Norwegians angry over Obama snub  —  Barack Obama's trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel peace award is in danger of being overshadowed by a row over the cancellation of a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner.  —  Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit.

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval  —  Each result is based on a three-day rolling average  —  Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president.  —  Editorial note: Gallup did not conduct interviews Dec. 8 …

Senate Democrats See Room for Hope on Health Care Bill  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats said on Wednesday that they were not sure exactly what was in a deal that the majority leader said would surmount a disagreement over a proposed government-run health plan.

NYT Gift Guide Includes A Separate Section For “People Of Color.”  White NYT Readers, You May Skip To The Next Page!  —  We don't like to throw around words like “racist” in the same sentence as the NYT's name, but there's no other word we can think of to describe this page …

‘Client 9’ lust for '10  —  Eliot eyes comptroller  —  Eliot Spitzer, who stepped down from the governor's office amid scandal, is now strongly considering a run for state comptroller, sources told The Post.  —  Spitzer has in recent weeks had discussions with some Democratic donors …

Baird Retires; GOP Lands Solid Recruit  —  Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) announced his retirement tonight, becoming the third Dem in a vulnerable seat to announce his departure in the last few weeks.  “The time has now come to pursue other options, other ways of serving.

A Case Of Classic SwiftBoating: How The Right-Wing Noise Machine Manufactured ‘Climategate’  —  In mid-November, thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit webmail server — a top climate research center in the United Kingdom — were hacked and dumped on a Russian web server.

HOUSE GOP IS PRO-CHRISTMAS.... It was just six weeks ago that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided he was fed up with empty, meaningless congressional resolutions.  These largely symbolic measures are taken up all the time — it's been routine fare for years …

Grayson To Cheney: ‘STFU’  —  Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) appeared on Hardball this evening, and dispensed some of his signature wit against the Republicans: Telling former Vice President Dick Cheney to “STFU,” speculating that gasoline would only cost a dollar per gallon if former President George W. Bush …

Poll Finds Slim Majority Back More Afghanistan Troops  —  WASHINGTON — A bare majority of Americans support President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but many are skeptical that the United States can count on Afghanistan as a partner in the fight or that the escalation …

Bank-Friendly Dems Shut Down House, Threaten To Kill Wall Street Reform  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  A group of Democrats friendly to Wall Street interests forced a delay in consideration of the landmark financial regulatory reform bill scheduled to hit the House floor on Wednesday …

Tea party conservatives gear up to affect 2010 elections with fundraising, PACs  —  'It's time to take control,' say ‘tea party’ groups  —  The energized “tea party” movement, which upended this year's political debate with noisy anti-government protests, is preparing to shake up the 2010 elections …

Election 2010: Pennsylvania Democratic Senate Primary  —  2010 Pennsylvania Senate Primary: Specter 48%, Sestak 35%  —  Longtime Senator Arlen Specter holds a 13-point lead over his Democratic Primary challenger Joe Sestak.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey …

Dems to lift debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, fear 2010 backlash  —  In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New Year's rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010 elections.  —  “We've incurred this debt.

Hockey stick observed in NOAA ice core data  —  At the Foresight Institute, J. Storrs Hall had some interesting graphs made from NOAA ice core data (Alley, R.B. 2000. … It sure seems to mirror other hockey sticks this past century.  Dr. Mann will be thrilled to see this I'm sure.

What Goldstein Said.  —  Patrick tries to get the Charles Johnson-ish charges of racism against Robert Stacy McCain to stick, and fails.  —  For the record, I do not buy Pat's argument that anyone who has hangups about interracial dating and marriage is racist.

Illinois Limits Donations in Elections  —  CHICAGO — Gov. Patrick J. Quinn on Wednesday signed a law placing limits on campaign contributions in Illinois, a change that grew out of the arrest of Rod R. Blagojevich, the former governor, on corruption charges one year ago.

ClimateGate: Was Data Faked?  —  I am thoroughly unimpressed with the belief that global warming scientists have been engaging in some kind of massive conspiracy to conceal the truth.  First, because we seem to be able to observe things like polar ice sheets melting, which point to warming.

Idiocy  —  I get spam: … Really?  All we have to do is send the DNC $5 and we get ponies?  The same DNC that is enabling corporatist Democrats to water down and destroy any hope for health care reform?  That DNC?  —  This is so freakin' obnoxious I can hardly stand it.

The Joys of Political Sex  —  It's time for political sex scandals to reclaim their rightful place in our national discourse.  The way things have been going lately, you'd think extramarital sex only happened to professional athletes.  —  Consider the case of Senator Max Baucus of Montana.

The Day Has Come: Facebook Pushes People to Go Public  —  Facebook announced this morning that its 350 million users will be prompted to make their status messages and shared content publicly visible to the world at large and search engines.  It's a move we expected but the language used in the announcement is near Orwellian.