Brit Hume to Step Down as Fox News Anchor  —  Brit Hume, a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched 12 years ago, plans to step down at year's end.  But he won't disappear entirely.  —  Sources familiar with the situation say that Hume, 65 …

“A New Strategy for a New World”  —  Barack delivered a speech on the war in Iraq and national security in Washington, DC this morning.  He laid out his strategy for making America safer: ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban …

The Comedy Stylings of Shecky McCain  —  I made the mistake of watching Verdict yesterday where they had a John McCain sycophant go on and on about how McCain stuck by his principles when he bucked his party on immigration.  He and the host failed to note that he was lining up with the president …

Christopher Hitchens on the Barack Obama cartoon controversy  —  Satire, according to Jonathan Swift, is “a mirror wherein every man will commonly discern every face but his own”.  The New Yorker's cartoon of Barack Obama and his lady wife, according to its editor David Remnick …

Most Offensive Quote of the Day  —  If we had a “Most Offensive Quote of the Day” every day, Joe Biden would probably come to own the prize.  But even by the senator's lofty standards of chronic obtuseness, he outdid himself this afternoon: … I know Democrats get a certain tingling …

Court Backs Bush on Military Detentions  —  President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision.

Obama Leads Bush by Twenty, But Clinton Does Better Against McCain  —  Barack Obama says a vote for John McCain is a vote for George W. Bush's third term, but a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that the Democratic hopeful would have a much easier time of it if he were actually running …

Obama and Damage to the Brand  —  I just got off the phone with a well-connected Democrat, trying to get a better read on this Democrats-miffed-with-Obama stuff.  It's real, he said, and more serious than the mostly process concerns outlined in the Politico story.

OFPS  —  Listen Pete, I developed internal business productivity software for Microsoft for seven years and was a committed Microsoft fan since the early 80s.  —  Working at the company strained my enthusiasm and then Vista combined with Office 2007 destroyed it.

'You don't care about me,' Khadr sobs in interview tapes  —  Tapes reveal interrogation by Canadian officials  —  A teenage Omar Khadr sobs uncontrollably as Canadian spy agents question him at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a brief video excerpt released via the internet early Tuesday morning.

McCain Clarifies On Gay Adoption  —  The campaign sends a statement to this blog for the record:

Breaking: Eight Supers Switching to Hillary  —  Big news folks - it looks like our efforts in contacting those Superdelegates are starting to pay off, so keep on writing to them (ok, maybe Donna B's a waste of time).  There are unconfirmed reports, based on phone banking efforts to reach out to Super Ds …

HHS Moves to Define Contraception as Abortion … In a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right, the Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception.

Political Billboard Showing 9/11 Tragedy Creates Controversy  —  ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, “Please Don't Vote for a Democrat.”  The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans …

McCain Revises Plan to Send Three U.S. Brigades to Afghanistan in Favor of NATO Forces  —  ALBUQUERQUE — In an interview with reporters aboard his campaign bus, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) modified his assertion today that the U.S. could send three additional brigades to Afghanistan by drawing on troops that were leaving Iraq.

Will Romney's Combative Style Net VP Nod?  —  In Interview With CBSNews.com, Ex-McCain Rival Flashes VP-Type Style  —  (CBS) This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Scott Conroy.  —  Mitt Romney spent over $35 million of his own money and more than a year of his life …

Blast from the past  —  Over 100 Chicago professors proudly sign a letter declaring their ignorance of economics: … This from a University that has cultivated a reputation as one of the most intellectually rigorous campuses in the country.  I'm tempted to weep.