Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda  —  Army Major in Fort Hood Massacre Used ‘Electronic Means’ to Connect with Terrorists  —  U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda …

Fort Hood Gunman Gave Signals Before His Rampage  —  KILLEEN, Tex. — It was still dark on Thursday when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan left his aging apartment complex to attend 6 a.m. prayers at the brick mosque near Fort Hood.  Afterward, he said goodbye to his friends there and asked forgiveness from one man for any past offenses.

Paranoia Strikes Deep  —  Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health care legislation, featuring the kinds of things we've grown accustomed to, including large signs showing piles of bodies at Dachau with the caption “National Socialist Healthcare.”

Life After the End of History  —  For most of the last century, the West faced real enemies: totalitarian, aggressive, armed to the teeth.  Between 1918 and 1989, it was possible to believe that liberal democracy was a parenthesis in history, destined to be undone by revolution …

Another Independent could be the spoiler as Reid moves forward  —  With a pronounced independent streak to match his political alignment, Bernie Sanders of Vermont may be another headache for Democrats trying to cobble together 60 votes for healthcare reform in the coming weeks.

Club PAC Endorses Rubio in FL-Sen  —  Club for Growth PAC Endorses Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate  —  Former Florida House Speaker ‘the Real Deal,’ Crist the ‘Wrong Direction’  —  WASHINGTON - Club for Growth PAC today endorsed Marco Rubio in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Florida.

The GOP's women problem  —  Conservatives say they pushed Dede Scozzafava out of the House race in New York's 23rd District a week ago because of her left-of-Republican social views — and not because she is a woman.  —  But the growing schism between the Republican Party's ascendant right wing …

Economists Seek to Fix a Defect in Data That Overstates the Nation's Vigor  —  WASHINGTON — A widening gap between data and reality is distorting the government's picture of the country's economic health, overstating growth and productivity in ways that could affect the political debate on issues like trade, wages and job creation.

U.S. Waiting for Race Relations to Improve Under Obama  —  Hope for long-term improvement still abounds  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A year out from the 2008 presidential election, the high hopes Americans had for race relations right after Barack Obama's victory at the polls have yet to be fully realized.

FIRST THOUGHTS: SENATE GETS THE BATON  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg  —  *** Senate gets the baton: After Saturday night's historic, contentious, and very narrow health-care vote in the House of Representatives, the action now moves to the Senate, where things won't get any easier.

Huckabee says he's ‘very serious’  —  The day the Gallup Organization confirmed Mike Huckabee's status as the pollsters' front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the former Arkansas governor was slouched in the back of his tour bus, somewhere between Harrisburg and Allentown …

Murdoch may block Google searches  —  Murdoch's plan for paywalls ‘raises questions of anti-trust law’  —  Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.  —  In an interview with Sky News Australia …