Franken The Likely Winner As Minnesota Recount Heads To Finish Line  —  Late Update: Norm Coleman's apparent lead has been cut to a mere five votes at the close of business today, according to the running vote count from the Star Tribune, down from a 358-vote lead last night.

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95  —  W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday.

Kennedy Takes A Beating From Upstate Media  —  Reporters Jump All Over Mostly Silent Princess Of Camelot; Mayor Of Syracuse Doesn't Offer Endorsement  —  Who Should Get Senate Gig?  Siena Poll: Cuomo 26, Kennedy 23  —  Reporting  —  Caroline Kennedy took a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook …

The Warren Problem: Jane on CNN  —  Jane addresses the problems with having Pastor Rick Warren give the invocation at Barack Obama's inaugural on CNN at this hour.  —  Update: Jane spoke with Rick Sanchez who repeatedly asked why “the left” would have a problem with inviting Warren to speak at the presidential inaugural.

Medical ‘Conscience Rule’ Is Issued  —  WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, as expected, announced new protections on Thursday for health care providers who oppose abortion and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.  —  “Doctors and other health care providers …

Brilliant: Credit Suisse To Pay Top Execs With Illiquid Mortgage Securities  —  We're shocked that nobody has suggested this before, but on its face this looks like a great idea... Credit Suisse announced today that bonuses for its top executives would be made in illiquid, mortgage-backed securities.

Russia rewriting Josef Stalin's legacy  —  Archives on dictator seized from human-rights group Memorial  —  A rally this month celebrating the 1936 adoption of Josef Stalin's Soviet Constitution illustrates his rising stock among some Russians.  (Dmitry Kostyukov / Getty-AFP / December 17, 2008)

“The American Public has a Right to Know That They Do Not Have to Choose Between Torture and Terror": Six questions for Matthew Alexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist  —  At 5:15 p.m. on June 7, 2006, two American F-16 fighters dropped 500-pound bombs on a farmhouse about five miles north of the Iraqi town of Baqubah.

Advocates for Action on Global Warming Chosen as Obama's Top Science Advisers  —  President-elect Barack Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources …

HILDA SOLIS FOR SECRETARY OF LABOR.  —  Word is that Congresswoman Hilda Solis is to be named Labor Secretary.  I'd write a long post on this, and maybe I will later, but I think most of what I'd say is better expressed by the fact that Harold Meyerson just ran into my office doing everything but clicking his heels in the air.

Report raps ex-White House pair on Iraq claims  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - Former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales misled Congress when he claimed the CIA in 2002 approved information that ended up in the 2003 State of the Union speech …

The Madoff Economy  —  The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so.  The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.