Eric S. Raymond on the East Anglia CRU's Global Warming Fraud  —  Eric S. Raymond ("esr") is an open source luminary partly because of his industry changing book The Cathedral & the Bazaar .  As a fellow software engineer and open source advocate, I was curious what he had to say about the tree-ring circus …

Obama orders review of crashers  —  President Obama has ordered a full review into how a Virginia couple managed to make their way into the White House for last week's state dinner without an invitation, even getting so far as to meet the president in the official receiving line, according to a White House official.

Justice Department Says Acorn Can Be Paid for Pre-Ban Contracts  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has concluded that the Obama administration can lawfully pay the community group Acorn for services provided under contracts signed before Congress banned the government from providing money to the group.

Weekly Tracking Poll: New Feature Paints Ugly 2010 Picture  —  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 11/22/2009-11/25/2009.  All adults.  MoE 2% (Last weeks results in parentheses):  —  FAVORABLEUNFAVORABLENET CHANGE  —  PRESIDENT OBAMA  —  53 (55)  —  40 (39)  —3  —  PELOSI:  —  41 (40)

Rashomon in the desert  —  Dubai or not Dubai — that is the question.  Dubai's sorta-kinda default (a state-owned enterprise seeking a rescheduling of its debts) is, by itself, not that big of a deal.  But who else looks like Dubai?  What kind of omen is this for the next stage in the financial crisis?

Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Girls Learn From ‘Twilight’  —  From a male point of view, the only redeeming feature of the Twilight books and movies is the ammunition they provide against female claims of innate moral superiority over men.  —  Whenever a woman criticizes a man's lust, aggression …

Next stop for Nader: US Senate from Connecticut?  —  WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — Ralph Nader says he wants to gauge the level of grass-roots support before deciding whether to make a bid to represent Connecticut in the Senate.  —  The 75-year-old consumer advocate and Connecticut native said Friday that he is …

Joy Behar's Moral Quandary: 'Isn't it a Little Racist to Call it Black Friday?'  —  There's nothing like tuning into an episode of “The View” for a little exploration of social sensitivities in the modern American culture.  —  In keeping with that tradition, on Black Friday …

Sen. Jeff Sessions challenges double standard on judicial filibuster  —  Legal scholars have long debated whether the filibuster may be used to keep judicial nominees off the bench.  For practical purposes, that question was answered on May 23, 2005.  That night, while forging a settlement …

He Can't Take Another Bow  —  An icon of a White House that is coming to seem amateurish.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  This week, two points in an emerging pointillist picture of a White House leaking support—not the support of voters, though polls there show steady decline …

Prosecuting American ‘War Crimes’  —  The International Criminal Court claims jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The Hague  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC).