How low will he go?  Obama gives Japan's Emperor Akihito a wow bow (Updated with video, pic)  —  (UPDATES: 12:22 p.m. A brief news video has been added below, showing the greeting in this photograph.  Contrary to some claims, the video shows no reciprocal bow by the emperor, who traditionally bows to no one.

Palin Calls Decision To Try 9/11 Defendants In Federal Court ‘Atrocious,’ Wants To 'Hang ‘Em High’  —  Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the five individuals accused of conspiring to commit the 9/11 attacks — including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — will be prosecuted in U.S. federal court.

Memoir Is Palin's Payback to McCain Campaign  —  “Going Rogue,” the title of Sarah Palin's erratic new memoir, comes from a phrase used by a disgruntled McCain aide to describe her going off-message during the campaign: among other things, for breaking with the campaign over its media strategy …

Glenn Beck gets to ask dumb white-guy questions to a room full of black conservatives  —  It is hard to explain to white people like Glenn Beck why their “innocent” questions about race actually just reveal their ignorance and their false assumptions about people of other races and the nature of race relations.

Why Palin Matters to Obama—And to You  —  From the magazine issue dated Nov 23, 2009  —  Richard Nixon sensed trouble. seated in the cow palace in San Francisco at the GOP convention in 1964, he listened as Barry Goldwater said: “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty—is—no— vice.”

CMS: House health bill will hike costs $289B  —  The House-approved healthcare overhaul would raise the costs of healthcare by $289 billion over the next 10 years, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan, independent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

In House Record, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists'  —  WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities.  Often, that was no accident.  —  Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten …

Obama Is Losing Independent Voters  —  A number of recent polls show the president would be wise to shift right.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The announcement a week ago of 10.2% unemployment is a significant political event for President Barack Obama.

At Bloomberg, Modest Strategy to Rule the World  —  PLOPPED in a white leather chair in a small office in Bloomberg L.P.'s Manhattan headquarters, Andrew Lack knows exactly how to articulate the aspirations of this 28-year-old media and technology company.  —  “We want to be the world's …

Town welcomes idea of Gitmo detainees' arrival  —  Rosie Rojas, from Fulton, serves up a coffee refill to Dave, left, and Kay Lawton of Thomson, at the Sunrise Restaurant in Thomson.  The restaurant adjoins a motel only a few hundred yards from the exterior wall of the Thomson Correctional Center.