Top Officers Hopeful That Obama Will Bring More Realistic View Than Bush  —  Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went unarmed into his first meeting with the new commander in chief — no aides, no PowerPoint presentation, no briefing books.

The ongoing disgrace of NBC News and Brian Williams  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  The New York Times's David Barstow, whose excellent and aggressive journalism led to the uncovering last April of the Pentagon's domestic propaganda program involving network “military analysts,” …

The Mumbai policemen who refused to shoot  —  Photographer Sebastian D'Souza, who was able to take a photo of one of the armed terrorists in the train station in Mumbai, also described the events he witnessed there.  One puzzling—not to mention profoundly troubling—aspect of his report was the following [emphasis mine]:

Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop  —  The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist.  Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns.  None.  No hickory nuts, either.  Then he went out to look for himself.  He came up with nothing.

GOP Looks to Young Louisiana Gov. Jindal as Its Own Version of Obama  —  Jindal May Prove To be Republicans' Version of Obama  —  CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Last weekend, 18 days after Barack Obama decisively defeated their candidate for president, a mostly Republican crowd of self-described …

The GOP's McCarthy gene  —  Think Goldwater is the father of conservatism?  Think again.  —  Ever since the election, partisans within the Republican Party and observers outside it have been speculating wildly about what direction the GOP will take to revive itself from its disaster.

He's Not Black  —  He is also half white.  —  Unless the one-drop rule still applies, our president-elect is not black.  —  We call him that — he calls himself that — because we use dated language and logic.  After more than 300 years and much difficult history, we hew to the old racist rule: Part-black is all black.

It's a depression  —  WASHINGTON — Few prominent economists will say it, but to me it looks and feels like we are in another Great Depression or a reasonable facsimile.  —  The current meltdown is dubbed a “financial crisis.”  But a rose by any other name would still inflict the same hardship …

Taj Mahal hotel owner: We had warning  —  Watch the full interview with Ratan Tata on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on CNN.  —  The Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, temporarily increased security after being warned of a possible terrorist attack, the chairman of the company that owns the hotel said Saturday.

Chambliss Still Unsure If Economy Is In Recession, Misstates ‘Technical Defintion’ Of A Recession  —  This morning of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) about a statement he made in July when he argued that the U.S. economy “may not be in a recession.”

Google's Gatekeepers  —  In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site.  —  ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig …

At 5am I found a bottle of vintage Cristal champagne.  ‘No, no!’ cried the head waiter, ‘Those are the wrong glasses’ … If Briton Nick Hayward had finished his meal at the Taj Mahal hotel 30 seconds later, he would have been caught in the gunfire.  —  ‘I was very lucky,’ he said.