr. rips President Bush for environmental policy  —  Speaking at Virginia Tech, the son of a 1960s Democratic icon said the nation is living a "science-fiction nightmare."  —  BLACKSBURG — The crowd that nearly filled Virginia Tech's 3,000-seat Burruss Hall Auditorium …