Plan to Move Guantánamo Detainees Faces a New Delay  —  WASHINGTON — Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison.

Obama lists financial rescue as ‘most important thing’ of his first year  —  President Obama outlined Tuesday a first-year legislative record that he said rescued the economy and placed it on a path of long-term growth, even as he acknowledged that some unfinished items would probably …

EXCLUSIVE: Transvestites, Mao And Obama Ornaments Decorate White House Christmas Tree  —  Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements?  The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House.

After quiet first months, Franken's sharp tongue emerges in Senate  —  Al Franken, the Democrat from Minnesota who won election to the Senate after a successful career as a comic and author, has begun to show the sharp-tongued side of his personality by ripping into GOP staffers behind the scenes.

Change... Obama Now More Loathed Than Bush at End of His Second Term  —  A Good Solid B+  —  Barack Obama's approval index number dropped to a new low today.  —  Rasmussen reported: … At the end of his second term President George W. Bush had a 43% disapproval rating.

SIREN: White House plans ‘very hard pivot to jobs’ next month — will be ‘prescriptive’ — Health reform NOT expected to pass before SOTU, but opponents concede it's ‘when’ not ‘if’  —  BREAKING — AP's Glen Johnson, in Boston: “Teresa Heinz says she is being treated for breast cancer discovered …

When legerdemain is used to pass an unpopular bill  —  Senior Political Analyst  —  It's time to blow the whistle on two erroneous statements that opponents and proponents of the health care legislation being jammed through Congress have been making.  Republicans have been saying that never …

Cornyn: Conservatives ‘have to yield’ to reality in Senate races  —  Conservative primary voters “have to yield” to reality, Senate Republicans' campaign chairman said Wednesday.  —  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) …

BANNED!!  Making it on Sarah Palin's enemies list.  Update!  —  Today was the last day of Sarah Palin's book tour.  —  And it was to be held in the “picturesque” town of Wasilla, at the Curtis C. Menard Memorial Sports Center.  —  How could I miss it?  —  So Dennis Zaki and I loaded …

The Green Movement's People Problem  —  The once unstoppable green machine lost its mojo at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.  After all its laboring and cajoling, the movement at the end resembled not a powerful juggernaut but a forlorn lover wondering why his date never showed up.

Schwarzenegger to seek federal help for California budget  —  Facing another huge deficit, the governor wants $8 billion or threatens massive cuts in social services.  He also plans to renew push for offshore oil drilling.  —  Reporting from Sacramento - Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion …

Why I Went on Fox and Friends  —  I notice there is a diary up on Daily Kos attacking me for going on Fox & Friends.  Unsurprisingly, it doesn't say what I actually said:  —  In 2000, the Republicans passed Medicare Part D, and it had no negotiation for prescription drug prices.

AIG executives' promises to return bonuses have gone largely unfulfilled  —  When word spread earlier this year that American International Group had paid more than $165 million in retention bonuses at the division that had precipitated the company's downfall, outrage erupted …

How do I know China wrecked the climate deal?  I was in the room  —  As recriminations fly post-Copenhagen, one writer offers a fly-on-the-wall account of how talks failed  —  • Ed Miliband: China tried to hijack climate deal  —  • The key players and how they rated  —  Copenhagen was a disaster.

Robert Byrd back in form for Senate health-care vote  —  Since Robert C. Byrd arrived in the Senate in 1959, the senior senator from West Virginia has cast more than 18,500 votes.  —  Byrd has orchestrated and witnessed maneuvering.  He has presided over the shortest session in Senate history …

ThreatsWatch.Org - PrincipalAnalysis: Wither Sovereignty  —  Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order “Amending Executive Order 12425.”  It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded …

Letters to health-care Santa: Bring back the death panels!  —  Over the course of this week, I'll be asking some health-care experts what they'd like Santa to add to the bill during conference committee, and publishing their responses on the blog.  This edition comes by way of Henry Aaron …

Harry Reid Turns Insurance Into a Public Utility  —  The health bill creates a massive cash crunch and then bankruptcies for many insurers.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  As Harry Reid's 2,000 page health-care bill is being rammed through the Senate, most of the public debate has been focused …

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen  —  Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism.  What her followers probably don't know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen.