Doctors shocked at hostages's torture  —  They said that just one look at the bodies of the dead hostages as well as terrorists showed it was a battle of attrition that was fought over three days at the Oberoi and the Taj hotels in Mumbai.  —  Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies …

Clinton, Obama seal the deal  —  It's finally official: President-elect Obama will appear with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in Chicago on Monday as he names her secretary of state, a remarkable reunion of once-bitter rivals.  —  The news conference at a Chicago hotel is scheduled to begin at 10:40 a.m. Eastern.

A Handpicked Team for a Foreign Policy Shift  —  WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room.

Kristol's Next War  —  In addition to being a booster of the two actual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bill Kristol and/or his publication has, at one time or another, also called for the United States to go to war with North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Sudan.  And now he's got another war he's like to start:

‘We thought we were safe... then CNN stepped in!’  —  A SOUTH Wales couple caught in the Mumbai terror attacks claimed last night that CNN put their lives at risk by broadcasting where they were.  —  Lynne and Kenneth Shaw, of Penarth, warned that terrorists were listening in to the media to pinpoint Western victims.

Sad News: Tanta Passes Away  —  My dear friend and co-blogger Doris “Tanta” Dungey passed away early this morning.  I would like to express my deepest condolences to her family and friends.  —  Photo: Tanta in 2004 (from her sister Cathy).  —  From David Streitfeld at the NY Times …

UFO enthusiasts call on Obama to release XFiles  —  UFO enthusiasts are pressing Barack Obama to release classified documents about sightings of alien spacecraft, encouraged by support from within the President-Elect's own White House team.  —  Desperate to see the US emulate the British Government …

‘The Doves Were Right’  —  In 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy brought to Washington a new generation of pragmatic young activists who came to be known as the New Frontiersmen.  When the journalist Theodore White later wrote a memorable photo essay about them for Life magazine, he called them the “action-intellectuals.”

THE SHAGGED SHEEP  —  This is a long piece but it does have underage sex and bestiality in it.  So enjoy!  —  The other day I had an e-mail from M J Murphy, who blogs as Big City Lib, saying only this: … There followed a link to a post called Steyn Gets Punked By 28-Year Old Literary Hoax:

NBC Exec: Obama's Skin Color Gives Him More Legitimacy Than Any American Leader In History  —  The number two man at NBC News believes Barack Obama's skin color gives him more legitimacy around the world than possibly any American leader in history.  —  For those unfamiliar …

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.

MUSLIMS “WORRY ABOUT IMAGE”  —  That's what the Associated Press says.  Somehow, it seems like we've been down this road before: … Yeah, that keeps happening.  Funny thing. … D'ya think?  Some Muslims, though, don't seem to share that concern: … No doubt Muslims who actually advocate mass murder are a minority.

The Chris Matthews Show: Obama's Problems Will Come From The Angry Left, Not Republicans  —  John Amato has blogged about this and this clip from this week's The Chris Matthews Show is proof positive that the progressive blogosphere must be smart about picking battles in pushing a liberal agenda for America.

I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq  —  I should have felt triumphant when I returned from Iraq in August 2006.  Instead, I was worried and exhausted.  My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi …

Panel Fears Use of Unconventional Weapon  —  WASHINGTON — An independent commission has concluded that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years unless the United States and its allies act urgently to prevent that.

Obama's Iraq Inheritance  —  Here's a story you don't see very often.  Iraq's highest court told the Iraqi Parliament last Monday that it had no right to strip one of its members of immunity so he could be prosecuted for an alleged crime: visiting Israel for a seminar on counterterrorism.

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.

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,” …

Same Old New Deal?  —  Early in what became the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes was asked if anything similar had ever happened.  “Yes,” he replied, “it was called the Dark Ages, and it lasted 400 years.”  It did take 25 years, until November 1954, for the Dow to return to the peak it reached in September 1929.