Obama Pledges 'Aggressive' Iran Diplomacy  —  Senator Barack Obama said he would "engage in aggressive personal diplomacy" with Iran if elected president, and would offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek "regime change" if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues.

Bush to Democrats: 'We are at war'  —  WASHINGTON - President Bush compared Congress' Democratic leaders Thursday with people who ignored the rise of Lenin and Hitler early in the last century, saying "the world paid a terrible price" then and risks similar consequences for inaction today.

Victory at University of Delaware  —  University Dumps Thought Reform Program  —  Late Thursday, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker released on the school's website a Message to the University of Delaware Community terminating the university's ideological reeducation program …

S.C. Dems reject Colbert candidacy  —  Stephen Colbert's satirical run for the presidency has run into its first roadblock - his bid to be on the ballot in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary was rejected on Thursday.  —  The party's executive council voted 14 to 3 …

The most influential US conservatives: 21-40  —  As the US prepares for what is arguably the most open presidential election since 1928, the last time there was no incumbent president or vice-president on the ballot, the Daily Telegraph's Washington correspondents compile a list of the 100 …

But They're Unaffiliated, Of Course  —  Media Matters insists that it has no intention of supporting a candidate, but it's hard to tell that from its content.  As Jonah Goldberg noted, the site went into a full-throated defense of Hillary Clinton by attacking Tim Russert for ... well, asking questions about issues:

Pilot of plane that dropped A-bomb dies  —  COLUMBUS, Ohio - Paul Tibbets, who etched his mother's name — Enola Gay — into history on the nose of the B-29 bomber he flew to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, died Thursday after six decades of steadfastly defending the mission.  He was 92.

Blackwater sneak silencers into Iraq?  —  Security firm under investigation for allegedly sidestepping export controls  —  A Blackwater employee shows off a silencer-equipped rifle in Iraq in a photo obtained by NBC News.  The picture has been digitally altered to protect the identity of the subject.

Knollenberg aide who went nuts on YouTube takes leave of absence  —  When we last saw Trent Wisecup, chief of staff to Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.), he was busy blowing a gasket on YouTube and berating an anti-war protester for following around the congressman with a video camera.

I WASN'T GOING TO RESPOND when Andrew Sullivan — deliberately, or in unforgivable cluelessness — transformed my statement about leaving the Libertarian Party into something about not being a libertarian at all.  Andrew says a lot of silly things about me these days, and life is too short to pay attention to them.

Feds Probing Dem Sen. Relationship to Former Aide  —  As the feds are bearing down hard on Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), raiding his Alaska home and convening a grand jury in Washington, D.C., another investigation into a sitting senator has been proceeding quietly up in New Jersey.

Do the poor prefer bad schools?  —  I MUST respectfully disagree with my esteemed colleague's last post, wherein he writes: … Let us leave aside for now the merit of regulatory agencies.  Because preferences are sovereign and, in any case, economists aren't in the business of literary criticism …

U.S. Falls Short of Iraqi Refugee Target  —  The United States accepted only some 450 Iraqi refugees in October, well short of the Bush administration's stated goal of 1,000 a month.  —  The figure also marks a decline from September, when 889 refugees were admitted.