Pro-Lifers Rip Rick Warren on Obama Invocation  —  So let me get straight to the point.  —  Liberals and gay activists aren't happy with Barack Obama for choosing pro-life and prop 8 supporting pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at Obama's inaugural.

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.

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 …

New Rule Protects Health-Care Workers' ‘Right of Conscience’  —  The Bush administration today issued a sweeping new regulation that protects a broad range of health-care workers — from doctors to janitors — who refuse to participate in providing services that they believe violate their personal, moral or religious beliefs.

AP source: Rep. Hilda Solis is Obama's labor pick  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A labor official says Rep. Hilda Solis of California will be nominated as labor secretary by President-elect Barack Obama.  —  The Democratic congresswoman was just elected to her fifth term representing heavily Hispanic portions …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

President Bush Addresses the American Enterprise Institute  —  Washington, D.C.  —  In Focus: Health Care  —  In Focus: Economy  —  MR. DeMUTH: Mr. President, what's on your mind this morning?  —  THE PRESIDENT: First, thanking you for being the leader that you've been, and thanking AEI for generating good thought.

The economic Civil War  —  The South's attempt to kill the North's auto industry is the latest battle in an ongoing conflict.  It's time for a Third Reconstruction to put an end to it.  —  It is just as well that Barack Obama is emulating Abraham Lincoln by traveling to his inauguration in Washington by train.

Protest at the New School Turns Unruly  —  Dozens of students at the New School collided with security guards and police officers Thursday morning in a shouting and shoving confrontation after an overnight sit-in at a university cafeteria organized to protest the leadership of Bob Kerrey, the university's president, among other issues.

Fiscal policy and the burden of proof  —  I'd like to drive home the point that the case for fiscal policy has not yet been made by its advocates (the rest is under the fold)...  I believe that most current advocates of a huge fiscal stimulus have two major arguments in mind.