Surprise!  Palin likes Obama's Nobel speech  —  Sarah Palin and President Obama don't agree on much, but last year's Republican vice presidential nominee just gave the president's defense of “just wars” a thumbs up in an interview with USA TODAY.  In fact, she said that the president's address in Oslo …

High Premiums in Senate Democrats' Health Plan  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats have provided few details about their latest health care proposal, but this much seems clear: Anyone who wants to buy the same health benefits as members of Congress, or to buy coverage through Medicare …

Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the C.I.A.  —  WASHINGTON — Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.'s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan …

Putting the Plodding Moralism Back In  —  Chris Mooney has a smart post on the vicious—and viciously effective—comeback campaign that's been mounted by climate change deniers.  I highly recommend it, but his claim that deniers “didn't need good science to make another sally …

Why Progressives aren't blocking the bill: Medicaid  —  The largest public option in the health care bills is, and has always been, the significant expansion of Medicaid.  In terms of the number of people it covers, this expansion dwarfs any other public option expansion currently on the table in Congress.

Unemployment plan would change rules on bank bailouts  —  Executive pay, other limits may be lifted  —  The Obama administration plans to channel money from the government's massive financial bailout program to small businesses as part of an effort to limit the political and economic damage of high unemployment.

Photoshop Follies of API  —  Everybody's favorite Big Oil lobby, American Petroleum Institute, distributed a pamphlet at an API forum last week that includes a delightfully diverse collection of people that apparently agree with their dirty agenda.  —  It appears to be just a typical iStock Photo image …

Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise  —  Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer in 2008, at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her, and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip …

Bachmann: Fight health care reform ‘every day when you take your vitamins’  —  U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann urged her supporters to fight health care reform by calling Congress “every day, when you wake up in the morning and comb your hair and take your vitamins.”

Bernanke's Unfinished Mission  —  Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, recently had some downbeat things to say about our economic prospects.  The economy, he warned, “confronts some formidable headwinds.”  All we can expect, he said, is “modest economic growth next year …

IPCC and the “Trick”  —  Much recent attention has been paid to the email about the “trick” and the effort to “hide the decline”.  Climate scientists have complained that this email has been taken “out of context”.  In this case, I'm not sure that it's in their interests that this email …

The new socialism  —  In the 1970s and early '80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in.  OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history.  Why not them?  So in grand U.N. declarations …

conservatives as self-parodies  —  This interview with Andy Schlafly [below] of conservapedia.com is hard to watch.  It's almost embarrassing.  I think Colbert is at his best for most of the exchange, and the zinger about creating his own reality is marvelous.

SoCal councilman wears a Stalin-ized Pelosi  —  That protesters on both sides of the political spectrum equate America's leaders with dictators like Hitler isn't new.  But critics were shocked when such a comparison was made by an elected official.  —  Last Friday, a group rented a room …

‘Editor & Publisher’ to Cease Publication After 125 Years  —  NEW YORK Editor & Publisher, the bible of the newspaper industry and a journalism institution that traces its origins back to 1884, is ceasing publication.  —  An announcement, made by parent company The Nielsen Co. …

CAIR attorney demands ban and seizure of all Christmas cards sent to Rifqa Bary  —  In a stunning development in the ongoing legal saga of Muslim-turned-Christian convert Rifqa Bary, the parents' attorney, Omar Tarazi, filed a motion with the Franklin County courts last week moving to ban …

Police Shoot and Kill Man Outside Hotel in Times Square  —  A plainclothes police sergeant fatally shot a 25-year-old man Thursday morning outside the parking garage of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square following a crackdown on street vendors who were using counterfeit CDs to intimidate tourists, the authorities said.

Exclusive Interview: Andrew Breitbart Announces Launch of New “Big” Sites  —  When Andrew Breitbart launched Big Government in September, we asked if he was gearing up to be the next Arianna Huffington: An opinion blog rainmaker with a one-stop digital powerhouse, but presented from the opposite end of the political spectrum.

Senate Deal Attempts to Strike Compromise on Public Option  —  The health care debate reached a potential turning point in the Senate on Wednesday after leaders reached a compromise that drops the so-called “public option” from the bill.  Gwen Ifill talks to experts about the politics and policy of the move.

‘Pay czar’ caps midlevel execs  —  The nation's “pay czar” is at it again Friday, and this time, midlevel executives at bailed-out firms are getting a pay cut.  —  Fewer than 10 of the 450 employees will be allowed to earn more than $500,000 per year, according to a source familiar with the plan …