This photo shows Abdulhadi Al Khawaja in his 57th day of a hunger strike, on this his 51st birthday. Protests across Bahrain calling for his release have been put down with considerable violence on the part of the US backed Bahrain government.

Ground Wars by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is an essential new bible for political campaigns locked in the everlasting battle that has become modern American politics.

This book is useful for everyone from a neophyte about to join their first campaign to career campaign operatives and consultants. Neophytes will gain a broad overview of exactly what to expect on their first campaign with the benefit of having their upcoming experience framed within the broader picture of politics. Career campaign operatives and consultants, will appreciate the book’s focus on the “ground war” as an essential component of the modern campaign as well as the historical background on how we got here, which many of them will have experienced firsthand. In the short time Nielsen spent embedded in the campaigns and in authoring this book he has managed uncover and write about what few who live and work in politics are even aware of.

The number of contests close enough to watch continues to grow daily. Updates today on RI-01, CT-04, CT-05, IN-02, and NC-02.

While there is no doubt the GOP will make big gains on election night, the plausible range of pickups is incredibly wide. Depending on if the national mood breaks one way or another, dozens of seats could be won or lost by very narrow margins.

With that in mind, here are 98 hotly contested races that Firedoglake will be watching closely over the next 10 days. . . and in the case of a few of them, maybe even longer than that.

Like so many of you, I am still somewhat in awe of what we accomplished as a nation last Tuesday night. After eight long years of George Bush and Dick Cheney, of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, with unprecedented challenges facing us on the economy, energy, the environment, and health care — in one instant, by electing a new generation of leadership, we sent an unmistakable signal to the entire world that America is back.

Welcome to the new Firedoglake. As you can see, we’ve been busy making a few changes.

The biggest change will be in the comment section, where we’re going be implementing registration to keep the load on both our servers and our moderators from getting any heavier. But over the next few days we’re also going to be introducing some surprises each dmorning, so please come back and join us.