Nelson a ‘no’ on health reform bill pending further changes  —  Centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) won't advance healthcare reform efforts unless further changes are made, the senator said Thursday afternoon.  —  Nelson said that modifications to the bill, including provisions …

Franken shuts down Lieberman on Senate floor  —  WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Al Franken took the unusual step Thursday of shutting down Sen. Joe Lieberman on the Senate floor.  —  Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, currently is the target of liberal wrath over his opposition …

Axelrod: Left ‘insane’ to sink bill  —  Trying to stave off a sudden fusillade from the left, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Thursday that Howard Dean's criticisms of health-care reform are “predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions” and that for progressives to torpedo the legislation …

Health care and Iraq  —  Steve Benen is right: for the most part the debate among progressives about whether the final product on health reform is worth supporting has been edifying.  Serious people are making serious arguments, in a way that puts conservatives, who have offered nothing but smears and lies, very much to shame.

Monica's back - says Clinton lied  —  In the years since their bitter battle, both former President Bill Clinton and independent counsel Ken Starr have predicted they'd be vindicated in the history books.  —  Now the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal is about to arrive …

Five cost controls in the Senate health-care bill  —  One of the impulses you have to resist as a writer is the desire to say things that are new, as opposed to things that you've already learned.  A lot of this post will be stale to longtime readers, but in my chat today, someone asked after the cost controls in the Senate.

Life As Part Of Sully's Brain, Ctd  —  News Busters has a field day with my last post.  Lachlan Markay pretends that my doing research for Andrew is the same as Lynn Vincent writing Sarah Palin's book.  I wish I'd the talent to ghostblog for Andrew.  As I've written numerous times …

Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families  —  Editor's Note: Watch Connect the World tonight 9pm GMT, 4pm ET.  —  Gaza City (CNN) — Two Palestinian teenagers stroll amid the mounds of rubble left by last year's Israeli military offensive, listening to the tinny beat of a Turkish pop song playing on a cell phone.

Matthews: The netroots ‘get their giggles from sitting in the backseat and bitching.’  —  Today on MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews brought on John Heilemann from the New Yorker to talk about President Obama's popularity with Democrats.  When Heilemann noted that the “Democratic left” …

Dorgan Accuses White House of Unethically Politicizing Safety Warnings From the FDA  —  We've been aggressively covering the crazy story of the Obama administration crushing drug importation legislation that President Obama campaigned on as a presidential candidate and supported as a U.S. Senator.

DOJ urges federal court to re-open ACORN case  —  The Department of Justice waded into the ACORN legal battle on Thursday, urging a federal court to re-evaluate the constitutionality of lawmakers' move to cut off the organization's funding earlier this year.

Todd Palin Goes Rogue with Message Tee  —  Taking a cue from Sarah Palin's McCain Visor-Gate, Todd Palin is now speaking his mind with the use of bad fashion too.  —  The failed Vice Presidential nominee's man-wife was spotted in President Barack Obama's birth state of Hawaii on Wednesday wearing …

Readers offer more fuel for climate-change debate  —  I'd like to thank Eugene Robinson for highlighting Alaska's achievements on climate change ["Palin's own ‘Climate- gate,’ " op-ed, Dec. 15] and for noting that I've “treated the issue as serious, complex, and worthy of urgent attention,” …

Report: Democratic districts received nearly twice the amount of stimulus funds as GOP districts  —  A new analysis of the $157 billion distributed by the American Reinvestment and Recovery act, popularly known as the stimulus bill, shows that the funds were distributed without regard for what states were most in need of jobs.

Private insurance in theory and in practice  —  One of the givens in this debate is that private insurers are awful.  And in some ways, they are.  But not compared to being uninsured.  I've quite a few friends at lefty institutions, and most all of them get private health-care insurance.

GAO tells Smith, Issa it will probe ACORN  —  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has informed two House Republicans that it will investigate ACORN's use of federal funds.  —  The GAO sent a letter to Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee …

Semi-nude Mary and Joseph spark outrage  —  Anglican church defends Christmas billboard campaign showing couple in bed together  —  A New Zealand church has sparked outrage by erecting a billboard depicting Mary and Joseph lying semi-nude beneath the sheets.

Plouffe Counters Obama's Healthcare Critics  —  David Plouffe, the former campaign manager of Obama for America, has one of the lowest drama-to-power ratios in American politics.  As the Senate wrangling over health care hits solipsistic theatrics, even by Lieberman standards, the President's confidante remains decidedly calm.

Less Than One Fourth Of Dems And Liberals Have Very Positive View Of Their Party  —  The percentages of Democrats and liberals who have a very positive view of the Democratic Party is surprisingly low, checking in at less than one-fourth of each group, previously unreleased numbers …

Walpin-gate may snag Mrs. Obama  —  Skullduggery alleged in White House dismissal of inspector general  —  No inspector general can unearth corruption without access to his office, computer or staff.  An “administrative leave” putting an IG in that position has the same effect, for all intents and purposes, as an immediate firing.

Progress gives climate deal hope  —  A deal at the UN climate summit looks more likely following a frantic day of behind the scenes diplomacy.  —  China signalled concessions on monitoring of emission curbs, and the US said it would commit money for developing countries.

Aloha, Segregation  —  The Akaka bill would create a race-based state in Hawaii.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  President Obama speaks proudly of his childhood in Hawaii, so we wonder what the state's voters think of his support for a bill that would redistribute its wealth based on race.

Missing Ted Kennedy  —  For those of us who like Barack Obama on some level think single-payer health care would be best but impractical, then hoped for a system with a public option, but who are still enthusiastic about health reform that doesn't include it, I think we've really reached …