Iran Said to Have Covert Nuclear Facility  —  PITTSBURGH — President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France accused Iran on Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying the country has hidden the covert operation from international weapons inspectors for years.

Kyl: 'I Don't Need Maternity Care.' Stabenow: ‘Your Mom Probably Did’  —  Just before the Senate Finance Committee wrapped up for the long weekend, members debated one of Sen. Jon Kyl's (R-AZ) amendments, which would strike language defining which benefits employers are required to cover.

Democrats Are Jarred by Drop In Fundraising  —  Complacency, Absence of Big Donors Cited  —  Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers …

Terror Case Is Called One of the Most Serious in Years  —  WASHINGTON — Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, senior government officials have announced dozens of terrorism cases that on closer examination seemed to diminish as legitimate threats.  The accumulating evidence …

Drudge's Easy Libel of the Military  —  Earlier today I noted that Drudge's link to the use of LRADs as “acoustic weapons” was over the top, which he would have easily recognized on his own if he had simply applied logic to the very video he linked.  Put simply, if an LRAD is being used as a weapon …

CBO: A Strong Public Plan Saves Lots of Money  —  According to Congress Daily, the CBO says attaching the public plan to Medicare rates will save even more money than originally thought: … In other words, the conservatives want to spend $85 billion more than the liberals do.

Election 2010: California Senate  —  2010 California Senate: Boxer Beats Fiorina, DeVore  —  So far, so good for incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer in match-ups against her two best-known Republican opponents to date in California's 2010 race for the U.S. Senate.

So Off Message  —  From the new Times/CBS poll out this evening ...  “Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?”

It's Easy Being Green  —  So, have you enjoyed the debate over health care reform?  Have you been impressed by the civility of the discussion and the intellectual honesty of reform opponents?  —  If so, you'll love the next big debate: the fight over climate change.

Judge rejects GOP bid to block Senate appointment  —  A Suffolk Superior Court judge today rejected a request by the state Republican Party to block the appointment of Paul G. Kirk Jr. as interim US senator, clearing the way for the Democrat to take the oath of office this afternoon in Washington.

Americans Tilt Against Sending More Troops to Afghanistan  —  Most who oppose also advocate that the U.S. begin to withdraw troops  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are more likely to say they would oppose (50%) rather than favor (41%) a possible decision by President Barack Obama to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Translator collapsed during Khadafy's rambling diatribe  —  After struggling to turn Khadafy's insane ramblings at the UN into English for 75 minutes, the Libyan dictator's personal interpreter got lost in translation.  —  “I just can't take it any more,” Khadafy's interpreter shouted into the live microphone - in Arabic.

Pakistan discovers ‘village’ of white German alQaeda insurgents  —  Investigators have discovered a “Jihadi village” of white German al-Qaeda insurgents, including Muslim converts, in Pakistan's tribal areas close to the Afghan border.  —  By Dean Nelson in New Delhi and Allan Hall in Berlin

Sources: Emanuel wanted Claypool to be placeholder  —  Plan to keep House seat warm may have included Cabinet consideration  —  It has long been claimed that Rahm Emanuel wanted to find someone to keep his congressional seat warm while he served as President Obama's chief of staff.

Strategic Vision Polls Exhibit Unusual Patterns, Possibly Indicating Fraud  —  One of the things I learned while exploring the statistical proprieties of the Iranian election, the results of which were probably forged, is that human beings are really bad at randomization.

Top Republican pulls out of intelligence investigation  —  The top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee has pulled out of the panel's bipartisan review of Bush-era terrorist interrogation techniques, saying Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s criminal investigation into the CIA undermines …

The Afghan Imperative  —  Always there is the illusion of the easy path.  Always there is the illusion, which gripped Donald Rumsfeld and now grips many Democrats, that you can fight a counterinsurgency war with a light footprint, with cruise missiles, with special forces operations and unmanned drones.

Banish the Cyber-Bigots  —  The transformation of Germany in the 1920s and '30s from the nation of Goethe to the nation of Goebbels is a specter that haunts, or should haunt, every nation.  —  The triumph of Nazi propaganda in this period is the subject of a remarkable exhibit …

ACORN Funded Political, For-Profit Efforts, Data Show  —  Documents released by a Senate Republican on Thursday show that leaders of the ACORN community organizing network transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money meant for the poor to arms of the group …

Ensign receives handwritten confirmation  —  This doesn't happen often enough.  —  Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.