Low favorables: Dems rip Rasmussen  —  Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama's popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.

Al-Qaeda benefits from a decade of missteps to become a threat in Yemen  —  SANAA, YEMEN — Nearly a decade after the bombing of the USS Cole, a combination of U.S. and Yemeni missteps, deep mistrust and a lack of political will have allowed al-Qaeda militants here to regroup and pose …

Real Estate in Cape Coral, Fla., Is Far From a Recovery  —  FELLOW adventurers, refugees from winter and armchair archaeologists, we are here on this shiny green tour bus to embark on a safari of sorts.  We'll be exploring the local habitat, as upended and reconfigured by an epochal real estate fiasco.

OUR STUNTED DISCOURSE.... For over a week now, the right has been working aggressively to go after President Obama over national security policy.  But since the failed Christmas-day plot, conservatives haven't quite come up with a coherent line of attack.  Indeed, nine days later …

Brennan responds to Cheney: He's either ‘willfully mischaracterized’ Obama or is ‘ignorant of the facts.’  —  Earlier this week, former Vice President Dick Cheney joined the GOP's hypocritical attacks against President Obama's response to the attempted Christmas day terror attack, claiming that …

Banks Roll Out New Check, Card Fees … The nation's banks will be bombarding customers with new fees and products in 2010 as they try to replace more than $50 billion in revenue wiped out by new rules that clamp down on certain business practices.  —  So far, the changes are mostly concentrated in checking accounts and credit cards.

Fruitful Decade for Many in the World  —  IT may not feel that way right now, but the last 10 years may go down in world history as a big success.  That idea may be hard to accept in the United States.  After all, it was the decade of 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the financial crisis, all dramatic and painful events.

The Joke's on Us  —  The Pantybomber wasn't the big joke.  We are.  —  On Christmas Day, a gentleman from Nigeria succeeded (effortlessly) in boarding a flight to Detroit with a bomb in his underwear.  Pretty funny, huh?  —  But the Pantybomber wasn't the big joke.  The real laugh was the United States government.

Ten for the Next Ten  —  IF we have overindulged in anything these past several days, it is neither holiday ham nor American football; it is Top 10 lists.  We have been stuffed full of them.  Even in these self-restrained pages, it has been impossible to avoid the end-of-the-decade accountings …

MI5 knew of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's UK extremist links  —  The security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend.  —  Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was …