Chambliss win proves sizeable Obama effect  —  If Georgia is any indication, the Obama effect was huge.  —  In a runoff election with no presidential candidates on the ballot Tuesday, Peach State voters sent Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) back to the Senate by what looks to be a resounding margin …

Jeb: I am considering Senate run  —  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush - the younger brother of the president - is weighing a run for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Mel Martinez.  —  Martinez announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in 2010.

Hillary Clinton: The new survivor  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton has a favorite expression for turning setback into opportunity: “Bloom where you're planted.”  —  Her three-decade career on the public stage has produced countless examples of Clinton sprouting a flower in a pile of manure.

Investment Outlook  —  Dow 5,000 Redux  —  Here I go again!  Gosh it was only six years ago that I cemented my place in stock market history by predicting that the Dow would fall from 8,500 to 5,000, instead of going up to 14,000 where it peaked in October of 2007.

Rise of the Twitterati  —  “I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.”  —  We are sitting in a restaurant, sipping wine and chatting, when my friend begins twittering.  —  Not in the usual way.  Two women twittering turn no heads.

Obama shelves oil company tax after price fall: aide  —  CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday.  —  “President-elect Obama announced …

India Names Mumbai Mastermind  —  MUMBAI — India has accused a senior leader of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba of orchestrating last week's terror attacks that killed at least 172 people here, and demanded the Pakistani government turn him over and take action against the group.

College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S.  —  The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Exclusive: Blagojevich talks about Obama Senate replacement.  —  WASHINGTON—Gov. Blagojevich, in the most detailed interview to date on how he will fill the Senate seat formerly held by President-elect Barack Obama, told me Tuesday his replacement does not have to be an African American …

‘No Line Responsibilities’  —  What Robert Rubin did for his $115 million.  —  On October 18, 1999, Citigroup announced that former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin was joining the firm.  But what exactly would Mr. Rubin do at Citigroup?  Citi's SEC filing eight days later noted …

Odetta, Voice of Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 77  —  Odetta, the singer whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.  She was 77.  —  The cause was heart disease, said her manager, Doug Yeager.

Mean Street: Why GM Is Doomed  —  If you're a U.S. taxpayer you ought to read GM's “Restructuring Plan for Long-Term Viability.”  By the end of next year, you'll own a good chunk of this company, so you might as well familiarize yourself with what's going on there.  —  On first read, you'll think that's too rash a judgment.

OH... THE HUMANITY  —  UPDATE: Rabbi's wife was 6 months pregnant and 2 year old Moshe was beaten  —  The Funeral  —  The mother was six months pregnant and the 2 year old boy was beaten (hat tip Cathy)  —  The Jewish mother murdered in the brutal Mumbai terror attacks last week was six month pregnant …

Obama Team Restates Strong Support For Union Bill  —  An aide to Barack Obama reaffirmed the President-elect's support for the labor movement's chief legislative priority in a one-word statement issued to the Huffington Post on late Tuesday.  —  Asked if Obama's support …

If this Isn't Terrorism, What Is?  —  Last week in Mumbai we witnessed as clear a case of carefully planned mass terrorism as we are ever likely to see.  —  The seven-venue atrocity was coordinated in a highly sophisticated way.  The terrorists used BlackBerrys to stay in touch with each …

The Bailout So Far  —  Here's a fact to mull over: Washington a few months ago might have bought the entire stock of subprime mortgages for about half the money committed by the Fed and Treasury last week to prop up Citigroup and spur consumer and mortgage lending.

Obama Gives Political Ambassadors Their Pink Slips  —  The incoming Obama administration has notified all politically-appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a State Department official said.

Beatings and abuse made Barack Obama's grandfather loathe the British  —  The President-elect's relatives have told how the family was a victim of the Mau Mau revolt  —  Barack Obama's grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence …

Calling All Pakistanis  —  On Feb. 6, 2006, three Pakistanis died in Peshawar and Lahore during violent street protests against Danish cartoons that had satirized the Prophet Muhammad.  More such mass protests followed weeks later.  When Pakistanis and other Muslims are willing to take to the streets …