Roland Burris Almost Certain To Be Seated, Legal Scholars Say  —  Rod Blagojevich's decision to appoint Roland Burris to Illinois' vacant Senate seat, even as the governor faces intense criminal scrutiny, is being treated as a crazy political power grab.  It also seems very likely to be permanent.

Cabinet debating 48-hour Gaza truce as international pressure grows  —  The cabinet will reconvene Wednesday to discuss a French proposal for a 48-hour “humanitarian” cease-fire, after failing late Tuesday night to reach a decision.  Tuesday's meeting followed a day in which a Hamas rocket struck Be'er Sheva …

Vicki Iseman files $27 million lawsuit against NYT over McCain hit piece  —  Remember that one?  It blew up in the middle of the primaries, alleging that McCain staffers were convinced he'd had a “romantic” relationship with her in 2000 and that he'd admitted to acting “inappropriately,” …

ZBIG SMACKS DOWN MORNIN' JOE  —  Zbig to Joe: “You have a such stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on it's almost embarrassing to listen to you.”

Downgrades And Downfall  —  How could a single unit of AIG cause the giant company's near-ruin and become a fulcrum of the global financial crisis?  By straying from its own rules for managing risk and then failing to anticipate the consequences.  —  Third of three parts

Coming Soon: The 21st Century  —  Social and political epochs rarely end precisely on schedules provided by calendars.  Many historians date the end of Europe's 19th century to 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. What we call “The Sixties” in the United States, with its ethos of reform and protest …

Obama's Super-Bubble  —  A couple of days ago, Politico posted a piece about how the closing of the presidential bubble was already beginning to chafe Barack Obama.  All I could think was: Better make peace with it quickly, my man, because things are about to get so much worse.

For Some Culprits In Financial Meltdown, Life Is Still Pretty Good  —  This probably won't come as a surprise.  But some of the major culprits in the financial crash — former CEOs or top execs at banks whose billion-dollar losses helped precipitate the turmoil — don't seem to be paying …

Russia Aside, Georgia Chief Is Pressed at Home  —  GOMARDULI, Georgia — On Dec. 20, the eve of his 41st birthday, President Mikheil Saakashvili was racing around western Georgia shaking hands.  He told miners that his “heart hurt” when he saw their city suffer, and promised to build …

Consumers Union to Buy Gawker Blog Consumerist  —  Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, planned to announce on Wednesday that it had acquired Consumerist.com, a popular blog formerly owned by Gawker Media.  —  Consumerist is one of several sites Gawker has sold this year …

Influx of black renters raises tension in Bay Area  —  ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) - As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.