To those who made it home, and to those who didn’t: thank you for being there.

So, it really is over.
John McCain has conceded. Barack Obama is currently giving his victory speech. We have some new blue states and, in a few months, we’ll inaugurate a new president.
The night has gone just about like the polls suggested it would. So I guess that data wasn’t so bad after all, although it [...]

Danielle, here!
I’m back in Philly, my home away from home, sitting in a swanky hotel lobby, facing a wall, like a crazy person, in order to borrow wireless. And I’ve just published a piece for ANP.
Here’s the scoop…
Today, registered voters in Philly found their names missing from local poll books, which are apparently [...]

As the election neared, I heard more and more outlandish remarks about John McCain and Barack Obama. I was told that voting for Obama put me close to the ideology of the world’s tyrants. I read here in the comments that only the stupid, rich and racist are voting for McCain. I’ve seen, again and [...]

We all know these three guys…

But do you know who Horatio Seymour is? Or how about DeWitt Clinton?
Check out ALL of the losers over at Hurty Elbow.

Because of talk like this…

Love him or hate him, this is exactly what he was saying in 2004.
And while some are puzzled by Obama’s appeal and think Americans are being irrational, I don’t think it’s any surprise that we’re going with a guy who has consistently been making the case for a “united” America [...]

Philadelphia is shaping up to be a key city in a key battleground state in this election, but machine problems and long lines may plague the polling stations and voter disenfranchisement will be a serious risk. Unfortunately for voters, the people charged with running a smooth election in Philly seem surprisingly unconcerned. Philly’s veritable election czar, Marge Tartaglione (D), in particular, shocked ANP with her comments at a recent hearing. See more videos at http://americannewsproject.com

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Andrew J. Bacevich warns us not to expect big changes from the next president.
Bacevich’s reasons that the forces of large special interests, existing government commitments and allies and adversaries with strident self-interests will conspire to tie the hands of the next president. Bacevich is correct. If history has taught [...]

Other than Abraham Lincoln, is there any American president since our nation’s founding as mythic as Teddy Roosevelt? I’ve always had a soft spot for ole’ TR and not just because he detested partisanship and managed to balance toughness with compassion in a way that is rarely seen in our modern era. I also have [...]

With the $700 billion market bailout inflating the power of government and a big-spending, big-regulating lDemocrat or a big-spending, big-regulating Republican poised to take the White House, a lot of experts and politicians are giving last rites to small government.
Just today, I’m reading the era of small government is over. And Reagan capitalism is [...]

With a start date of June 30, 2009 no less!
From AP:
The negotiations over a withdrawal timetable follow long insistence by President Bush that setting any schedule for U.S. troops to leave would be dangerous. The draft agreement with Iraq would link troop reductions to achievement of certain security milestones, although the details have not been [...]

Andrew Sullivan pens one of the more level headed walks through the post Cold War era and details where we find ourselves now and where we must go…

The end of the Cold War was an opportunity to create a new one. For some, we now realize, the Cold War was not about democratic values versus [...]

Reports today that Russian forces have left South Ossetia and are moving toward Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi are troubling to say the very least. If Russia does indeed try to take the entire country by force and overthrow the government, we’re looking at a brand new geo-political ball game. Now, there’s no indication that permanently [...]

Greg Djerejian echoes what many in the blogosphere are saying about McCain’s hardline stance…
An honorable man who served his country well, it is clear his time has past and his grasp on the most basic foreign policy calls we’ll need to make in the coming years is very tentative indeed. He’ll be surrounded by second-tier [...]

At least that’s the latest report. We probably won’t have confirmation on this until sometime later today.
From NY Times:
MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia announced Tuesday that he had ordered a halt to his country’s military operation in Georgia, although he did not say that troops were pulling out and he insisted that [...]

I’ve been incorrectly saying “Ossetians” so I’ll use the correct verbiage from here on out. (Looks like both can be used, according to Mikhail Gorbachev)
This little factoid comes from the Times Online, which provides a very good timeline of what has gone down in the past, and sums it up as such…
Russia’s policy is driven [...]

I’m sure you’ve heard the reports of what this process actually feels like (a slow drowning), so I’ll spare you Hitchens’ explanation.
Instead, let’s look at the aftermath…
The interrogators would hardly have had time to ask me any questions, and I knew that I would quite readily have agreed to supply any answer. I still feel [...]

More about his decision…

I know at least one of my fellow bloggers here at Donklephant strongly disagrees, and while I understand and appreciate the views of those who think this FISA legislation is still a gross violation of our civil liberties, the previous incarnation of this bill earlier this year (without tougher restrictions on telcoms) [...]

They know the surge is making conditions safer. They know Iran is involved in Iraq.
And yet…
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 65% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year. That’s the highest total recorded in the tracking poll which has been conducted regularly since August [...]