Israeli Attack Kills Scores Across Gaza  —  GAZA CITY — The Israeli Air Force on Saturday launched a massive attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza in retaliation for the recent heavy rocket fire from the area, hitting mostly security headquarters, training compounds and weapons storage facilities …

The Net-Zero Gas Tax  —  A once-in-a-generation chance.  —  Americans have a deep and understandable aversion to gasoline taxes.  In a culture more single-mindedly devoted to individual freedom than any other, tampering with access to the open road is met with visceral opposition.

GOP chair ‘appalled’ by ‘Magic Negro’ CD  —  Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan issued a statement Saturday distancing the party's leadership from one of the GOP's best-known operatives, Chip Saltsman, who distributed a CD containing “Barack the Magic Negro” …

Phila. man shot because family talked during movie  —  A South Philadelphia man enraged because a father and son were talking during a Christmas showing of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button took care of the situation when he pulled a .380-caliber gun and shot the father, police said.

More Caroline: Spoke to Hillary, won't run if not selected  —  Caroline Kennedy made a little more news on NY1 tonight, telling host Dominic Carter that she finally spoke to Hillary Clinton — who didn't initially take her call — and that, if she's not selected, she won't run for the seat.

Obama's Down Payment  —  A Stimulus Must Aim for Long-Term Results  —  When President-elect Barack Obama takes office, he will face what may well be the bleakest economic outlook since World War II.  Economic forecasts have been revised significantly downward over the past several months …

There's No Pain-Free Cure for Recession  —  Belt-tightening is required by all, including government.  —  As recession fears cause the nation to embrace greater state control of the economy and unimaginable federal deficits, one searches in vain for debate worthy of the moment.

Politico reviews the year in American “political journalism”  —  Politico's media reporter, Michael Calderone, does an unintentionally superb job of conveying the vapid, wretched soul of the American political media, with his list of what he calls — without any irony at all — “The Top Ten Political Scoops of 2008”:

Samuel Huntington, 81, political scientist, scholar  —  ‘One of the most influential political scientists of the last 50 years’  —  Samuel P. Huntington - a longtime Harvard University professor, an influential political scientist, and mentor to a generation of scholars in widely divergent fields - died Dec. 24 on Martha's Vineyard.

Theodore Roosevelt Was No Conservative  —  There's a reason he left the GOP to lead the Progressive Party.  —  We know that Barack Obama and his allies identify themselves as “progressives,” and that they aim to implement the big-government liberalism that originated in America's Progressive Era and was consummated in the New Deal.

Bill Kristol's Year Up at ‘NYT’: Will He Get Axed?  —  NEW YORK Exactly one year ago this weekend the Huffington Post broke the news that, as Jim Morrison might have put it, the Kristol Ship was about to sail at The New York Times.  Much uproar ensued across the blogosphere.

Obama's Vacation: Power Returns to Oahu  —  HONOLULU — A thunderstorm knocked out power across Oahu island Friday night, crippling the island of 900,000 people and interrupting the vacations of thousands of tourists, including President-elect Barack Obama.  —  Electrical crews …