2007 is quickly coming to a close, and with that comes The Texas Blue's first birthday. Over this past year, we have covered a broad array of topics touching both Texas and national politics. We'd like to take a moment to highlight the themes that you made most popular over that time.

This week's Mailbag brings manipulation of the yuan, much to our surprise, along with some holiday levity. Happy Holidays!

Following a flurry of bills in the last few days of this year's House session, Democrats closed off the session by passing a $555 billion omnibus appropriations bill yesterday.

Chalk up another Democrat in the Texas House.

This Mailbag deals with figures we've seen often in the news this week, such as Chris Comer, Dana Perino, and Mike Huckabee.

Well, it's about that time: today is the last Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses. After yesterday's, um, "calm" Republican debate, many are wondering if we'll be seeing the same today.

The debate will be airing in just a few minutes, at 1 p.m. Central time, on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN 3, some PBS stations, and Bob's Crab Shack and Auto Repair. OK, I kid about that last one. Tune in, or follow along here as I update this thread with our up-to-the-minute play-by-play you've come to expect of our debate coverage. EDIT: As before, our analysis follows.

There's an all-out war erupting between Congress and the White House over the appropriations bills which are to fund government for the next year.

We have some summaries of the U.S. political situation as it currently stands, as well as a thoughtful question on fielding candidates, in this week's Mailbag.

The Supreme Court is the big news today, as they are currently deliberating over cases regarding Guantanamo detainees that have been held for over six years.

Europe loves it. Bush hates it. And Huckabee hasn't heard of it. What are we talking about? The National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran hasn't had a nuclear weapons program since 2003, of course!