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A Handpicked Obama Team for a Shift in Foreign Policy — 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.
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Senate Could Give New President Early Legislative Victories — As Senate Democrats prepare for next year's agenda, they are likely to have a working filibuster-proof majority on a variety of legislative issues that could provide early victories for President-elect Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton's test at State: How she'll work with Obama — WASHINGTON — She'll bring global star power, a long-standing commitment to improving the status of women and children around the world and muscular promises of military action when U.S. interests are crossed.


FIRST THOUGHTS: MADAME SECRETARY — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann — *** Obama's security team: Months after “Meet me in Ohio,” South Carolina, “D-Punjab,” Sniper-gate, those daily Wolfson conference calls, etc., we'll finally see today what most once thought …

Reach Exceeds Grasp — Again — for Most Rematch Candidates
Discussion:
The New Republic


CNN reports. You run for cover. — Did you hear about the plight of a South Wales couple who pointed out that CNN's careless reporting of the Mumbai hotel siege endangered their lives? — Fox reports. You decide. — CNN reports. You pray for your life:
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Senior Official Offers to Quit in Mumbai Attacks
Discussion:
Argghhh!

Doris Dungey, Prescient Finance Blogger, Dies at 47 — The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio. — Tanta, who wrote for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, was a pseudonym for Doris Dungey, 47 …
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Six degrees of Imran Khan — ANALYSIS/OPINION: — On the evening of Nov. 26, the biggest names in Bollywood walked the red carpet at the Bombay premiere of “The President Is Coming,” a comedy about six 20-somethings vying to win the right to shake hands with President Bush.
Discussion:
Power Line


AP IMPACT: US diluted loan rules before crash — WASHINGTON - The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed.
Discussion:
Donklephant


How to Combat a Banking Crisis: First, Round Up the Pessimists — Latvian Agents Detain a Gloomy Economist; ‘It Is a Form of Deterrence’ — RIGA, Latvia — Hammered by economic woe, this former Soviet republic recently took a novel step to contain the crisis.

Deficits and the Future — Right now there's intense debate about how aggressive the United States government should be in its attempts to turn the economy around. Many economists, myself included, are calling for a very large fiscal expansion to keep the economy from going into free fall.

Jihad's True Face — Much of the reporting from Mumbai the last few days has been informative, gripping and often moving. Some of the commentary, on the other hand, has been not just uninformative but counterinformative — if that's a term, and if it's not, I say it should be.
Discussion:
Commentary, The Politico, URGENT AGENDA, No More Mister Nice Blog, Bark Bark Woof Woof and TBogg


America's Other Auto Industry — There is such a thing as a profitable car maker in this country. — The men from Detroit will jet into Washington tomorrow — presumably going commercial this time — to make another pitch for a taxpayer rescue. Meanwhile, in the other American auto industry …


CNN Pitches a Cheaper Wire Service to Newspapers — CNN, in the afterglow of an election season of record ratings for cable news, is elbowing in on a new line of business: catering to financially strained newspapers looking for an alternative to The Associated Press.

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security — The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.
Discussion:
PoliBlog (TM), Prairie Weather, Chris Floyd, Corrente, Brilliant at Breakfast and Buck Naked Politics