Obama's Nobel Remarks  —  Following is the prepared text of President Obama's speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday, as released by the White House:  —  Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:

Limbaugh vs. McConnell: GOP leader targeted by conservative groups  —  Rush Limbaugh and conservative interest groups are criticizing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for not putting up a strong enough fight to stop the Democratic healthcare legislation.

Nielsen folds Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews  —  Nielsen Business Media Update  —  Today, we announced that Nielsen Business Media has reached an agreement with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners …

Americans Want Government to Spend for Jobs, Send Bill to Rich  —  Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless.  —  They also want the deficit to come down.

Emerging Medicare buy-in proposal could have costly unintended consequences  —  THE ONLY THING more unsettling than watching legislative sausage being made is watching it being made on the fly.  The 11th-hour “compromise” on health-care reform and the public option supposedly includes …

Pelosi wants health care for Christmas  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) still sees a slight chance that congressional Democrats can wrap up work on a landmark health care bill over Christmas - all while insisting the House wants a full say in the final version.

Beck: We Should ‘Just Abolish Medicare’  —  Yesterday, Senate Democrats working on health care reform reached a compromise on the public option that will create a network of nonprofit insurers and allow Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare.

Obama Leads Potential 2012 Match Ups  —  A new Public Policy Polling survey tests potential 2012 presidential match ups and finds Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty “all have their best performances relative to Obama in this month's poll and Mitt Romney matches his strongest standing yet.”

In Shift, Oren Calls J Street ‘A Unique Problem’ … Published December 09, 2009, issue of December 18, 2009.  —  Breaking with his previous restraint, Israel's ambassador to the United States delivered an unprecedented blast against J Street, the new dovish Israel lobby that has made waves …

How liberal is Obama?  —  It's not every day that Christian conservative Ross Douthat enthusiastically recommends people read social democrat Tony Judt: … The first year of the Obama presidency has been a long tutorial on the difference between liberal ends and liberal means.

Send Us Your Tired, Your Poor, But Only if They're ‘Culturally Unique’  —  Immigration Caseworker AA0089 Has Some Thoughts About What Is Art  —  LOS ANGELES — When Jordan Peimer booked an Argentine band that fuses Jewish Klezmer music with tango, he thought he had the perfect act to headline his “Fiesta Hanukkah” concert.

Reid Asks Republicans for Weekend Off, Has Big Easy Fundraiser to Get To  —  ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Senators and staffers watched CSPAN breathlessly from their offices Wednesday evening as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated they might not have to work this weekend.

Poll: 39% of Israelis believe Obama is ‘Muslim’  —  The New America Foundation's poll of Israelis, released today, contains a finding suggesting campaign-trail rumors about Barack Obama's religion penetrated deeply in the Jewish state.  —  The survey, by Jim Gerstein, asked Israelis …

Low Reimbursement Rates Are a Feature Not a Bug  —  To continue with the Medicare reimbursement rate blogging from yesterday, it's important to understand that the program's low reimbursement rates are a feature not a bug.  Probably the single most persuasive conservative critique …

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.

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.