Obama Cites ‘Systemic Failure’ in U.S. Security  —  HONOLULU - President Obama on Tuesday blamed a “systemic failure” in the nation's security apparatus for the attempted bombing of a passenger jet on Christmas Day and vowed to identify the problems and “deal with them immediately.”

Rove granted divorce in Texas  —  Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, has been granted a divorce in Texas after 24 years of marriage, a family spokesperson said.  —  Dana Perino, the spokesperson, said: “Karl Rove and his wife, Darby, were granted a divorce last week.

Skittish Democrats Refuse To Defend Obama On National Security  —  Are Democrats so cowed by Republican attacks on Obama's foreign policy that they're unwilling to defend him?  —  It's now been five days since the attempted bombing of Flight 253 in Detroit, and Congressional Democrats …

Power of Attorney  —  Your new book, “Crisis and Command,” is an eloquent, fact-laden history of audacious power grabs by American presidents going back to George Washington.  Which president would you say most violated laws enacted by Congress?  —  I would say Lincoln.

Obama greater than Jesus  —  The U.S. president - the practical saviour of our times  —  He is provocative in insisting on an outstretched hand, where others only see animosity.  —  His tangible results in the short time that he has been active - are few and far between.

Attacking the excise tax — and cost control  —  Bob Herbert's column today isn't so much a good argument against the excise tax as it is an example of why cost control will be virtually impossible, and thus national bankruptcy — a real decrease in wages — is a near-certainty.

Move Your Money: A New Year's Resolution  —  Last week, over a pre-Christmas dinner, the two of us, along with political strategist Alexis McGill, filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki, and Nick Penniman of the HuffPost Investigative Fund, began talking about the huge, growing chasm between …

Election 2012: Nebraska Senate  —  Health Care Vote Puts Nelson 30 Points Down in Reelection Bid  —  The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesn't have to face Nebraska voters until 2012.  —  If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports …

Who's running the TSA?  No one, thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint  —  WASHINGTON — An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.

Terrorism Still Less Deadly in US Than Lack of Health Insurance, Salmonella  —  Since we still seem to be having a national freakout over some loser who got on a plane with a bomb in his underwear, which was apparently worthy of a presidential address, it might be a good idea to put …

Medicare vs. Medicaid: A Stark Warning About Having States Execute Reform  —  Political map of the United States, ca.  2002 (source: Univ. of Texas at Austin)  —  The Social Security Act of 1965 created two public insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid.  One proved to be a big success, and the other, not so much.

Ten Things to Watch in the Health-Care Reform Conference  —  It's not just about abortion and the public option.  Every decision Congress faces while merging the Senate and House health bills will give it the opportunity to make reform better.  —  Schoolhouse Rock undersold the excruciating difficulty involved in making a bill a law.

Published Document States Khamenei Is Planning to Escape to Russia ...Update: Khamenei's Jet Put on Standby  —  A letter published on the Iranian websites claims that Ayatollah Khamenei is planning a possible escape to Russia.  —  There were rumors floating around yesterday that Ayatollah Khamenei was preparing to flee Iran.

Five steps to recovery for Dems  —  You wouldn't know it by listening to many Democrats, but the last time I checked, the party still controls the White House, the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives and 26 governor's offices across the country.  And while they could be heading …

U.S. plane bomber wanted to study sharia in Yemen  —  ABUJA (Reuters) - A Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a U.S. airliner told his parents he wanted to study Islamic sharia law in Yemen shortly before cutting off contact with them, the Nigerian government said on Tuesday.

Radanovich To Retire  —  Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) will announce he will not seek a 9th term in a statement to be released this afternoon, 2 GOP sources confirms to Hotline OnCall.  —  First elected in '94 when he beat then-Rep. Richard Lehman (D), Radanovich moved to a senior position …

David Levine, Astringent Illustrator, Dies at 83  —  David Levine, whose macro-headed, somberly expressive, astringently probing and hardly ever flattering caricatures of intellectuals and athletes, politicians and potentates were the visual trademark of The New York Review of Books for nearly half a century, died Tuesday in Manhattan.