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.

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.

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.

From the horse's mouth  —  I FEAR that I am exhausting readers' patience with my continued writing about the Federal Reserve's decision to ignore, more or less, the fact that the unemployment rate in America is at 10% and is unlikely to return to normal levels for at least a half decade.

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 …

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” …

GOP senators to block defense bill in bid to delay health-care vote  —  Senate Republicans said Thursday that they would try to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move that several acknowledged was an effort to delay President Obama's health-care legislation.

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.

Palin cuts vacation short  —  Sarah Palin announced Thursday night that she ended a Hawaii vacation early because of the ruckus raised after she blacked out “McCain” on her sun visor in an effort to elude paparazzi.  —  After the former Alaska governor was photographed on the beach earlier this week …

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.

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,” …

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.

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones  —  $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected  —  WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need …

President enters fray in Denmark  —  President Barack Obama will arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday for the culmination of a climate change summit that has captured the world's attention.  —  Obama has made overhauling the U.S. climate and energy economy a signature issue for his presidency …

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.